Howdy peeps. I'd like to describe a recent experience with a new doctor and get some opinions on whether his behavior was weird or I'm just being paranoid.
I'm FTM, had chest surgery almost 10 years ago, and been on T since 2001. Very passable. I have no medical problems. I have had no lower surgery. I just moved to a new state that's not exactly known for its liberalism and needed to secure a new prescription pronto. The move wiped be out financially (luckily I moved to start a job that will pay okay). In the past I've had excellent doctors who were experienced with transfolks, but now I just needed to find a scrip as quickly and cheaply as possible.
I ended up making two calls related to scheduling an appointment, speaking first with the receptionist and then with the nurse. One said the visits costs "$65 and up" and the other "$60-150." I said I wanted to avoid labwork and each woman told me I'd have to talk to the doctor.
When I went to my appointment, the friendly receptionist wanted to talk ->-bleeped-<- but I didn't go out of my way to indulge her. She asked me if I'd had lower surgery (well, she did this weird whisper thing and waved her hand over her abdomen with her eyebrows raised) and I asked if she was trying to ask if I was legally male. I believe I'd checked male on the form I'd already handed her. I explained that surgical status was not the same as legal status, and this truly might have been the first time she'd heard that. (I've been legally male for years.)
When the nurse took me to the exam room, everything was normal until she casually asked why I'd had a mastectomy. "Did they find a lump?" I explained that no, I'm a transsexual and the surgery was part of transition. For a moment she froze, as though stunned, then asked if I'd had lower surgery. I think she said "full surgery" while waving her hand over her abdomen.
The doctor was a little old man who asked a few questions (he seemed surprised that I self-inject T) before asking me to take off my shirt, adding "if you feel comfortable." My shirt was tucked in and I assumed he just want to listen to my lungs. I was dressed for work and removed my dress shirt, sitting in my t-shirt and slacks. Maybe he'd wanted me to remove the t-shirt, too - which would have been fine, but a doctor has never asked me to do that. He took my blood pressure and told me to lay back. He lifted up my shirt and listened to my lungs or heart or whatever doctors do.
Then he started pressing his hands into my chest. Over my scars (thanks Dr. Brownstein!), and I think with his hands over my nipples (I wasn't looking and my chest is still a bit numb and the whole thing happened pretty quickly. I was also focused on making the doctor understand that there was no cause for expensive tests). The doctor seemed fascinated. It was quick but uncomfortable, and then he moved his hands to my abdomen and pressed (doctors have definitely done that to me). He didn't seem as fascinated by that part.
Then the exam was over and he told me that he didn't think I needed labwork if my last test was around Halloween and everything was fine (it was, though he never asked to actually see the labwork). He wrote me a prescription with three refills (which will last almost a year and a half) and told me to come for labwork in about six months. He shook my hand and added that I can come to him for any medical concerns (I had assumed this was an option. He's a doctor).
I made an appointment with the receptionist for September. She called the doctor (I assume) to ask what to charge, and it only came to $45. No one mentioned why the charge was lower than I'd been quoted. I wasn't going to complain about it.
After leaving, I thought about the chest exam (or whatever that was). No doctor has ever done that before, or asked to. My scars are thick, so if he wanted confirmation that I'm a ->-bleeped-<-, he achieved that visually when he applied his stethoscope. Was he checking for breast cancer? Is that a normal part of a guy's physical that I have somehow never experienced? He didn't test my reflexes or look at my eyes or throat. I don't want to be the paranoid ->-bleeped-<-, but I suspect that the only reason the doctor put his hands on my chest was to satisfy his curiosity about an FTM post-op chest.
What do you think? Am I being overly suspicious? Was this totally normal?
