Did anyone else experience this (school doctor examination)

[kennelmaid]

This was in the 1960s. I was 10 and being examined by the Health Authority schools doctor, as was all my class. I was very shy about my body at that age and embarassed that I had to stand there just in my knickers in front of the (male) doctor, (female) nurse and my mother. The doctor told me to bend over and touch my toes and as I did he slid his hand down the back of my knickers and touched my private parts. I was horrified but didn't react because I thought that must be part of the examination and because my mam and the nurse said nothing I just accepted it. I didn't think about this again until years later and up till now haven't ever asked anyone if this happened to them. I never discussed this with the other girls in my class because I just thought it was part of the examination and I was too embarassed to ask. Was this a genuine part of the examination or was he abusing his position to touch up young girls?

I’m no expert but that absolutely does not sound right to me. He was abusing children in a position of trust and parents and nurse turned a blind eye. Back then people wouldn’t have questioned a doctors motives as they do now.
I’m so sorry this happened to you and you weren’t protected from it.
Would you feel up to reporting it to the police. It would be taken very seriously and it’s ynlikely you were the only one.
Please seek some support from family and friends. How horrific for you

Thanks KMo. What you've said is exactly what I thought. People respected those in authority and didn't question anything they did. I think the nurse did turn a blind eye to it and yes, there were probably many others it happened to. My DM would have just accepted that whatever the doctor did was just what had to be done and normal. As for going to the police I'm not sure there'd be any point because it was so long ago.

It doesn't sound right. I can't think what he could have been checking for.

It wouldn’t matter how long ago it was - it would be taken seriously and investigated. There may be many more victims also thinking the same thing. It disgusts me that people like this get away with the crimes they committed.
Have you read about the Larry Nassar and the American gymnastics abuse scandal?
I hope you have people to talk to. Don’t underestimate the impact this can have.

I grew up 60s/70s and we had school medicals every year. Our doctor (who was female) used to put her hand down the front of our knickers and poke about in our groins - I think it was feeling for hernia or something? But it wasn't like you describe, that sounds wrong

I'm no medic- is there a hernia that can be there? But that does not sound right at all.

I had something like this in the 80s and early 90s. We grew up abroad in a country where check ups are more routine. We had 6 monthly or annual check ups. We had to strip to our knickers for them and at the end, lie down on the couch in "smear test position" to allow the male dr to examine us. As we got older, he started saying "we weren't babies anymore" and so didn't need our mum in. I won't go into detail about what happened then but suffice to say I don't trust male doctors now and would never ever leave my own children alone with healthcare professionals unless it was clinically impossible for me to stay with them (eg surgery).

Trust your gut. If it felt wrong it probably was.

God these stories are awful. The good old days, not.

I am so sorry for all the PPs who are reliving these terrible events. They absolutely do not sound right .
I also grew up in the 60s & 70s and thankfully have no recollection of any untoward actions from health care in those times.
Absolutely report these monsters.

Report to whom ? A Dr who was examining children in the 60,s is quite possibly dead now ,and even if they are still alive does the Op even know the name of the Dr ?It sounds awful Op maybe you could speak to your own GP to enquire if there could be any legitimate reason ,why the Dr could have "examined " you in this way ?

Yes! This happened to us at our school. In the 90s!!!!!

@Notgirl

When I had a medical examination at school in my underpants at 6 years old without my mum being at the medical the female doctor told me to pull my underpants forward she then put her hand down my underpants and examed my penis and pulled my foreskin back

Years ago when I did a Pre health course at college ( before o started nurse training) I had a placement in a children's ward quite a few young boys were admitted for circumsision ,as the foreskin was to tight ,was the Dr checking for that ?

I remember the knickers and vest medical exam and the bending over to check for scoliosis, but nothing untoward.

We all had the doctor come to school for medicals when I was about 10 or 11 (so very early 1970s). I can't remember what the boys said happened to them, but each girl had to stand there wearing only knickers, and the doctor pulled them forward and looked at what we had inside. With the nurse standing in full observation. We all discussed it afterwards with mortification. We had no idea what it was for - my mum hazarded a guess that it was to check that we were developing properly, whatever that meant.

Then again, I think my mum would have justified absolutely anything the doctor might have done. A couple of years later her sister's husband groped my developing breasts in full sight of both her and my aunt, and she said nothing. Many years later, the same man was accused - and convicted - of sexually assaulting his two granddaughters, to the insistent denials of my aunt, who had been in the house when it happened. When I reminded my mother of what he'd done to me as a 12 year old, she told me 'You were very sensitive.'

I hope the past is sufficiently a different country that a child's own mother wouldn't condone some of the things still done to children today.

This definitely never happened to me - I was at school in the 90s and 00s.

These comments sound like the doctors were a bunch of dirty old men. I'd like to think such events couldn't happen today.

We too had them I was embarrassed at dr looking into my pants but no touching so just assumed making sure I was growing properly I was 12 going on 13, loads of us girls together from our class.

Something similar happened to me when I was sent to a convent boarding school and we all had to have physical exams by this creepy doctor. If you were ill he would always put his hand down your underwear. I hated the years of being a schoolgirl - very unenlightened, creepy times.

this did not happen to me. I was at school in the 80s and early 90s

My (male) friend said that his PE teacher (a Jesuit priest) used to insist on all the boys (from 11) holding out their shorts so he could look down. This would happen regularly. He only taught boys aged 11 - 13. It was only when the children were killed at Dunblane that it came out that Thomas Hamilton used to do the same to the children he was training. It was really hard for my friend - he liked the priest yet had to accept that this was completely wrong. The fact he chose not to teach older boys was something he'd never considered before, either.