# What To Do Or Say When A Doctor Examines Your Privates? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-or-say-when-a-doctor-examines-your-privates/963621 "2022-04-28T20:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 87
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-or-say-when-a-doctor-examines-your-privates/963621/87 "2022-05-02T11:31:54Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > I don’t know much about one of my doctor’s ethnicity. He appears to be Middle Eastern (though ironically he has an English name). Anyway, he is a very attractive man, I think at least. Completely not understanding how any of these factors bear on the question of what to do or say when a doctor examines your privates. Would you mind elaborating? Also, why might it be ironic that someone of middle eastern descent might have an “English” name? > [@Jim\_B](#): > > I’m middle aged. So involuntary erections don’t plague me. But as a urologist (that’s what he is, BTW), could he still tell that there is extra blood flow to that area? Doctors are onto things we laymen would never expect. It’s possible he could tell. Still not seeing how this bears on your OP question. > [@Jim\_B](#): > > Also, this is going to sound weird. But he sometimes scopes me. What is I had an erection while that happened? What would he say? What would you expect he might say? “Carol, get in here, this guy’s got _major_ wood! And bring the camera, we’re putting this on YouTube!”? If _you_ were a doctor and your patient were sporting wood, what do you imagine _you_ would say? Doctors work with human bodies. That includes all of the things that bodies are and do. Erections, vaginal lubrication, hard nipples, ingrown hairs, drool, vomit, pubic hair, whatever. It’s all in a day’s work. When I was 25 I had a penile doppler scan and a pelvic arteriogram, which you can read about here: > [@Unusual medical procedures you've had or will have](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-medical-procedures-youve-had-or-will-have/551035/31): > > My penis doesn’t work very well. At 25, had a penile doppler scan. A nurse injected Caverject (vasodilator) into my penis. (yes, a needle in the side of your penis hurts. A lot.) Ten minutes later (when there was supposed to be a raging erection, but there wasn’t one), two doppler techs came in and used a probe sort of like an ultrasound unit to measure penile blood flow. The results were, um, sub-par. That led to the pelvic arteriogram. after some mild sedation, they sliced into my femor… **TL,DR** : both procedures involved a multitude of people viewing and handling my penis across its entire range of tumescence. Yeah, it was kind of awkward, but I didn’t feel compelled to say anything that wasn’t clinically relevant. It was a bit embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as barfing all over myself during recovery. I wasn’t supposed to be moving, so I couldn’t grab anything to throw up in and I couldn’t aid in the cleanup; it was an awful lot of vomit, and it was entirely for someone else to clean up after me. A good doctor knows their patient may be mentally uncomfortable during parts of a physical exam, and will maintain professional demeanor throughout. It’s not unreasonable for a patient to express their concerns or discomfort in a straightforward way (e.g. “I feel really awkward about this”), but it’s dangerous to attempt humor at this point; you might score a hit (“I’d like to be able to use this vagina again when you’re done with it”), or you might utter something really offensive (“should I be buying you dinner?”) and ruin your relationship with this doctor. Mirror your doctor’s professional demeanor, and all will be fine. FWIW, you’re not the first person to be concerned about getting an erection in a clinical setting: > [@sleep study concern](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-study-concern/746382): > > I didn’t want to derail another thread, so started this thread for my concern. I sleep on my stomach and fear that I may “make love to” my pillow and bedsheets when I sleep and possibly get an erection. I rarely fall asleep laying on my back. It seems that a sleep study would be embarrassing for me. Bottom line, erections happen, often without the conscious complicity of their owners. It’s just one more thing that bodies do, doctors and nurses know this, and it’s no big deal to them. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-or-say-when-a-doctor-examines-your-privates/963621)._