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," 13-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 3-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.
Gail Berkowitz 10/10/07
My son hates going to the doctor, but it’s not the shots or taking clothes off. He is 15, and we live too far away for him to get there alone – so I have to drive him, which is the ultimate humiliation. I generally bring a book so I can sit in the car, but I really like to talk to the doctor. I wish that docs had a telephone hotline time for teens, the way they used to when he was an infant.
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