What is he doing in there? Can someone please explain?

Men spend longer in the toilet than women do. No, we’re not talking about brushing their teeth and showering, the “other” section. The one with the toilet in it. At least that’s what some of us women maintain.

“He disappears in there with the newspaper and you don’t see him for half an hour,” one woman told Starts At 60.

Another: “He’s guaranteed to be in there for at least 10 minutes. It cannot possibly take him that long to do a number two all the time.”

A third: “It seems to coincide with when the breakfast dishes need to be cleared and put in the dishwasher.”

So, the question remains: if they are not actually doing a poo, what are they doing in there?

The consensus was that the toilet was doubling as a sort of shed, a place where men could go to get away from their wives and have some privacy.

For a short period, they could retreat into themselves and ignore the outside world.

Women, it seemed, did not feel this need to the same extent, if the time spent in the loo was any indicator.

It seems a lot of thought has been devoted to the issue, because if you Google “Why do men spend so long in the toilet” you will get a lot of links to articles about it and forums where it has been debated.

Males have tried to defend the time they spend in the toilet, with varying degrees of success.

“I can think of many possible replies, but I don’t think any of them would be appropriate,” one of them posted with a smiley face on the nakedscientists.com

Another: “I don’t think it’s so much a question of difficulty but more a case of making the most of a ‘moment’ where one is unlikely to be interrupted (or nagged).”

So what about your man or the men you know? How long do they spend in the loo? Do they take a newspaper or book with them, or an iPad? And if you are a male reading this, please clear up the mystery. Just what are you really doing in there?!