no boys allowed

seriously. unless you fancy reading about annual, er, ladies' checkups, then only girls will be interested in this post. (assuming said girls have any interest in seeing how government healthcare compares with private)

for those of you still left reading, i had to go in for my "wellness" exam last monday and instead of making an appointment with an ob-gyn, i had go to my general practitioner (GP). my appointment was set for 9, so i let my boss know i would be out of the office for at least an hour and trolled off to the doctor arriving five minutes early (a small miracle for me). in the states, i would have had to fill out a very long form, give someone some money, and then wait about 20 more minutes before being taken into the back room, getting weighed, handed a gown, and then made to wait about five minutes more before the doctor arrived.

this visit was a little different.

the nurse called me back after only two minutes of waiting, which was actually BEFORE my original appointment time. not so bad. we went into her office, which also had an exam table in it. we chatted for about 60 seconds as she explained the process would be pretty similar to what i went through in america. she then told me to lose the bottom half of my work getup and proceeded to putter around the room looking at the wall.

no gown. no privacy. interesting.

the "exam" was over in about 30 seconds and to the nurse's credit, was about the same as it is in the states minus the stirrups. except. that was it. no poking, no prodding, and no checkup for any of the usual stuff: blood pressure, heart rate, weight, etc.

so i asked some questions about why other parts of my body weren't included in the exam. the response was a short lecture on medical studies stating the ineffectiveness of having doctors do things like breast exams (women are supposed to do these themselves, which i do, but i always liked having a professional checking things out anyway), why pelvic exams aren't necessary, etc. i didn't bother asking about blood pressure because i never know what those readings mean in the first place.

she was very polite and answered all my questions, then said if i didn't have any more questions that someone would call me in two weeks. she also mentioned that i wouldn't need another appointment for three years.

what?!?

a lot can change in three years, right? i asked this and was given another lecture on medical studies and how things don't actually change that much down there and that three years was definitely an appropriate lag time between checkups.

there wasn't a lot i could do, and who i am to argue with an entire team of nhs researchers who apparently have a study to disprove everything i have ever learned about women's health? needless to say, i was back at work about 20 minutes after i left. that night i was still feeling slightly cheated, so i asked my flatmate about it. she is on private healthcare through her company and said that she can go every other year, and that the exam includes all of the standard bits i was expecting. every other year isn't great but it is better than every three! i know my company has private healthcare for us but i'm not sure how it works. i shall have to ask but in the meantime, i'm left scratching my head about who's really right here, how often i really need doctor checkups, and what would happen to me if, heaven forbid, anything ever goes wrong with this little machine i call my body...