Are you are morning or an evening person (read on!!)

I wouldn't want to talk about it over dinner.

But then I get tense when people start going into their operations when I'm eating as well. Sooner or later they mention blood.

AshTree I could cope with it only when I had passed out under the table! This is not a subject to discuss when you are eating a meal and probably not one for general conversation under any circumstances. I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW!

Noooooo - this is so wrong . I would have to be almost paralytic to find this a suitable conversation topic for the dinner table.

I think this sort of discussion should only ever occur after drinking too much. I suppose how much it might depoend on how well you know eveyone.

Me too jingle. Any time of the day, whenever the need arises, and wherever the nearest loo is. I'm not a fussy woman.

What is so awful in discussing bowel habits?

I think it could be a really interesting conversation. A morning, shortly after breakfast, habit is a memory from the dim and distant past. These days it's more likely to be any old time which isn't anything like as convenient. An ageing thing I suppose. Yet another one. sigh.

I can think of no circumstances other than an appointment with a Gastro doctor or nurse, where I would want to share this information and even fewer when I would thank anybody for sharing with me.

I think that if anyone had been so ill mannered as to ask such a question at a dinner table where I was sitting, I would change the subject immediately. If he/she persisted, I would then provide him/her with a detailed but quietly spoken account of the effects of a hemicolectomy until I had successfully put him/her off the next course.

Pittcity same here

We're the other guests doctors? x

Yuk - far too personal to discuss with anyone, never mind people around a dinner table.

Being po faced about toilets!

I wonder if it is a particularly British thing?

While I personally wouldn't discuss my bowel function or anyone else's at a dinner party, I do wonder whether confining such conversations to the doctor's surgery is altogether helpful.
I remember ethel beating herself up because she had had symptoms for two years before going to the doctor and discovering she had cancer - perhaps if we were more open about such matters there would be less embarrassment and ignorance of worrying symptoms.

Whenever I feel the need!
That's in answer to all the questions posed thus far on this thread.

Sounds like the sort of dinner party conversation that my ex [note the word 'ex'] husband would have instigated [and once did in a similar fashion ].

Glad it's not just me Petallus!

I'm the same as janeainsworth

As for when, I'll take what I can get though I'm not saying whether I'm talking about sex or that other rude thing!

Is it a single choice question, or could someone go for all the options?

Nowt so queer as folk !

sorry that was a reply to janeainsworth

which is exactly why I go for mornings (where possible)

In my opinion, not a subject for discussion outside a doctor's surgery and definitely not at a dinner party!

Well, I would like to suggest another category.
The only-on-my-own-loo-and-with-nobody-within-earshot person!