Why Your Teen Needs a Doctor

Regular exams—and the conversations that go with them—are vital during adolescence

Sure, you take them in for sports physicals and when they’re sick, but do healthy adolescents really need yearly doctor visits? Indeed they do, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

First and foremost, the right doctor or nurse practitioner can help teens cope with stress, establish good eating and exercise habits, prevent violence and injuries, and avoid risky behaviors—in short, steer them toward a healthy lifestyle.

“This is the age to learn how to talk to a health professional,” says adolescent medicine specialist Sarah Stevens, M.D., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. She asks her young patients how they’re doing at school, getting along with their family, juggling activities, and handling those all-important relationships with their peers.

In terms of physical health, the teen years typically are vigorous ones. But adolescents still need regular immunizations, checkups of their growth and development, vision and hearing screenings, and blood tests for anemia. Boys need testicular cancer screenings, girls may need to see a gynecologist (see story below)—and it’s not too early to start tracking blood pressure and cholesterol, especially if there’s a family history of heart disease.

The family doctor or pediatrician who’s cared for your child up to now has the knowledge and skills to continue doing so through high school and beyond. But in their teens, some boys and girls become reluctant patients. “They may feel uneasy in a waiting room full of small children,” says Stevens’ colleague, pediatrician Anthony Dimick, M.D. Your teen also may clam up when the doctor he or she has seen since infancy asks questions about sexual activity, smoking and drug use.

“If your teen is comfortable with the doctor and can talk about things that concern him or her, there’s no reason to change,” Stevens says. If that’s not the case, consider the following options:

Stick with the current doctor, but increase your teen’s comfort level. Offer to leave the exam room after the health history. “At this age, it’s natural to begin seeking information and support from nonparental figures,” Stevens says. “The focus used to be your relationship with the doctor; now, it’s their relationship, and you need to let that happen.”

Find another health professional for specific concerns. Adolescent specialists have added expertise in such issues as teen anxiety and depression. Among the common problems they treat are menstrual irregularity, late puberty or delayed growth, and medical issues like chronic fatigue.

Help your teen find a new doctor. Whether it’s a family physician, adolescent specialist, gynecologist, internist or nurse practitioner, male or female, young or old, it should be someone who can relate to adolescents and make them feel comfortable.

Your teen may open up more easily to a doctor who doesn’t also treat Mom and Dad, Dimick says. Give your son or daughter the list of doctors who accept your health insurance, and share thoughts with each other on what qualities are important in a health practitioner. If your teen wants you to, help arrange get-acquainted appointments. “Then let him or her make the choice,” Dimick says.

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