I like to scream "AHH DON'T BE PREGNANT" at the Clear Blue Easy.

Kidding aside, I am a bit ashamed that I shame my mom. Say she's visiting and we're about to go out somewhere. I'll wait for her and when she leaves the bathroom, asks if she washed her hands. Sometimes she has, sometimes she goes back and does it. I know she does it before she cooks, but her not doing it after every bathroom trip skeeves me out. I know I'm OCD, though. But still.

I tried that route but with some Europeans that I work with (women) they don't seem to catch on that you should wash your hands when done with the bathroom.

Please wait until after the rectal exam to embarrass your doctor.

@lalaland13: You're not being OCD. Everyone should wash their hands after going to the bathroom. The first thing I do when I get to the office in the morning is wash my hands because I've been touching public transportation germs. I don't even think about getting my cup of coffee until I've washed my hands.

Well, at least here you'll be treated with dignity... Now strip naked and get on the probulator.

@pecan 3.14159265: That's probably even more useful, at least flu-wise, than the post-bathroom wash. I suspect the traditional bathroom scrub is more useful for us non-food-prep folks in just being a periodic wash than in its bathroomy elements, especially for women, who aren't usually in direct physical contact with germier areas. It's all the hand, eye, nose, mouth stuff that really lays us all low.

Nothing like hearing someone struggle in the bathroom stall and flush and then seeing them walk straight out the door.

@pecan 3.14159265: You're supposed to wash your hands???

I'm too lazy for that! At least I shower twice a week, do I get points for that?

@floraposte: Women's bathrooms have a higher infestation of bacteria and germs than men's:

[www.germstop.net]

That's why I don't have to wash, hahaha!

I have an instructor who is hospitalized a lot. (Some sort of chronic illness . . . leaves her well enough to teach and never miss a class, go fig.) Anyhoo, when she's in the hospital, she wears a big sign on her chest that says "DID YOU WASH YOUR HANDS?" If I were her doctor or nurse, I'd probably just pretend rather than have to double back and hit the sink.

I used to work at a place where there was a fat-fingered male manager who would eat fried take-out food with his fingers nearly every day. It was revolting to have to watch (he would do this with staff in his office or at meetings) but got much worse when another male colleague confided that this guy NEVER washed his hands after using the restroom. Nothing like being handed a greasy document with Lord-knows-what-else crawling on it. Bleh.

@GuinevereRucker: Well, whaddya know, we're nasty!

I always feel a little self-conscious when I use my own small bottle of hand sanitizer in a public restroom, for fear people will think I didn't wash ( since I'm obviously not using the sink). I need a shirt that says "I did wash my hands, I promise."

Call Applegate and have him put a camera in the bathroom. Then we'll know for sure.

I also scream out "Dont give me MRSA!" during lovemaking. You can never be too careful.

@lalaland13: I also know I've gotten sick less often by washing my hands for the full length of the 'Alphabet Song' ('Happy Birthday' works too) each time I go. I wish my mother had taught me that trick. My husband's food safety course had to do it.

@Shoelace: Or being the IT people having to sit at his desk, type on the same keyboard or collect the keyboard for the next user when he moves on GRRRRR0OOSSS!

I generally only wash my hands after a number two at work. My reasoning is that I took a shower that morning and put on clean underwear so my junk has only come into contact with clean body parts and clean undergarments. I don't get pee on my hands so that's not an issue either. I'm guessing that I probably get more bacteria and detritus on my hands by touching the door handle to get into/out of the bathroom so I don't really see a need to wash my hands after the act.

I do occasionally wash my hands before going to the urinal though if I've been working on someting dirty. My old boss used to say the easiest way to tell the difference between a shop floor worker and management in the bathroom is that management washes their hands afterward and workers wash their hands before.

To everyone who doesn't wash your hands after going to the potty:

I don't want your pee on anything that I have to touch after you! WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!

Bleah!

@magic8ball: Oh thank goodness I have something to cling to when I hear people use the bathroom and leave without washing their hands.

"Maybe they used hand sanitizer"

Honest curiosity here: Why use sanitizer instead of washing your hands?

I work at a hospital. We are REQUIRED to use the hand sanitizers at the entrance (yes, the hand police are watching) and REQUIRED to wash our hands and put on gloves in front of every patient. If the patient actually sees you clean the room (x-ray table and equipment), bonus points for all. Are my cuticles cracked and bleeding? Yes, they are. Now if we could only get the patients with MRSA to clean themselves up, too, we'd have a winner. But since we're only, essentially, protecting ourselves, it's worth it to me.

@Chris Walters: Hahaha "you can never be too careful"

@HogwartsAlum: But pee is sterile! So really if I don't wash my hands I'm just giving you a wet hi-five

@pecan 3.14159265: Definitely agree with washing your hands after touching the subway, front door to the office, your steering wheel, etc. These are good places for germs to fester.

Thinking rationally though, does it really matter if you wash your hands after peeing? The pee is sterile, germs aren't just festering out of control on your crotch assuming you shower daily...

I wonder if this has more to do with our victorian fear of "dirty" sex organs than real scientific proof. That being said I rarely wash my hands in public places as I feel that I will get more germs by touching the faucet than if I left it alone. However, at home, I always wash after peeing, before eating, etc.

So many crazy germaphobes here. Our immune system needs some contenders to keeps its responses sharp and brutal. You letting it turn into a lazy couch potato playing wow all day with all that hand washing all you are doing.

@Munchie: Washing your hands well is one of the best things you can do for your health. I have a bad habit of biting my nails, so I tend to see handwashing as something I do to defend myself from whatever I'm picking up at the office (800+ people using the same elevators & door knobs), subway, and apartment building entrance.

I could just stop biting my nails, but until then, I'm going to do what I can to remove the germs. It's a risk reduction mechanism, not risk elimination.