Women's Restroom Rant

Ladies, listen up, it's time for me to drop some science on your ears about the bathroom situation.

The fact that you can catch an STD from a toilet seat is a myth.

What part or your body touches the toilet seat? If you're anything like me, it's your ass/thighs. It's not your vajayjay. It's not your butthole. I'm pretty sure I don't hump my  toilet seat. Okay. So it's my buttcheeks and thighs. Personally, mine are pretty clean. They stay protected in my clothing all day. I don't wipe so crazily that fecal matter or urine end up on them. In fact, I'd go the extra mile and say my thighs and buttcheeks are cleaner than my hands. Seeing as they stay inside my clothes all day and aren't out touching all kinds of things.

Women are very good at urinating standing up. Typically, it gets all over the toilet seat. The toilet seat that would have stayed pristine if you had actually sat on it in the first place.

Okay, so all things considered: STOP HOVER PISSING!!!!! Seriously. It just gets things disgusting for the rest of us. I am so sick of walking into a stall only to find yellow droplets all over the toilet seat. EW!

And for the love of all things civil, if you dribble, clean it up. Gawd. We're grown ups now, it's time to respect each other's most basic right to urniate in a clean environment, okay?

Yeah, but you would still be catching them from someone, you couldn't catch them from yourself.

I have a virus because of someone else's poor hygiene in the toilet, "coxsackie B virus" it has the highest instant fatality rate of all viruses, I could drop dead as I sit here (don't intend to) was so tempted there to just stop mid word . But that's why I am so paraniod about public toilets.

anndjoe, you actually have that virus right now? how'd you get it?

dalmalama, yeah got diagnosed in march when I fell really ill, it's caught from fecal matter/fluid. So say someone has it, wipes them self gets a little fluid/matter on their hands then touches anything that you may touch, that includes outside the toilet too, you touch it unknowingly then rub your eye, mouth, or if it's outside the toilet perhaps you might be eating a sandwich then you can catch it and you have it for life, but it only becomes active if you are stressed (it triggers it). Anytime it shows in me I have to get my heart checked and my brain as the strain I have attacks both of those, and give you meningitis.

Not nice and all because someone didn't watch their hygiene.

HAH!  and that is why I don't open bathroom doors without a paper towel (or my top) on the way out...

It is truly amazing the people who STILL do not wash their hands after using a public washroom -- and I've started calling them on it as they are going out the door.  I'm sure one day I'll get shot.

I'm not really afraid of most germs -- the old "God mad dirt, so dirt don't hurt" theory (please, it's just a saying) -- but toilet germs do bother me.  Particularly with the over use of antibiotics and the increase in antibiotic immune bugs.

Just wash your hands, please.

I just googled coxsackie B virus and it sounds just terrible.  anndjoe, I'm sorry to hear that you got hit with this virus. 

I'm just curious ... How were you able to track the source of your infection back to a public restroom?  I guess I want the full story before I get even more freaked out and OCD-like about public restrooms.

The truth is, yes everyone should wash their hands after using a washroom.  And yeah it's probably also wise to avoid using the doorknobs etc.  But the truth is, the second you've touched ANYTHING at all, like the handle on your purse, the steering wheel in your car, money, keyboards, books, another person, etc, you're contaminated again, possibly with fecal coliforms.  It's why we have skin.  The trick is to not touch your eyes, mouth, nose etc with dirty hands.  And don't eat with dirty hands.  For whatever does happen to get through, we have immune systems.  So get lots of sleep and hope for the best, lol.

Sorry, I rant about microbiology all the time.  It's a big part of what I do for a living, and it frustrates me when people are naive about it.

They do a count on the virus to see how long you've had it for then a long list of where you've been! but as I say you can catch it outside the toilet if they haven't been clean. Say they came out and pulled out a chair at a cafe, they left then you pulled out the same chair and started eating *Bingo*. People think I'm neurotic but I carry anti-bacterial hand gel everywhere. But having said that the most likely place like 99% it's caught in public toilets.

OCD about public toilets isn't a bad thing but this virus is and you can have it for ages before it shows it's self. No cure, no treatment, all they can do is watch for any damage it is doing to organs.

Interesting. What I read said that it's typically water bourne and common during the summer months when people swim. Nothing about public toilets, though. And rare, too -- only six geogrphical areas where it is typically found.

