Apparently, what they teach you in medical school is falling by the wayside. First, you can’t ask about guns. Now you can’t take a proper sexual history:

A few years ago, when our daughters were 13-ish, I was sitting in the field hockey bleachers with a friend. She confessed that she’d just had an unsettling experience at the pediatrician’s office.
Seems that in the course of a routine physical, the doctor had shooed my pal out of the examining room, saying it was time for a “private” conversation with her daughter.
He brought in a nurse, and the two of them spent some time talking to the girl behind closed doors.
Afterward , the girl told her mother that the doctor had wanted to know whether she was sexually active.
My friend was livid. She thought she’d been blindsided by a doctor who, at the very least, should have warned her that he wanted to have a little sex chat with her child.

Comments

Anonymous
There’s no reason to take a sexual history. We should just assume all the horny little buggers are pregnant and spurting pus out of their privates, and just treat them for Gonorrhea and give them prenatal vitamins. 10 years of doing this now, and I’ve had 3 sworn teenage virgins with positive pregnancy tests.
Anonymous
I don’t know who you are, Anon 430, but you are revolting. How would you like it if your daughter were under the tender care of a ‘physician’ with your attitude?
Flea
Technically speaking, mom’s right. We probably should tell her we’re going to discuss private stuff.
In private I tell the girl I’ll have to blab to the mother only if she (the girl) tells me she is suicidal or homicidal.
On one occasion, when the girl was pregnant, after discussion I thought it best that she tell her mother. She did.
(oh, and she didn’t get beat up – imagine that!)
best,
Flea
Anonymous
“How would you like it if your daughter were under the tender care of a ‘physician’ with your attitude?”
Hey Oprah, it’s not my fault my ER is like a teenage STD clinic. I had a 16 year old the other day who tested positive for GC, Chlamydia AND syphilis. When I called him to tell him, he said “Allright!”
Orac
Maybe not, but it is your fault that it’s let you become so cynical.
Anonymous
The Doc above is inappropriate in his comments, however the STD and pregnancy rate in adolescents is alarming, and as a pediatrician it’s important to bring up sexual history with any adolescent, either male or female. I always ask the parent to “step outside” the room for a few minutes and I tell them it’s to ask some “personal questions”. I’ve never had any complaints from a parent afterwards. It’s amazing what some children will tell me that they would never say in front of a parent.
Anonymous
I think Drs. should be able to take a sexual history, (all except anon 4:30)If HE ever came near any one of my Children with his venom I would report him to every club,organization,medical review boards and news stations I could find.
Anonymous
Even if he would save your child’s life ? Maybe if we would be more blunt as parents, he would not end up talking like that. I think being cynical does not help but I see some teenagers being so “dirty” and their parents being so ignorant… it is sad. I can understand that some physicians may have a hard time trusting anybody after working almost all day long with such patients.
Anonymous
Of course, the problem here is the absurd vanity of the so-called doctor-patient relationship. Who’s paying here? It’s the parent. And, if this were a normal contract, the parent could dictate the terms under which the doctor performs services. Some would allow questioning about sex; others wouldn’t. Utility maximized. QED.
Of course, doctors have, in a rather sinister effort to exert professional authority and special interest lobbying, sold legislators on this queer notion of a patient-doctor relationship even between children and even with those who aren’t paying for the services.
Thus, we have micro-managing of the relationship. Treat doctors like barbers (weren’t the same at one time?) and all these problems dissappear.
Bizarre.
Anonymous
“Not her child. SHe trusts her “little girl” She promised she won’t put put till she’s married. And of course she’ll be totally honest when the doctor asks about sex, so mom can stay in the examining room. Hope you plan on dormomg with your little angel while she’s away at college.”
You should do your patients a public service and let them know how much you despise them so they can seek a competent physician.
Anonymous
The problem, which the above don’t understand because they haven’t seen the 50,000 to 100,000 patients we have, is that adolescents lie about their sexual history in front of their parents. Did you tell mom and dad the day you lost your virginity? If you want lying to go on between doctor and patient, don’t allow the doctor to ask the imperative qustions. Just don’t complain to the state when your child has Pelvic Inflamatory disease or a tubo-ovarian abscess due to untreated STDs.
Anonymous
While I disagree with the Anon doctor saying that every teenager is a liar, I do agree with asking the parents to step outside of the room. There is no way on earth I would ever have talked about my sexual history with my mom in the room… and I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 21!!! But I welcomed the moment when my mom was asked to step out of the room when I was younger, even if I had nothing to hide, the idea of even talking about that subject in front of my mom was humiliating, and I’m sure that while the best parents may not have that issue, the majority of children feel the same way I did.

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