What Your Bathroom Habits Reveal About Your Health - And When to Pay Attention

Many women entering perimenopause begin practicing Kegel exercises, which strengthen your pelvic floor.

Gone are the days of lamenting getting older. Humans now have more access to health and wellness than ever before, and opportunities abound to live a long, happy life. Aging, today, is a privilege denied to many, and, fortunately, more people are seeing it that way.

Still, that doesn’t mean you’re not witnessing changes in your body and wondering what’s going on. For women, many of those changes take place in the bathroom. Here’s what to know about your shifting body, how to embrace it, and when to be concerned.

You Have to Pee More

Talk to any woman entering her forties and fifties, and she’ll likely tell you she’s rushing to the bathroom more. It happens to the majority of women, and it’s a normal part of perimenopause and menopause. As hormone levels fluctuate, your bladder muscles weaken, so you can’t hold as much urine. This means you have to pee more.

Strengthen Your Muscles

The good news is that weaker bladder muscles are normal, and you can do something about it. Many women entering perimenopause begin practicing Kegel exercises, which strengthen your pelvic floor. To do these exercises, you’ll simply tighten and release the muscles you use to stop urination. Do this about 10-15 times a day, and you may find you have to pee less frequently.

When to Be Concerned: Burning

Now, while frequent urination is common, normal, and fixable with exercise, burning is not. If you’re feeling pain or burning during urination, this could be a sign of a urinary tract infection. See your doctor for antibiotics to kill the bacteria that’s causing the infection. It’s also a good idea to invest in a UTI supplement that can help prevent future UTIs.

Your Periods Get Unpredictable

You’ve probably heard this can happen as you get older, but it can still be jarring when it happens to you. After all these years of having a period, your first thought when you’re late is that you might be pregnant. It’s a very common misconception. For women entering menopause, your menstrual cycle can get wacky. You may experience spotting, discharge, late periods, or even missed periods.

Keep Pads with You

Your best protection against this issue is to carry your menstrual pads, tampons, or feminine cups around with you everywhere you go. Keep extras in your car, purse, and luggage when you travel. You don’t want to get caught unawares. It’s also a good idea to always have a pantyliner in your underwear, or even consider wearing period underwear as a practice. That way, you won’t end up unnecessarily messy.

When to Be Concerned: Extremely Painful Cramps or Heavy Bleeding

While unpredictable periods are normal, extreme pain and heavy bleeding are not. There’s a difference between a heavy period and excessive bleeding due to a medical condition. If you’re bleeding through a menstrual pad or cup in less than an hour or doubling over in pain, see a doctor immediately. It could be a sign of something that needs serious attention. 

Stool Shifts

This one you may not have heard of at all. Poop is not often discussed when women talk about menstruating. But it is a reality that the organs are so close and so closely connected that they cannot help but affect each other. Quite often, as hormone levels fluctuate, women experience either constipation or diarrhea. It’s normal, and as perimenopause sets in, these changes can become more common.

Hydrate, Fiber, and Exercise

It’s usually nothing to worry about, of course. If you find yourself more constipated than usual, be sure to eat more fiber and get more exercise. It can help get things moving more regularly. If you find you have more diarrhea, make sure to hydrate enough and eat plenty of Greek yogurt, which will give you good bacteria for your gut and protein for energy. Oatmeal is another great source of fiber that can help keep your stool firm.

When to Be Concerned: Rectal Bleeding

However, if you notice blood in your stool (and you’re sure it’s not menstrual blood), consult with your gastroenterologist. It may be nothing — a broken blood vessel from straining with constipation, for example. But it’s always a good idea to get checked out, just in case. Also, be sure to have a colonoscopy done by the time you’re 45.

In the end, women have gotten so much better over the years at embracing their bodies, whatever their age. There is so much to be proud of as women reach menopause and beyond. There are, after all, only three species on earth that survive well beyond the reproductive years, and humans are one of them. Scientists theorize that the reason for this survival is that women in their later years are meant to pass on their wisdom to younger generations. So, here’s to older women learning about their bodies, loving them, and teaching younger women to do the same. 

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