Germophobia is bad, sheeple. Hand sanitizers don't work, and when they do, create things like MERSA. I know this will sound crazy, but for thousands of years, people lived in quite dirty conditions and did all kinds of crazy things. In rural China, a common "cure" for illness is ingesting your own urine. Hell, I was watching TV one time and a doctor said a good way to clear up acne is to use the urine from your morning pee and spread it on your face.

And, I watched 2 girls, 1 cup. I'm pretty sure that the human body is a resilliant thing that is quite good at living in a toxic environment.

Okay, think about this: Do you shower every time you smell a fart? The sewer? What if you just think someone farted? Shoot, I fart all day long. They are silent, scent free farts. Know what that means? That means I release tiny air born poop particles in the air all day and other people walk through them. Other people do the same thing to me. And I'm not dead yet, sucka!

Original Post by hgielrehtaeh:

That means I release tiny air born poop particles in the air all day and other people walk through them. Other people do the same thing to me. And I'm not dead yet, sucka!

Oh god, now I'm going to have that imagery in my head every time someone farts.  HAHA.  :)

Well you haven't read up on the right strain of it!

And I'm glad you can be so flippant about a virus I caught as a result of someone else's poor hygiene.

I'm not dead yet either!

coxsackie

edit to add for you the strain I have is mostly in America 

Yeah, I'm flippant. Guess what? It's probably because you use hand sanitizer! Do you know that it will be the downfall of our civilization! Or maybe not, maybe there will just be a pandemic, and everyone who is a germophobe and has a weakened immune system will die, leaving the rest of us stronger/smarter people to thrive.

People get illnesses every day. Bad things happen every day. If I tried to care a ton about every person that is sick, I'd die. Literally. It would make me want to kill myself, and I would. Because life sucks and isn't worth living, boohoohoo.

You caught a virus. You could die at any second. Guess what? Our planet could be in the line of a gamma ray burst (GRB) and be completely vaporized in about 2 seconds flat. Nothing left. Nadda. Zilch.

I could die at any second! A plane could fall out of the sky and crash into me. A disgruntled employee could come in and open fire. A freak earthquake could open up the ground and swallow me. I could step into the street and be hit. I could trip and fall down the stairs and sever my spine. I could be electrocuted because the guy working on the vending machine wired it improperly and when I try to purchase a bottle of Cherry Coke Zero, the button could zap me. There are thousands of ways I could die at any second. That anyone can die at any second.

It's time to accept your mortality. You'll be much happier if you do.

What a charmer you are!

Gah --

The incubation period for the Coxsackie B viruses is, like most of the Enteroviridae, highly variable, ranging from 2 to 35 days, and illness may last for up to two weeks, but may resolve as quickly as two days.Infection usually occurs between the months of June and October.[1] ...

Care should be taken in washing ones hands and in cleaning the body after swimming.

So... it only lasts up to two weeks, you got it in March but still have it. People catch it most commonly during the months when swimming occurs, and oh, wait, yes, there's the warning about cleaning up after SWIMMING. Lyk OMG, I think I might be onto something.

FYI.  MRSA did not develop because of hand sanitizer.  The strain proliferated because people misused the one of the only antibiotics, methicillin, that was effective against staphylococcus aureus.

I'm pretty sure that I read medical journals linking MRSA and hand sanitizers.

i always wipe the seat before i sit down. it may not do alot, but it's probably better than just plainly sitting on it wothout wiping the seat, and it's definetely better than "hover-pissing".

i hate when people pee on the seat or don't flush, but i'm way more grossed out by the people who don't wash their hands when they're done using the washroom, or only use water to wash their hands - no soap. seriously, yuck!

MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.

Pretty sure that I totally said why I don't have to "walk on eggshells" so to speak about a "potentially fatal disease." We could all die any second. Accept your mortality, move on.

It's a virus!!!! it becomes dormant like every other virus out there, you don't get rid of it once you have it you have it for life. The Illness from the virus lasts for up to 2 wks everytime it appears.

You can also carry it and never show it. It usually shows it's self. That doesn't mean ONLY. It's caught from fecal matter/fluid you can get that anywhere, but mainly public toilets.

They are giving advice on how to reduce risk of catching it not where you can  catch it.

 

andy, don't try to defend anything...this is NUTS!  she won't listen...sorry about what you are going through! that's horrible!