What Is The Elbow Sign? … And Why Does Dr. Jensen Take It So Seriously?

Sometimes I get questions from my patients as to whether or not I take care of men, and what kind of care they should expect to receive from a board-certified female physician, who clearly has a strong interest in women’s health, given my sub-specialization in obstetrics and menopause. A lot of the men in my clinic are there because of what I call the “elbow sign.” Their significant other has noticed some kind of issue and has elbowed and nudged them enough until they come in to have it evaluated.

I don’t view myself as a female physician who specializes in women’s health, but rather as a board-certified physician who focuses on prevention. For my men who snore, I worry deeply about their long-term health if there is an undiagnosed sleep apnea issue. For my men who have the occasional headache but haven’t seen a doctor in a long time, I worry about the risk of undiagnosed high blood pressure. For my men who are fearful of rectal exams (I’m not a fan of them either, by the way), I worry about them having an elevated risk of prostate cancer being detected late because they didn’t know that we use a blood test now.

Obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are all risk factors for long-term health conditions, and I want to prevent the risks associated with those. In this practice, I used to use the ASCVD risk score, and now better research shows us that we are supposed to use the PREVENT score instead. You can’t use any of that if you’ve never seen the doctor, though. Share this with someone who needs the extra "elbow sign" and nudge to get them into the office before a small problem becomes a big one.