*trigger* was this a thing in the 90s?

[Buxton87]

I was only 20 (1996) when I had my first 'exam' at the doctors when I said I might be pregnant.

The doctor laid me on the table - said I was probably twenty weeks as per the last date of my period (my dad had died the same year - I was not in a great place). But the thing is, he told me to take off my top to examine my breasts. Was this a normal thing back then??

My partner at the time was waiting in reception. My son is amazing and we co-parented after only two years together, but everything has been good.

I had another child 15 years later and it was a totally different experience (NHS-wise!) It's been almost thirty years and I'm still upset about it.

I'm an intelligent person and I'm still so angry at the person I was then to not speak up.

So my AIBU:
AIBU - make a complaint
YABU - Forget about it, man!

how can checking breasts be crap
it is a standard medical examination, they do it less now
the doctors are presumably nervous of any come back!

I was taught in medical school in the late 90s unless a patient is exposed from nipple to knees for an examination it’s not a complete examination.
A very different time.
Thankfully we seem to have moved on from that now.

I am not so sure I was a medical student in the '90's we were encouraged to examine women's breasts at every opportunity to detect breast cancer which was ( and is) a big killer. Mammography was in it's infancy so there was no other way of finding it. A medical examination is very different to a sexual assault from what yoy say it's hard to know which it was.

Fair skin tone?

Can you explain wtf that means please?

Oh Christ, you know what, I’m glad you started this thread. I was 13-14, went to gp because sore throat (in school uniform) - for this you might look in someone’s throat (was likely tonsillitis) but he asked me to unbutton my shirt. I was quite prudish and had a T-shirt on underneath. I remember visible disappointment in his eyes. I absolutely remember that.

But he didn’t do anything else/anything more… and I remember thinking (at the time) it was a bloody lucky escape, since I might well have been naked underneath (didn’t much wear a bra since not busty) and I’d have been mortified: He was our family doctor, grey haired, probably in his 60s. It’s so minor I’ve never mentioned it, but I always felt it was “off”. Lots of other examples of similar interventions, eg piano teacher who used to stand behind me with his arms round my body as I played etc, but it was the GP that seemed such a transgression of trust.

Op, sorry to hear what you went through. Not voted since don’t know what you can do all these years on. But it isn’t right. And goes to show “godly” doctors could be old perves too.

There was no such thing as a ‘chaperone’ 30 years ago. In fact I hated it the first time I had to have one when I was in my 40s, but it was insisted upon for the male doc’s protection, not mine!

@YesIDoJudge my nipples went a dark colour during pregnancy maybe pp meant this?

I’m not sure it was that odd. I had my first smear test when I was 18, in the mid ‘90s and the female GP did a breast exam too. She told me what to look out for and how to check. I can see how it felt different for you though, as obviously, in my situation, it was being explained to me.

This is utterly awful and makes me feel sick reading it, I’m so sorry that happened to you @Twinkletoesandbuttonnose x

Lots of my incredibly shy male classmates absolutely hated it. In front of 6-8 of us standing round the bed just awful for everyone. Glad times have changed.💐

I have had digestive issues for decades.
When it first started in my early 20’s (back in the early 90’s). I went to the GP with a sore rectal area. He did a rectal examination without asking if I needed a chaperone (don’t think that was even considered back then) and proceeded to examine that area without gloves on.
I was young and had no clue what was going on but have had many examinations since then and have never not been asked if a chaperone is required and they always, always use gloves.
I hate thinking about it tbh.

Not normal at all. If you had been older and missing your breast screening appointments an offer to show you how to do this would be appropriate/doing this. In your situation, not appropriate at all

there were chaperones 30 years ago,
even more than 30 years ago,
you might not have seen them but they would have been around, to protect the doctor as much as anything

I worked as a nurse in a surgical ward in the early nineties and on several occasions a consultant abused patients male and female on the ward round, in front of all the more junior doctors. He fully examined a woman’s breasts when looking at her chest drain, it was unnecessary and prolonged and the fact he did it in front of so many professionals just emphasised his power and control. There were other examples. Absolutely no one would have listened to me had I tried to report this, with all those doctors present too.

@YesIDoJudge
the skin tone comment has been explained already

Google tells me breast screening was introduced in 1988 it's quite possible that medical practice hadn't caught up by 1990. Other posters suggest it was widespread at that time ( 1980's).

Could he have been looking for a rash? It’s not wrong to check for scarlet fever, surely?

The pp already explained the fair skin tone comments - red hair and pale skin can apparently be linked with nipple/feeding problems.

I’m very pale with red hair. No one examined my breasts at all in my two pregnancies or said anything about my hair colour or skin colour effecting breastfeeding and that includes breastfeeding specialist midwives and a doula.

I remember the dr examining my breasts before giving me the pill when I was 17. Bollocks that is was because mammograms were a new tech I the 90s. 17 year olds now don’t get mammograms and women don’t get routinely offered them until they are much older.

My DM shocked me recently when she told me that our family GP in the 80s/90s - now a highly respected figure in the area - used to do internal examinations on her when she went to see him for things which had nothing to do with gynaecology.

She was too afraid to say no to his repeated assaults and also never reported him. I wonder how many other women he carried out unnecessary intimate examinations on.

I went to the university GP in 1987 to go on the pill.The GP had a female with him (I assume she was a nurse) and he sent her out to fetch something. In the time she was gone he instructed me to lie on the bed with my pants and tights off one leg only to 'save time' while he carried out a very rough internal, and did a breast exam by telling me to lift up my top while he stood behind me, undid my bra and mauled both my breasts at the same time.

This was the first time I'd had either kind of exam, so I stupidly didn't know it was all done wrongly, but I felt very shaken by the experience and it stays with you. When the nurse returned, nothing was mentioned about the exams.

Just relating my experience as a medical student at that time. Other have agreed it was standard pratice.

I went on the pill when I was 16 (it was the 90s). My parents were really strict and didn't know.

I saw a male GP, he gave me a script for the pill and said that when I come back in 6 months he would need to do an internal exam.

I stopped taking the pill before it got to the 6 month mark. I was scared. The GP was the dad of a kid in my class at primary school. My mums friend mentioned once that he insisted on doing a breast exam when she went to see him with a sore throat.

I'm sure there was a segment about this on radio 4 woman's hour maybe last year, where lots of women came forward with a similar experience

Intersting paper it is American but basically saying the same thing
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749379703001892