• purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    In fact, annual checkups aren’t a thing here either.

    Maybe start there, because checkups are part of preventative care and much better for public health than waiting to go to the doctor only when something is clearly wrong. I don’t have any particularly strong opinion on how checking testicles is handled and if another method would be better, but in the most general terms yes it does make sense to have a medical expert check there (and other places where it’s very easy to check for symptoms of severe conditions, e.g. lymph node swelling, which can be in the genitals but also other areas) rather than exclusively rely on the child and parents who are notably not medical experts (though of course they are also given instruction on checking and reporting).

    • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      If that were true then there would be evidence that stopping them decades ago had a negative impact, but it did not.

      • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        I’m confused why something like that could just be flatly asserted. There are lots of articles you can find about underdiagnosis in the UK of conditions that things like generalized regular checks make an effort to find. Aside from the public health topic in a more general sense, could you explain about annual checkups being stopped decades ago? I’d be interested to learn about the history there but I’m having a hard time finding it because I’m pretty bad at this sort of thing.