I ask because growing up it happened almost every single year to the point where, whenever I went to the doctor, I would get severe anxiety. I got a physical once for nursing school and the APRN said my heart sounded like I was having severe anxiety, I was 20 something years old.
I understand that, generally, providers do this to check on people’s development, such as testicles dropping, hair, deformities, etc.
But then I hear people talking about how that was never their experience. Ever.
When I have kiddos, I want them to feel safe around the doctor. I want them to feel like they have autonomy over their own body, not the doctor just pulling your shit down and touching you while you are laying down.
TIA
No doctor has ever looked at those parts until my 40s
Same. No doctors on my balls and I’m 50.
Although when I was in elementary school in the 80’s there were horror stories of ball fondling checkups. According to the stories also a fridge cold spoon was placed on one of your testicles.
No idea if the stories had any basis in reality or how the kids were selected.
The standard ‘turn your head and cough’ while the doc pushes just behind the testes is a test for an inguinal hernia. It might seem like ball fondling, but the goal is to make sure your intestines will not pop through a hernia into the scrotum.
Where are you in the world? Did you do sports?
It is odd how inconsistent it is. On one end you have doctors looking at boys’ junk as standard practice, and on the other hand you have grown men who have never had to pull their pants down, period.
I grew up in the Netherlands.
In elementary school we made 2 school doctor visits. I remember them asking to turn around to check your balls yourself. It’s still humiliating because my mother was right there too, so I just said it looks fine without actually checking.