When nature calls, people are picky in reply. We are restroom reluctant when it comes to public options.

Ninety-nine percent of all Americans use public restrooms, but if the nationwide sample of 2,014 employed adults interviewed by Harris Interactive QiuckQuery are to be believed, most of us use them in fear for our health.

Seventy percent of women, and 54 percent of men, have walked out of a public restroom without using it. “Too dirty” is the stated reason.

Fifty-five percent of men and 57 percent of women “flush the toilet with their foot or something to protect them,” though that will now be why the foot-flushing majority is bound to grow. Foolish me for worrying about protecting my pants from floor filth rather than my hand from the flush handle. The foot-flushing majority has a new convert.

One in five men and one in eight women will stop what they are doing and go home rather than use a public restroom. My office queries have yet to produce a male who admits to this.

As for the women, the one in eight must not be among the 12 percent who have frequency issues. Who has time to spend in transit?

At my age, the need to go more often is compounded by a decreased ability to hold it. That makes a core group of clean and, with any luck, well-supplied public restrooms a must.

That’s easy to do on the roads most traveled. On U.S. Highway 101, the Safeway in Willits is my tried-and-true. On state Highway 299, it’s the public rest stop three miles east of Weaverville or the big market in the northwest part of town. As for state Highway 199, the rest stop less than a mile before the tunnel is serviceable.

Redding has been a problem — lots of 180 degree turnarounds after stepping through some of those doors — but the factory store outlets in Anderson save the day. A bathroom finder at www.cystex.com advertises the Borders at 160 Churn Creek Road as a public stop that traveling companions may appreciate in case of a lengthy stay.

Still, there’s no place like home for dropping the drawers, if for no other reason than we know whose germs we’re catching.

For me, home means never having to wait. According to Dr. Elizabeth Kavalar, an author and specialist in female urinary health, habitual urine retention can cause damage to the bladder lining, which allows the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections to thrive and multiply.

UTIs are the second most common type of infection in the body. A 2004 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported UTIs prompt 8.3 million physician visits a year. For reasons that are not well understood, women are especially prone to UTIs. One in five women will develop a UTI in her lifetime.

Nearly 20 percent of women who have a UTI will have another, and 30 percent of those will have yet another. Of the last group, 80 percent will have recurrences.

UTIs are not as common in men, but they can be very serious for the males they strike, the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse reports.

Symptoms may include some of the following: a frequent urge to urinate; a painful, burning feeling in the area of the bladder or urethra during urination; feeling bad all over — tired, shaky, washed out; pain even when not urinating; and urine that is milky, cloudy or reddish.

Some women feel an uncomfortable pressure above the pubic bone and some men experience a fullness in the rectum.

A common complaint is the small amount of urine passed, despite the urge to urinate.

One difference between the genders is obvious: sexual intercourse. The clearinghouse notes that seems to trigger an infection for many women, but the reason for the linkage is unclear.

“According to several studies, women who use a diaphragm are more likely to develop a UTI than women who use other forms of birth control,” the clearinghouse states. “Recently, researchers found that women whose partners use a condom with spermicidal foam also tend to have growth of E. coli bacteria in the vagina.”

Just saying no isn’t really an option, but doctors offer six steps that a woman can take on her own to avoid an infection:

+ Drink plenty of water every day.

+ Take showers instead of baths.

+ Cleanse the genital area before sexual intercourse.

+ Avoid using feminine hygiene sprays.

+ Avoid using scented douches.

+ Think about wiping technique. Back to front is how lines move, but toilet paper should go in reverse. That prevents bacteria from around the anus from entering the vagina or urethra.

+ As for the sixth step, urinating when the need strikes is entirely dependent on access to a toilet.

That presents a challenge at major spectator events. You name it, theater, concert or sports, the story’s the same: The men whip in and out; the women’s line stretches to the lobby.

A quarter of women surveyed said they often had to stand in line. That number seemed way too small until the lightbulb clicked. The other three-quarters rarely go out.

(Opinions expressed in columns do not necessarily represent those of The Eureka Reporter or its staff.)