[BITList] Service Doctors

[John Feltham]

Doctor: Drop pants, head to the right and cough.


Did doctors really hold the testicles of army recruits and request them to cough? If so, what where they hoping to discover?
Mike Rowe, Leicester 

	• This is a test for an "Inguinal Hernia", which occurs when a loop of intestine pushes through an opening in the abdominal wall into the inguinal canal, the passageway through which the testes descend into the scrotum. Usually there is a painless bulge in the groin and scrotum which the coughing enlarges.
A least these days a doctor changes his gloves between testicle squeezings, which wasn't done when I was a lad. 

Dave Null, Claremont, California, USA
	• I was subjected to this procedure in the basement of the Australian High Commission before I was allowed to emigrate here in 1989. I'm not sure exactly what the doctor was hoping to discover, but I evidently passed the test. 
Justin Rigden, Adelaide 

	• I don't know about the army, but at my school we had an annual medical for the first 2-3 years, and the doctor did exactly that... 
Benjy Arnold, London, UK

	• Doctors don't hold the testicles, they put a finger at the point where the testiclces exit the abdomen and they are diagnosing whether the man has a rupture. 
Alan Mills, Alne 

	• They not only did, they still do! A young relation of mine joined the army in January and I laughingly asked him if they had done this to him - and he confirmed they did. I don't know the full explanation, but it has something to do with being able to tell if the recruit has an unsuspected hernia. 
Mrs. M. Potter, Kettering, UK

	• Apparently you have never had a complete physical, as the doctor is checking for a hernia. When you turn your head and cough, the doctor, through pressure against the testicular wall, discovers whether a piece of intestine pokes through, thus demonstrating a hernia. 
Brandon Thornburg, Portland, OR(formerly Poynton, Cheshire) USA

	• My dad's just got a job as a bus driver and he had it done at the medical for that. 
Liz Bolt, Brighton Britain

	• Our matron at school used to hold our testicles and ask us to cough. She also kept a large spoon to use as a "de-arouser" should we find the experience pleasant. 
Andrew, Thirsk North

	• When i was a little boy our school nurse did exactly this but not only did they check for this, they checked us for piles too. It was not a plesant experiance. 
Sean, Watford England

	• I know they do it in Switzerland. Every Swiss male is required to do national service and when I had to go for the recruitment, which lasts 2-3 days, last year, they also checked my testicles. Don't know what they were looking for though. 
David, London, UK

	• When i was first joining the British Army in 2003 this was one of the tests we were subject to in the "selection" days of the joining process. 
Michael Commons, WEDNESBURY United Kingdom


So, now you know!


ooroo