Interestingly enough, I presently don’t have any doctor that does a nude examination. Not even my urologist. But I used to have one, until he retired. (In case you were wondering, I think it was for a hernia.)
But I always wondered what the most discreet thing to do when that. I personally usually tried to make small talk, like it was no big deal. I’m serious.
But it’s bound to come up again. So what do you do when the doctor is examining you naked?
As to the OP, I figure the doctor has done this hundreds of times, and I won’t be able to think up anything original to say. So, I try to ignore the fact that the doctor was [list=A][li]Female, []Apparently sixteen years old, and []Roughly eleven months pregnant at the time[/list]when she showed me what it felt like to be a Muppet. And her hands were cold.[/li]
Regards,
Shodan
As with Shodan, I figured my doctor was more comfortable with this than I. My last exam was uneventful or so I thought. After completing the exam, my doctor explained that I had something slightly atypical and medically interesting. Nothing dangerous, nothing worrisome but something she doesn’t witness every day. She asked me if she could bring in a student for a teachable moment. I don’t regret agreeing to be examined by the student and I expect the … thoroughness of the exam worked to my benefit but it still wasn’t a bright and shiny moment for me.
They’re there to examine you; you’re there to be examined. It doesn’t mean anything other than that. If you try to make jokes about it, I’m sure they’ve heard all of those same jokes a hundred times before.
Been through it enough times that its no real thing for me. I answer any questions she has and do my usual amount of small talk. I’m male and she isn’t (of course) but she is one damn fine doctor and has caught a lot of issues well before they became issues so she wants to run me over head to toe she is welcome to any time.
I’ve have a mostly naked skin exam at the dermatologist every year. I wear a gown, but she keeps moving it and flipping it open so much that it doesn’t really providing any coverage. Mostly she talks about what she’s seeing on my skin. I don’t really understand what the OP means by “the most discreet thing to do”. I’ve never felt any need to try to steer the conversation in any direction.
My GP doctor includes a full-body skin check with a standard physical which involves complete nakedity. I don’t know if he does this for everyone or just people like me (who have a family history of skin cancer).
Wow. I’ve never disrobed for a physical. The closest has been dropping trou for a rectal. My PCP once referred me to a dermatologist. After a >6 month wait for an appointment, then a 90 minute wait to be seen, she looked at my hands, said, “vitiligo”, then muttered something to her assistant, who got me the vitiligo handout.
Yes, annual skin exam by a dermatologist to check for anything unusual. It’s no big deal, like Chronos and others have said, I’m there to be examined, and their job is to do the examination.
No jokes. I just make small talk. Hello, how are you, got any vacations planned and where to, that sort of thing. And then it’s down to the business of the exam.
I had hemorrhoid issues a couple of years ago. One procedure was done by a female HCP, her nurse asked if it was OK with me to have a student with the HCP during the procedure. These students need to observe these incredibly personal and real-life procedures, so by all means the student is allowed.
That student saw an extremely uncomfortable middle aged white guy get an external hemorrhoid excised. Then she got to see the same middle aged white guy nearly pass out. She got a lot of lessons. I have to hand it to the HCP, she was kind, comforting and was nice to me as I got light-headed.
I didn’t try to make any small talk, they knew that I was uncomfortable. I answered their questions and asked some of my own. It was an OK experience, the relief was worth the exposure.