Bare Naked Ladies

Something that is very different between the U.S. and Belgian medical practices is the amount of clothes you wear during a checkup. In the States you change in private and put on a paper gown. In Belgium you start taking off your clothes while you are chatting with the doctor and keep on taking off your clothes until you end up completely naked. Yes, you read that right -- completely naked. I recently went to the OB/GYN for a yearly checkup and was reminded of just how different this experience is from the States.


The interesting thing is that although nudity is so much more of an issue to Americans, because nudity is an absolute nonissue to Belgians (and most Europeans) they don't even flinch when they see a naked person. And because my doctor doesn't make a big deal of me being naked, I can adopt her attitude and realize that a body is just a body and it really isn't that big of a deal. This time around though, the phone happened to ring just as I was finishing the undressing process. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I sat there buck naked as my doctor jabbered on in French for a few minutes.


The last time I went there she told me about an American patient who had come to her for five years while she was an expat here. The American wrote her after she had moved back to the States and said that she went to the doctor and forgot she was in America. She took off all her clothes and was completely naked when the male doctor came in. He freaked out because not only was she naked, but there was no nurse in there either and he was afraid of getting sued. I don't know if I'll ever get that comfortable with this idea, but it sure did make me laugh as my underwear hit the floor.