Annual Checkups

jason_els

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I'm beginning to wonder if I'm getting proper care from my doctors. I left my last doctor because I never saw him when I made an appointment. I was always given the the guy other people I know complained about.

My latest doctor listens to my heart, does blood pressure, looks down my throat, listens to me breathe, and other than the blood tests, that's it. When I was younger I remembered getting reflex tests, eye tests, hearing tests, the infamous cough test, testicular cancer test, and the close-your-eyes-and-stand-on-one-foot or close-your-eyes-and-touch-your-nose tests. They also looked in my ears, my scalp, my eyes, at my nails, my posture, took X-rays and all kinds of things.

I've never had a mole check and short of a bout of prostatitis when I was younger, never had the up-the-butt test and I thought they started that once you reached 40. Maybe the PSA makes that unnecessary these days?

I see all these threads about doctors doing thorough exams. I know for some people it's a turn-on and they have doctor fantasies and such. That's OK. When you're 40 though, these kinds of things become quite serious and I'm wondering if either the doctors that some of these young guys have are pervy or if my medical care is now inadequate and I should find another doctor.

Suggestions and comments welcome.

Thank you.
 

college777

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well i do get a reflex test, hernia check, testicular cancer check as well as everything else. My MD does not give me a full skin exam because he knows i go to the dermatologist and lets her handle it. As far as I know you should be getting a DRE after 40
 

hairyman101

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its all about insurance......they cant touch your cock or have you naked....its stupid.
god forbid you came while he had his finger up your ass!!!
 

B_Nick4444

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all I ever get is my temperature read, my weight taken, my blood pressure read,

and a lecture about my excessive drinking (always after they tell what great a shape I'm in -- so, if the drinking is excessive, why am I in such alleged good shape?)
 
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Altitude

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hmmm, last physical i got was for DOT and they had me do all the standard, visual auditory reflex, blood pressure etc. but they also did the cough and testicular cancer tests... i remember one from 2006 it was a male nurse and he didn't have me take my underwear off, just reached in (while looking away) to do the cough test. this last go around in may was a female doctor, and she just grabbed my underwear and dropped it, then looked while she did the test. weird, but i wasn't complaining :p
 

Meniscus

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Jason, I had my annual physical (for the first time in several years) a few weeks ago. My doctor did most of the tests you mentioned not getting. (I have never had a hearing test or X-rays as part of a routine physical. I've also never had my scalp or nails checked.)

Have you actually scheduled a physical, or were you seeing your doctor for something else? If you make an appointment for a specific complaint, your doctor (or a nurse) will generally check your weight, blood pressure, pulse, and listen to your heart and lungs, in addition to checking out whatever you're complaining about. But they won't do all that other stuff unless you specifically schedule a physical.

The medical center I go to is very bureaucratic. I once tried to schedule a routine physical and a follow-up for a previous complaint at the same appointment, and they couldn't (or wouldn't) do it. Their explanation was that they couldn't schedule a long enough block of time to do both things in one appointment, but the thing I needed to follow-up on would have taken about a minute and could have been done as part of the physical exam. Instead, I had to schedule two separate appointments, take time off from work twice, and pay the co-pay twice.

In the future, I will just schedule the physical, and bring up any other issues during the exam.
 

jason_els

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Men, this is for an actual annual physical that's I'm scheduling as such.

This is what I don't get. All these younger guys, with statistically fewer medical issues as a group, are getting far more thorough exams than I'm getting at 42. Wouldn't you think that my need for all those tests would be increased simply because of my age? It's very bothersome.

The hearing tests were interesting. I liked those. They consisted of striking a few tuning forks or using those headphone things. I had to guess if I was hearing something or not and if the pitch was higher or lower than the previous one. For some oddball reason I'd get these huge endorphin cascades during these tests to the point I'd become wonderfully blissed-out. This occurs with any sort of objective test where I can't quite figure out what it is that's being tested. Even thinking about it gives me a slight buzz. I know, I'm weird.

The scalp check was for lice and scabies, a common school-age problem, and the nail check was to look for something, I think it was for a toxicity or indication of rickets or something like that. I remember asking and thinking it was cool they could tell you had a problem just from your fingernails.

I'm displeased at this point. I have to see this doctor again in a few weeks to get a script renewal and I may schedule one then and I'll ask him point blank why he's not doing these things. I'm not shy around doctors as I've found so many of them less-than-satisfactory.

Thanks to everyone so far!
 

VeeP

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The practice I go to offers various levels of "health assessments" depending on age, purpose, etc. I just had their basic-basic done a few weeks ago, and while I thought it was fairly cursory, it was still more thorough than you've been receiving. It included pretty much everything you mentioned sans formal vision and hearing tests, scalp and nails. He performed the frontal "male checks" for hernia and testicular cancer and doesn't generally do a DRE unless you're 40 or older. No formal skin check, either, although I did have a suspect mole that he was able to biopsy right in the office (came back benign, thankfully).

So yeah, sounds like you've been getting the "once over" at best.
 

Dave NoCal

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What they said. A physical, in my opinion, should include, blood work, a look into eyes ears nose, palpation of lymph nodes, peripheral pulses, listening to hear and lungs, palpation of the abdomen, reflexes, and checking for hernia and lumps on the testes. You should be checking at least monthly because you are not too old for testicular cancer and it moves fast! These days the standard is PSA test and DRE after age 40. I've known of three cases of prostate cancer that were diagnosed before forty so maybe PSA/DRE should start at age 35. For that matter, teen age virgins can get prostatitis.
Get a new doctor. In my experience, internal medicine docs tend to be more thorough than family practice.
Dave