When it’s time for 15-year-old Christina
Hoff’s checkup, her mother must leave the examining room.
“It’s nice to know that I have the option of
not telling her and telling a doctor and knowing that there
will be somebody there to listen to me,” Christina says.
For teens, that confidentiality may be crucial.
According to the Journal of the
American Medical Association, almost half of teens
lie to their doctors about risky behaviors, like sexual activity
or drug use, because they are afraid their doctor will tell
their parents. For the same reason, 25% avoid going to a doctor
altogether.
“These kids are not going to show up to the doctor
if they think it’s going to get back to their parents,”
says Dr. Richard Wagner, a pediatrician.
On the other hand, it’s awkward for parents to realize
their doctor knows things about their children that they don’t.
“It doesn’t threaten me now. It did in the beginning
when she was 13, and I thought we had this incredibly fantastic
relationship and then I realized that maybe she was sharing
things with her doctor that she wasn’t sharing with
me,” says Christina’s mother, Evelyn Hoff.
“My advice to parents is to get to know a pediatrician
and decide whether or not you trust them with your child’s
health in general. If you trust a pediatrician with your child’s
health in general, then I think you can trust that pediatrician
to help your child through the hard times of teenage years,”
Dr. Wagner says.
And if it’s a serious health issue, Dr. Wagner says
that parents can tell their doctor, “please encourage
my child to talk to me.”
Christina says that if she was involved in something serious,
she would tell her mother.
“Well, as ridiculous as this sounds, my mom is probably
still my best friend. And I just know from friends and their
experiences that the longer you kind of put it off the worse
it gets cause then their parents are like, ‘Well, why
didn’t you come to us,’” she says.
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