“WOMEN POOP. SOMETIMES AT WORK. GET OVER IT.”
“WOMEN POOP. SOMETIMES AT WORK. GET OVER IT.”
Check out this excellent New York Times article that highlights some very interesting gender differences noted in the realm of digestive health.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/style/women-poop-at-work.html
“Poop shame is real — and it disproportionately affects women, who suffer from higher rates of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. In other words, the patriarchy has seeped into women’s intestinal tracts. Let’s call it the pootriarchy.
Girls aren’t born with poo shame — it’s something they’re taught.
In “Psychology in the Bathroom,” the psychologist Nicholas Haslam writes that girls tend to be toilet trained earlier than boys, learning at a young age to neatly keep their bodily functions contained (our words, not his).
When those girls get a bit older, they learn to pass gas silently — while boys do it loudly, and think it’s hilarious.”
The article looked at techniques women utilize at work to try to limit their “poo shame”:
“There are those who engage in the Flush Hush, which involves flushing the toilet over and over again to drown out any sound.
There is the Scatological Standoff, in which two or more women sit silently in stalls next to one another, waiting for one to break the silence and have a bowel movement first — or simply give up and retreat back to their cubicle, only to begin the same standoff an hour later.
And then there’s the Poop Dupe — when you walk into the bathroom, see a co-worker you know, and immediately beeline to the mirror to check your hair. (Because you’d rather be known as superficial than defecating, obviously.)”
Biological differences between genders are covered as well:
“According to the work of Dr. Robynne Chutkan, an integrative gastroenterologist and the author of “Gutbliss,” women’s poop anxiety might not simply be cultural or even psychological. It could be physical, as there are actually some profound differences between the female and male digestive tracts, beginning with the length of the colon, which is longer in women (Dr. Chutkan calls it the “voluptuous Venus”).
“What that extra length in the colon does is create this redundancy, these sort of extra twists and turns,” she has said. “Think of the male colon as kind of a gentle horseshoe, and the female colon as being a tangled-up Slinky.”
As it turns out, the ideal position for a person to comfortably relieve their bowels — at least according to gastroenterologists — is a lot like a squat, with the knees at a 90-degree angle to the waist, and not a seated position. Which means that perhaps all of us should be investing in a squatty potty to prop up our feet, but particularly those of us with a tangled up Slinky for a colon, sitting on a toilet in an office building that was built for the height of men.
Or, a better idea: We could invest in educating girls to accept their bodies as they are, along with all the smells and sounds that come with it. Because, quite frankly, women have enough crap to deal with.”
At Comprehensive Gastrointestinal Health, our team is eager to help with any and all gastrointestinal concerns, including “poop shame”! Please don’t hesitate to call 224.407.4400 for an appointment.
Dr. Tara Troy
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