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Original poster

Sensitive, does anyone remember having breast checks as a teenager?

62 replies

Remotew · 02/04/2008 00:00

This has been playing on my mind. When I was a teenager my GP, male, would do physical breast checks. This was in the 70's. Please tell me that this was normal practice.

Would anyone now think that it was acceptable for your GP to feel your breasts for lumps??

OP posts:
JustJaamy · 02/04/2008 16:53

My sister has always been worried about our old family GP who uneccessarily gave her a breast examination when she was a teenager. He was put in prison about 5 years ago for carrying out "lubrication techniques" IYSWIM prior to vaginal examinations on several of his patients.

StarlightMcKenzie · 02/04/2008 16:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

hecate · 02/04/2008 16:58

Nope. Never.

expatinscotland · 02/04/2008 17:00

No, never, till I went for contraception and smear test, but it was female practice nurse.

Shhhh · 02/04/2008 21:03

only time I ever had my gp check my breasts was when I found a lump and I asked her to check.
Never had them checked "ad hoc"....

AFAIK,it is only done if requested. I would possibly discuss it further iykwim....

Mercy · 02/04/2008 21:16

Never. Only once by a female doctor before I had an internal exam for a weird lump which was done by a male consultant. She was present the whole time (btw it took her about 1 minute) This was early 80s.

I don't know who you could talk to tbh but it doesn't sound right to me

morningpaper · 02/04/2008 21:20

This happened to me too when I was 17 and went to the GP for the pill

Having looked into it, there WAS a period when some GPs thought you should do a thorough breast exam on a woman before prescribing her the contraceptive pill

so looking back I give him the benefit of the doubt

a bit

hippipotami · 02/04/2008 21:21

Yes, when I was around 17 or so, I went on the pill. We were living in Germany at the time. Mum took me to see a gyne (matter not dealt with at the GP for some reason) and he did a breast check, feeling for lumps.

I have always worried about this. It does not seem right somehow....

foofi · 02/04/2008 21:23

Only time this happened to me was when I had to have a medical for a new job (must have been about 15 years ago now!). I was quite upset by it - he just seemed like he was groping for no reason.

morningpaper · 02/04/2008 21:23

It DOESN'T seem right does it

They didn't have other people attending in those days, either

I think it was probably common practice among some GPs before prescribing pill though

choccypig · 02/04/2008 21:25

I recall my breasts being checked and being shown how to do it as a teenager, during late 70s early 80s .. I think if you were on the pill they were extra keen on checking breasts at that time. BTW it is not true that teenagers can't get breast cancer; it is rare, but can be particularly aggressive in younger women.

orangehead · 02/04/2008 21:26

I once had a breast exam by a male doc when I had my 1st mc, no nurse in the room either. I then went on to have 2 more mcs but was seen by female docs who didnt do breast exams. Anyone else had one when having mc.
I never had one as a teen

soapbox · 02/04/2008 21:27

FWIW - every well woman clinic I ever attended for medicals for work has included a breast exam, from my early 20's onwards. Half of them were done by a female dr. They were on the standard exam routine though.

Also when pregnant I agreed to be a patient for the obstetrics consultants panel exam, which included a breast exam in a roomful of observers!

I think it is just one of those things tbh. I think many GPs just think of breasts in a functional sense and just add them onto the list of things to go through when doing a well woman or equivalent exam.

SorenLorensen · 02/04/2008 21:28

Like others, I had a breast exam when I first went on the pill - I was 19 (1989). The only other time I have had them checked was at my 6 week checks after having my babies.

expatinscotland · 02/04/2008 21:29

I see no reason why you'd need a breast exam for an m/c, orange.

No, sorry, didn't have one during m/c, only scans and one internal before ERPC.

themoon66 · 02/04/2008 21:29

abouteve - OMG.. my heart missed a beat when I spotted this.

I had exactly the same experience and it's preyed on my mind ever since too. It was a family planning clinic and I was 16 and going for the pill too.

He insisted on doing an internal exam, in the dark with just a spot light on my fanjo. He then asked me to strip to waist and felt my breasts, squeezing them with his eyes shut and breathing heavily.

A nurse had offered to stay at the beginning, but he sent her away without even asking me if I wanted that.

He did the same thing on every visit, every three months, until I just stopped going and could stand it no more.

Many years later I went to a different branch of FPC and was treated entirely differently. Only then did I think something was amiss with my first experience.

Where was your experience? Mine was in Otley, West Yorkshire about 1976/77.

Shhhh · 02/04/2008 21:33

orange,I have had x2 mc's and have never had a breast examination following them...

Didn't even have an internal..only internal scan after to check all gone away..and iir it was a female...

BTW, I was teens in late 1990's...Im 29.

Ineedacleaner · 02/04/2008 21:33

I had a breast exam when I went on the pill by the male dr, my friend who was in the same place but the room next door but with a female dr also getting the pill had one too.

orangehead · 02/04/2008 21:35

Themoon that sounds awful. Have you ever thought of complaining?
Expat, didnt think it was right but I was 19 at the time and in absolute shock as I had only gone in for a rountine scan

Original poster
Remotew · 02/04/2008 22:19

This would have been around 1976/77 and in Cumbria. From what other people have said it does seem that it may have been normal at the time. I wonder if he may have abused this right[shudder emotion].

The Moon, to have to undergo and internal just for the pill . Doctors are not this invasive through pregnancy nowadays. Thank goodness times have changed.

OP posts:
minorityrules · 02/04/2008 22:51

I really don't see a problem in these exams. A lot of women have said they were done when first going on the pill. Isn't a breast the same as an elbow in a medical sense? I'm glad I was examined and taught how to self examine, because I was shown, I do it every month and have since those exams. All women should be shown

suedonim · 02/04/2008 23:24

I wouldn't like to offer an opinion on the OP's situation but breast exams were much more commonplace in the 70's and 80's than they are nowadays. Istr the 70's was the start of the campaign to eliminate BC and doing regular checks was seen as a good thing back then so they were done at every opportunity. Since then, I think things have become clearer as to who is at risk, whether such checks are as beneficial as once thought and also women have claimed responsibility for their own health so now do their own exams, meaning practice has changed.

emkana · 02/04/2008 23:32

Goodness me ladies you really don't know you're born.

In Germany girls start seeing a gyne regularly (every six months) once they start menstruating. Every examination includes a breast examination, as well as a full vaginal examination, with a metal thingy inserted and a swab taken, also a finger inserted rectally (!) to check for god knows. This is standard practice and done by male or female doctors. A nurse is usually present, but more to take notes than because anybody feels that it is necessary for any chaperoning reasons. There is none of that cover in a blanket business either, you sit fully exposed on a chair with your legs in stirups. It is assumed that these regular sixmonthly checks are necessary to ensure the health of all women.

When I think back to these examinations I'm mighty glad I live in the UK now though...

hippipotami · 03/04/2008 08:06

Ah thank you emkana, that makes me think that my exam was standard procedure then.

Feel a lot happier now

Anna8888 · 03/04/2008 08:13

Last night my elder stepson (nearly 13) was recounting the medical check he had had at school that day. It sounded fine.

My partner then recounted the medical check he had had at the same age in 1978 when a female doctor had lined all the boys up in their underpants only and then proceeded to plunge her hand down their underpants in order to check whether their testicles had descended and shout the results to the note-taking nurse.

No handwashing at all between boys...