‘If my husband was at home, I would not defecate’

Teen magazine’s tips on “How to secretly poop without telling your boyfriend” had a lasting impact on Jane Moore.

She said one tip also suggested a woman take over-the-counter medication to avoid the need to poop during an overnight stay with a partner.

The 35-year-old woman recently realized that she had adopted some of these habits, but that embarrassment was hiding a serious health condition.

When she and her husband first met, she would wait for him to leave the house before “pooping”, or she would “open the tap” if he was upstairs.

“I have such a strong memory of reading this article and I’ve clearly internalized it and I didn’t even realize it until recently.”

Last year she was forced to “open up about something I had kept to myself for years” when she experienced rectal bleeding.

Despite being together for almost 15 years, this was the first time she broached the issue with her husband Chris.

Four months after excision surgery for endometriosis and hysterectomy for adenomyosis, she was concerned that bleeding was a sign of delayed complications.

But an unrelated MRI later confirmed it was deep endometriosis on her intestine.

The women’s health campaigner – originally from Swansea, but now living in Cambridge – said: “I talk about my body parts and periods online all the time, I didn’t think that my body There’s a taboo in my mind about it. But it was there.”

She laughed, recalling the description from her medical notes that she was “known for constipation”.

“I have suffered from constipation for as long as I can remember, there were times when I would go once a week.

“Really, I thought there was something wrong with people if they actually had to be in the bathroom on a regular basis — I grew up in a generation where girls were told they were supposed to fart in glitter and rainbows.”

Embarrassment might have prevented Jane from speaking, but that was not the case for Emma Williams-Tully.

The 39-year-old man, from Wrexham, also has endometriosis. She said she felt “disgusted” when she told doctors about her constipation and rectal bleeding.

“When I was constipated, no matter what medicine I took, I couldn’t go to the toilet for 10 days at a time and was in complete pain.

“I went to different specialists across the border in England and every colonoscopy came back normal.”

When she was diagnosed with endometriosis at the age of 21, she remembers her consultant admitting: “We thought you were faking it all this time.”

She praised the team of doctors supporting her now, but described the years of endometriosis as “torturous”.

She has had a total of 11 surgeries, including a hysterectomy and removal of her colon, leaving her with an ileostomy stoma.

“I don’t want to scare people and think just because they have diarrhea or constipation that this will happen to them. But it’s about advocating for yourself.”

Julie Cornish, a colorectal surgeon at Cardiff and Vale Health Board, said that by the time patients reached her, they had “usually been suffering for some time”.

“Things have escalated because people are too embarrassed to speak out.

“Constipation is common, affecting about 20% of the population,” he said, but in the worst cases patients will have a bowel movement once a month.

“It’s extreme, but we’re seeing patients in their early 20s who have had trouble opening their bowels since they were little and it never goes away. They’ve taken a lot of laxatives over time And eventually his large intestine was removed.”

He said there are some simple steps that can help.

“The gut is one of the vital organs of the body, if it doesn’t work well – you know about it. But we don’t talk about it, that’s the issue.

“We need a public health campaign around the bladder and bowel.”

Don’t put it off: “You get people who decide they’ll only go to the toilet in their own home,” Julie Cornish said.

“If they go on holiday for a week they take something with them to stop them going to the toilet because they don’t want to do it anywhere else. Or they think it’s unpleasant or embarrassing to go to work, so they Let’s stop it.”

Water: “Make sure you drink plenty of water. Caffeine is great in terms of overworking the intestines, but it’s not so good if you’re having diarrhea.”

Exercise: “Just a simple 15 to 20-minute walk – your core abdominal muscles work like a washing machine and will help move the bowels.”

Diet: “You can increase the amount of fruit and fiber in your diet. You can look for things like psyllium husk, flaxseed, and chia seeds to get a boost.”

“A lot of people don’t really look at their poo, but you should,” said Julie Cornish.

“Is there any blood in there? What does the consistency of the stool look like?

“look at the bristol stool chartIf it’s type one or type two that sticks together like a rabbit’s pelts or a Malteser’s, it means you need a little more water or fiber in your diet.

“If you’re having difficulty voiding, or have a lot of flatulence, you may be constipated or have some pelvic floor problems – you probably need to see a physiotherapist.

“It is generally considered normal to move your bowels with a bowel movement every one to three days.

“If there is any significant change in your bowel habits – an increase or decrease in frequency, or if you start experiencing extreme pain, swelling, weight loss or blood in the stool, please go and see your doctor.”