How to Properly Wipe Your Ass
Wiping your butt after using the toilet is one of those things that most of us don’t think about regularly – we just do it and move on with our lives. Do you wipe it right? Does it even matter? Lifehacker spoke with several doctors to get to the bottom of the matter.
How is it done now
As I understand it, the two main schools of rubbing are from front to back, with your hand reaching from back to side, or back to front, with your hand between your legs. There is another method in which it is not really a forward-backward / back-forward movement, but rather a swirling movement, as if you were cleaning a dirty stain on a window. I’ve never seen this in practice, but to be honest, the number of times I’ve witnessed any of these methods performed by someone else can be counted on one hand. (And then I washed this hand.)
The right way
How you wipe your buttocks depends on what equipment you have in the area. If you have a penis, dermatologist Curtis Asbury, MD, advises “do whatever you think is right. It does not matter. Damn it, you can walk side by side if you want! “
But on the other hand, people with a vagina and vulva will definitely want to wipe their skin from front to back. Brian Bowes, MD, an internist, explains why referral is so important to this segment of the population:
Most cases of cystitis or urethritis are caused by E. coli, a normal flora found in the gastrointestinal tract. It helps you digest food, but rubbing it from back to front can smear it into your urethral passage (urine port). The bacteria then enter the sterile environment [urethra] and cause a UTI. In medical school, this is traditionally taught as “honeymoon cystitis” as many women develop UTIs after a vigorous honeymoon weekend and come back with this normal infection.
As for people with a penis, Bose thinks about it too:
… most have a minimum of 6 inches (hopefully) between the anus and the urethra (the opening at the end of the penis) … this protects them from urinary tract infections. Therefore, anyone with a penis from which they urinate (not excluding people of either sex) is protected from E. coli and can freely wipe it in any way they like (not that it is enjoyable).
So what about science? One 2009 study of wiping after urination showed a slight increase in infection with wiping from back to front. However, another study of college-age women with UTIs showed that there was no increase. While there isn’t a lot of research on the effects of different wiping methods, the professional medical consensus is clear that people with vaginas should wipe them from front to back. In fact, the Mayo Clinic , Brigham and Women ‘s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and the University of California , San Francisco point out on their websites that wiping from front to back is recommended for people with a vagina to prevent urinary tract infections.
And while we’re on the subject of wiping, how about those wet wipes that are popular but bad for the environment ? Asbury says that not only you don’t need them, but they can also cause an allergic reaction:
Recent attempts to achieve ultra-cleanliness have led to the trend of using wet wipes instead of dry toilet paper for wiping. The main problem is the growing sensitivity of wet wipes to chemicals. Allergies to these chemicals can cause pain, irritation and redness, which often causes a person to use wipes more often and thus exacerbate the problem. The main chemical associated with wet wipe allergy is methylchloroisothiazolinone / methylisothiazolinone (MCI / MI or Kathon CG), although other common allergens in wipes include quaternium-15 , iodopropynylbutyl carbamate , DMDM hydantoin, and fragrances. Use wet wipes at your own risk and at least read the label!
Alternatives to wiping
So, if there is no reason to use chemical wet wipes, what better than traditional two-layer wipes? If you guessed it was a bidet , then you were right and you have probably used one of them before. But Chris Lowry, MD, physician and director of MedRevise.co.uk , points out something interesting about long-term use that I’ve never heard of before.
Japanese toilets often have a jet of water and a hairdryer that cleans the anus for you. Apparently some Japanese doctors now claim to have cases of “Washlet’s syndrome,” where cleansing too effectively leads to problems such as weak sphincter muscles, dry skin, and anal ulcers.
If you do it yourself, you may be wondering what else to wipe with. Lowry recalls stories of a man who experimented on himself with items such as dried corn cobs, stones, newspaper, leaves, and vinegar on a sponge. He eventually found that while many of these methods do work in an emergency, modern toilet paper is definitely the best choice.
Alternatives to traditional toilets
Taking a step back from wiping, Lowry notes that squat toilets – the kind you see in some Asian countries – may be healthier . But it could also be due to the high fiber diet rather than the evacuation method. Plus, as we pointed out in a previous post , squatting can help you move forward, but there is no evidence that it actually improves your overall health. And regardless of whether you are sitting or squatting, you still have to dry yourself, so that does not change anything in this area.
This story was originally published in 2011 and updated on December 3, 2020, per Lifehacker’s style guidelines.