Organization: Temple University
X-Newsreader: NNR/VM S_1.3.2

Last week I went to see a gastroenterologist. I had never met this
doctor before, and she did not know what I was there for. As soon as I
arrived, somebody showed me to an examining room and handed me a gown.
They told me to undress (from the waist down, to be exact) and wait for the
doctor. Is this the usual drill when you go to a doctor for the first
time? I don't have much experience going to doctors (knock on wood), but
on the couple of occasions when I've gone to a new doctor, I met him
with my clothes on. First, he introduced himself, asked what I was there
for and took a history, all before I undressed.
 
Are patients usually expected to get naked before meeting a doctor
for the first time? Personally, I'd prefer to meet the doctor on
something remotely resembling a condition of parity and to establish an
identity as a person who wears clothes before dropping my drawers. If
nothing else, it minimizes the time that I have to spend in the self
conscious, ill at ease and vulnerable condition of a person with a bare
bottom talking to somebody who is fully clothed.
 
Does anybody besides me regard this get-naked-first-and-then-we-can-talk
attitude as insensitive? Also, is it unusual?
 