New Dr = more thorough exam

Ladies,

When you get a new OBGYN, either by changing practices or luck of the draw, and it is his or her first time examining you, is it more thorough than if it was a yearly with a regular doctor?

When I switched practices a few years ago, my doctor did a very thorough baseline exam.

I don't think the actual physical part of the exam is more thorough but I know that the history is always more so with a new doctor. See, 90 percent of all diagnosis come from the patients history. So really no the first time isn't more in depth than the following ones.

Mashie.

I've always had female doctors do my gyn exams and they were really quick and rushed through it but when I got a new OB/GYN last year he examined me very very thoroughly from head to toe 😃

You know what they say Mashie--if you don't know the diagnosis by the end of the history you're in big trouble.

I would have to agree with liquidsky that the diagnosis is most always as a result of the history taking... BUT a full and complete examination is required to insure that what was discussed and revealed in the history-taking is in fact the actuality.

So I'd be inclined to follow patientpj's comment that the initial baseline exam is more complete, more detailed and takes longer.. than later follow-on examinations.

Doc Rob

You know what they say Mashie--if you don't know the diagnosis by the end of the history you're in big trouble.

That isn't always true. Some diagnoses are positively confounding.

I'm not a doctor, but if I were, I'd tend to equate "profoundly confounding" with "in big trouble"!

I'm not a doctor, but if I were, I'd tend to equate "profoundly confounding" with "in big trouble"!

I believe her comment was "positively confounding"… not "profoundly"

Doc Rob

Well that's why I said 90 percent of the time, not 100 percent of the time. By the time you give a full history and what is currently going on if your doctor has a lick of sense he or she 90 percent of the time usually knows that the diagnosis is and he does an exam to confirm what he already knows. Yes Susie is also right, that doesn't always happen and with the human body anything is possible. But as a general rule a patients history and current signs and symptoms are enough for a doctor to make an accurate diagnosis.

Mashie

I would say physical part of exam is about the same. But the history is much more inquisitive and a lot more questions about previous medical conditions and exams.

Thanks, Rob, I misread that! Even so, a confounding diagnosis tends to be trouble for someone--certainly the patient, if not the doctor!

It's True that when you perform a baseline exam on a new patient it takes a lot of time both for recording complete medical history and performing a thorough and complete examination in Order to record peculiarities to control in the successive exams

Same things happened to my lady when she changed her obgyn. She got an ecography, a complete gyno exam with anal part too (knee chest position included)

I learn many things here!! In the same time, it's logic.

I don't have enough experience to say if it is more likely or not. My current doctor who I have now seen for over 5 years gave me a very thorough exam. I like going to a family doc as opposed to a gyn when possible. The thing that I appreciated is that when I had my first consultation, she spent the entire time gathering history and took my bp and sent me for lab work before bringing me back for an exam. Her approach was thorough and she took her time.

Other physicians have varied from very fast and superficial to having one spread on the table, as if that's all there is, to being thorough. I obviously prefer my current doctor and like her approach.

I have had several different gynecologist in my life both male and female and I can honestly say all have given me a very thorough exam.

I've never thought of this before, but it's curious, isn't it, how much a matter of convention a physical examination is? I don't think there's much that imaging and lab results won't accomplish, which, I guess, is why my hands-on exam feels rushed. A breast exam feels significant -- in all senses -- but Im gonna get a mammogram. Thanks for feeling my cervix..... but I'll wait for the Pap results.