Here’s What Could Happen If You Hold Your Poop Too Often

Last Updated on 2023-03-18 , 4:01 pm

There are two fears in my life—being stuck in a 2-hour phone call with an insurance agent and the urge to poop when I’m not at home.

I know Singapore is a clean and green city, and the public toilets are exceptionally clean but the fact that bidets are an elusive sight is beyond me.

With the personification of faecal matter such as the poop emoji, we don’t have to be shy about this shi**y matter.

So over the years, my reasonable fear of having to poop in public toilets have popped up like an inconvenient pimple.

But luckily, I am able to muster up enough energy to hold my poop till I reach home.

So what is it like holding your poop while you’re trying to function like a normal human being?

It is not the best feeling in the world but it is not the worst.

With that said, it made me wonder: “is holding your shit a bad thing?”

Before that, let’s take a look at what our shit is really made of.

What’s in your shit?

After devouring your plate of Cai png, it takes a long journey down south, taking about 53 hours or so for it to reach the final stage.

Feces are mostly made of water—about 75%—just like us!

Apart from water, it is also made of dead and living bacteria, protein, undigested matter and other substances from the intestines and the liver.

What happens when you don’t poop when you have to

So now, what do you do when the urge to poop happens during unfavourable circumstances?

You hold that shit in, literally.

Poop is basically trash, and if you keep the trash at home for a few days, you are basically attracting a bunch of pests.

So, it is only common sense that holding in your poop is not that great.

Like mentioned, poop is mostly made of water, and if it stays too long in the colon, the water will be absorbed by your body.

And voila, you will be pushing out a dry turd aka constipation.

Kyle D Staler, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital told The Mirror that the people who get into a habit of holding in can develop a dysfunction in the muscle used for pooing.”

“And your body keeps making waste, it can lead to an impacted bowel,” she added.

An impacted bowel is when your shit gets stuck in the colon.

Yeah, pretty nasty right and you might need surgery to manually remove it.

Huffington Post quoted Alison Chen, N.D., the author of What Your Poo Says About You, “Holding in your poo on the rare occasion is fine, but [shouldn’t be] done all the time.”

If you don’t want to suffer from chronic constipation, it is best to listen to your body and if there are no bidets, always carry a pack of wet wipes!

Don’t fight nature’s call!

Brb, I am going to poop.