Is it normal for docs to look at privates when you growing up? What is normal?[TW for medical stuff]

I ask because growing up it happened almost every single year to the point where, whenever I went to the doctor, I would get severe anxiety. I got a physical once for nursing school and the APRN said my heart sounded like I was having severe anxiety, I was 20 something years old.

I understand that, generally, providers do this to check on people’s development, such as testicles dropping, hair, deformities, etc.

But then I hear people talking about how that was never their experience. Ever.

When I have kiddos, I want them to feel safe around the doctor. I want them to feel like they have autonomy over their own body, not the doctor just pulling your shit down and touching you while you are laying down.

TIA

For boys yes definitely, I was checked for hernia etc every year. No idea about girls.

I cannot think of any good reason, personally.

It’s a hernia check, completely routine when I was growing up (eastern US), it caught me by surprise the first time but then it was no big deal. They did it every year. IDK about the medical aspects but it’s not like some doctor thought it up aimed at particular people. It was an institutional thing, all boys in the school district got it (don’t know about girls), same thing at other schools, and I saw the question come up on reddit decades later so it’s still being done. There was slight physical discomfort (they press up on your testicles and ask you to cough) but at least for me, pulling down your pants in front of a doctor wasn’t an issue. Having to shower in front of other kids (idk if that’s still done) was way more awkward.