# Early dating stages and you're at their place. Do you look in the medicine cabinet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572 "2011-04-07T19:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/1 "2011-04-07T19:58:21Z")
I don’t want to bias this too much so I’ll pretty much let the question stand as it is. You’re in a new relationship and find yourself at the person’s house/apartment for the first time. You use the restroom. Do you look in the medicine cabinet? Tell the truth. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/2 "2011-04-07T19:58:49Z")
Yes. I’m snoopy. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/3 "2011-04-07T20:14:21Z")
Why on Earth would I want to? ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/4 "2011-04-07T20:19:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Why on Earth would I want to? to see if shes taking meds to control the batshit. That being said, it depends on how early in the relationship. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/5 "2011-04-07T20:21:49Z")
If I’ve been in the relationship for years, I still won’t look. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/6 "2011-04-07T20:24:22Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > If I’ve been in the relationship for years, I still won’t look. This. And I’d be offended if someone I was dating did look. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/7 "2011-04-07T20:33:23Z")
I go into the medicine cabinet only if I’ve cut myself, asked for band-aids, and she has told me to get them from the medicine cabinet. Or if I need to borrow a razor in the morning and have received permission. Privacy is important to me; I don’t want to invade that of others any more than I want them invading mine. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/8 "2011-04-07T20:35:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Why on Earth would I want to? Well, you’re sane. I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, who once decided that her girlfriend was faking having fibromyalgia and decided to test it. Somehow she got her hand on pills that could be mistaken for the GF’s pain meds and switched them out to see what would happen. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/9 "2011-04-07T20:36:09Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > This. And I’d be offended if someone I was dating did look. It didn’t occur to me until this thread that the woman I had over the other day might have looked. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. The worst thing she could have found out is that I squeeze the toothpaste from the middle. ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/10 "2011-04-07T20:36:17Z")
I voted yes. The reason I would is because I dated and later married a man who had a serious illness that can be genetic. He was under a doctor’s care and taking medication. He did not tell me until 3 months after we were divorced. If I had known I would have married him anyway; but our marriage would have lasted because I would have understood what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/11 "2011-04-07T20:36:33Z")
I’m a snoop but I never look in the medicine cabinets. I’m the kind of snoop who wants to know how much money she has in the bank. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/12 "2011-04-07T20:49:07Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > I voted yes. The reason I would is because I dated and later married a man who had a serious illness that can be genetic. He was under a doctor’s care and taking medication. He did not tell me until 3 months after we were divorced. If I had known I would have married him anyway; but our marriage would have lasted because I would have understood what was going on. What did he have? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/13 "2011-04-07T20:53:49Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Well, you’re sane. I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, who once decided that her girlfriend was faking having fibromyalgia and decided to test it. Somehow she got her hand on pills that could be mistaken for the GF’s pain meds and switched them out to see what would happen. So how’d that turn out? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/14 "2011-04-07T21:04:56Z")
There’s nothing I have any right to ask that I can’t, you know, just _askl_ about. We all have embarassing things in our lives, or private things - I’m damned well not snooping in the medicine cabinet, or the dresser, or anyplace else I haven’t any legitimate business being. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/15 "2011-04-07T21:17:49Z")
I answered no, mainly because I never have. I did once have to look up 3 medications after a girl told me what she was taking for “social anxiety” on the second date. She either had a really irresponsible shrink or she was wrong about her diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/16 "2011-04-07T21:18:35Z")
This thread creeps me out. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/17 "2011-04-07T21:22:07Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > So how’d that turn out? As badly as you expect, though for [del]other[/del] additional reasons. It occurs to me that a casual encounter going through my medicine cabinet was actually helpful to me once, though. In '05, not long after my diabetes diagnosis, I had sex with a girl and, the morning after, had a bad hypoglycemic episode–bad enough so that I couldn’t really communicate the cause of my distress. She knew the signs and got me some glucose from the cabinet. I hadn’t thought about it till now, but she must have gone through the cabinet beforehand; otherwise she’d have run to the kitchen for orange juice or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/18 "2011-04-07T21:23:55Z")
Also, considering how many common drugs are prescribed for off-label stuff, I’m not sure how valuable this information is going to be. Is that Paxil for major depression, mild depression, tension headaches, compulsive gambling, hot flashes? Are you now searching every conversation for hints? I’d rather assume the person I’m dating is being truthful if the alternative is snooping around. I’ll take my lumps. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Conqueror\_Worm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@The\_Conqueror\_Worm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Conqueror_Worm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/19 "2011-04-07T21:25:04Z")
I don’t look in others cabinets and I don’t keep any prescription medicines in the bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572/20 "2011-04-07T21:31:19Z")
I HATE HATE HATE snoopers to a degree that most people have never seen before. I didn’t even want my ex-wife looking through my stuff when we were together. There is no way I would keep somebody around that I suspected looked through my stuff early on. Seriously, I have no idea why someone would do something like that and the consequences would be swift and severe or cold and calculating based on my choice but there is no way a snooper is looking through anything of mine and getting away with it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-dating-stages-and-youre-at-their-place-do-you-look-in-the-medicine-cabinet/577572.md?page=2)