Extended well-child and well teen physicals
Girl, 11yo, internal exams with pelvic focus, ballet school
Completed on behalf of experience of our daughter. It happened in Eastern Europe in the period 1990-1999, when she was 11 year old. We got very little information, simply told having a hospital visit for routine testing. We, the parents, drove her to the exam at a regular hospital.
PREPARATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS
She was not allowed to eat some time before the exam. They washed her before the exam. She got a traditional enema before the exam to clean out her stomach. She mostly only had her underwear on the time she stayed awake.
They placed her upon a simple examination table. They placed her upon something like a dentist's chair but with devices to lift her legs onto. She was placed to lay on her back with her legs flexed up spread and mounted upon two devices. She was also placed to lay on her left side.
She got IVs tubes into blood vessels in an arm. She got a device on a finger or a toe to measure pulse and oxygen in her blood. She got electrodes on her cheast.
She got something to swallow. Parts of her body got numbed by a shot with a syringe. She got anesthesia gas to breath in through a mask. The anesthesia made her relaxed. but She was mostly awake and conscious.
EXAMINATION WITH EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT
They examined her head or neck, stomach area and hip area with an ultrasound device or something similar. They took chest x-ray pictures.
INTERNAL INSPECTIONS
They took specimens from her throat with a tube.
They inspected the inside of her urethra and bladder with a scope. They took specimens from her urethra with a tube. They took specimens from her bladder with a tube.
They used a speculum in her vagina. They took specimens from her vagina with a tube. They inspected her vagina with a scope.
They inspected her anus with a speculum. They took specimens from her anus with a tube. They inspected her through her anus with a rigid scope. They inspected her through her anus with an ultrasound probe.
The doctor explored her vagina with a finger. The doctor explored her anus with a finger.
ARRANGEMENTS AFTER THE PROCEDURE
I had IVs into blood vessels. She had catheter into her bladder. She just lay some time in a bed to recover. She lay naked under a blanket after the exam.
THE SCHOOL SHE WENT TO
She went to a ballet school as the main school.
COMMENTS
This is a type of ordeal that all kids of her age go through in certain communities. The purpose is partly to detect hidden health problems and partly for general surveillance and research upon the young part of the population. Possibly this was one of these communities.
This type of exam is also commonly used on all kids attending ballet schools or sport schools, also in communities where other kids do not have that exam. Therefore the ballet school surely had some requirement for the exam that she had, and surely got the results. The reson for this is partly to find out if the ballet training made injuries and to find out if something should be adjusted inside her for better ballet performance.
So this exam was surely ordere by the ballet school, but possibly also all kids in the community had it. Even though these type of mandatory or recommended ordeals are very little told about to the public, they are quite common, but the kids and family will get surpriced when it happens.
The exam is performed quite similarly for boys and girls. What is done through the vagina in girls to inspect the genital organs, is on boys done as an external exam on the $%!@ and testicles, and as an internal exam through the urethra and anus on the prostate area.
Even though not told, the exam surely also involved a throrogh breast assessment. This assessment is commonly also done on boys by this exam.