Your teen is too old to go to the pediatrician but too young for a doctor who treats adults. This is a dilemma faced by most parents. The answer may be an adolescent medical specialist.
“I’m not going to the doctor,” thirteen-year-old Sam told his mother. “I don’t care if my stomach falls out.” But when Sam threw up for the third time that week, his mother insisted. “What is it that’s bugging you about getting help?” she demanded. “I am NOT sitting in that waiting room with a bunch of toddlers reading Spongebob Square Pants,” he fumed. “That’s final.”
If your teenager complains that she or he no longer likes going to the “kid doctor,” but you don’t feel that a primary care physician would have either the bedside manner or the experience to deal with a teenager, an adolescent medicine provider may be just what the doctor ordered.
Adolescent medicine specialists—pediatricians, internists, or family medicine practitioners who have undertaken an additional three-year fellowship in adolescent healthcare—are filling the niche between pediatrician and primary care practitioner. Most insurance plans consider these doctors the same as primary care physicians - since most of them are also either PCPs or internists. Depending on your plan, this would mean that you might not need a referral to see an adolescent medicine provider. However, you should keep in mind that many insurance plans do not cover some of the services these physicians provide, such as counseling, substance abuse, or unusual treatments like growth hormone injections.
These specialists can:
- Offer routine age-appropriate screenings and exams
- Provide basic gynecological care and advice for a girl reaching puberty
- Help teen boys with the transition through puberty and growth spurts
- Deal with psychosocial and emotional issues
- Act as facilitator for confidential talks with both sexes on STDs, smoking, birth control, and risk-taking behaviors such as prescription or street drug abuse
Mom’s gynecologist is not a substitute for the pediatrician because he or she cannot meet all the medical needs of a girl. Nor can a general practitioner always meet the needs of a teen boy. The healthcare provider a teen requires now is part medical expert, part counselor, and always, trusted ally.
“Adolescent medicine is technically defined as healthcare starting at the onset of puberty,” says Andrea Marks, M.D., an adolescent medicine specialist in private practice in New York City, and a member of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. The majority of her patients are individuals in high school and college—those who want to take that next step in separating their healthcare decisions and discussions from mom and dad.
Right to Privacy
Experts stress that this separation is critical. While many pediatricians can adequately care for and counsel teens confidentially, adolescents often crave their own “grown-up” doctor without a parent present in the exam room. They need to discuss issues privately without making their parents feel that they are trying to hide something.
