If you take your phone to the bathroom, you are hardly alone. Smartphones have turned a quick bathroom break into an opportunity to check the news, scroll social media or answer messages.
Now, a medical study suggests there may be a health consequence to that extra time.
Researchers found that people who reported using their smartphones while sitting on the toilet were more likely to have hemorrhoids than people who did not. But the study did not prove that smartphones cause hemorrhoids.
Instead, it points to a more straightforward problem: the longer you sit, the more pressure you may put on the veins around the rectum and anus.
And the researchers’ practical advice is simple: try not to spend more than five minutes on the toilet with your phone.
The study, published in PLOS One in September 2025, involved 125 adults undergoing screening colonoscopies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital.
Participants were asked about their smartphone habits while using the toilet. Two endoscopists then examined them for hemorrhoids, without knowing their survey responses.
About 66% of participants said they used a smartphone while sitting on the toilet.
The difference in bathroom time was particularly notable.
About 37% of smartphone users reported sitting on the toilet for more than five minutes per visit, compared with about 7% of people who did not use smartphones.
Half of smartphone users also said they had remained on the toilet longer than intended because of their phone.
The researchers’ adjusted analysis found that smartphone users had a 46% higher prevalence of hemorrhoids than non-users.
That 46% figure can sound alarming, but it needs context.
The study was cross-sectional, meaning researchers looked at smartphone behavior and hemorrhoids at roughly the same point in time. It cannot establish that using a phone caused someone to develop hemorrhoids.
The study also involved only 125 people, and participants were adults undergoing screening colonoscopies. Smartphone habits were self-reported.
The researchers acknowledged those limitations.
So the finding should not be interpreted as:
Phone use causes hemorrhoids.
A more accurate interpretation is:
People who use smartphones on the toilet were more likely to have hemorrhoids, and they were also much more likely to spend longer sitting there.
That distinction matters.
Hemorrhoids are swollen or enlarged veins around the anus and lower rectum. They can cause itching, discomfort, bleeding and pain.
One possible explanation for the study’s findings is simply the amount of time people spend sitting.
A bathroom trip that would normally take a few minutes can become 10, 15 or 20 minutes when there is something on the phone to keep you occupied.
The researchers specifically found that prolonged toilet sitting was associated with hemorrhoids and suggested limiting smartphone use during bathroom visits.
The advice is not complicated: finish the bathroom trip instead of turning it into a scrolling session.
This isn’t a new idea
The smartphone may be new, but the behavior isn’t.
The researchers point to a 1989 study published in The Lancet that examined the relationship between reading newspapers on the toilet and hemorrhoids.
The activity changed from newspapers to smartphones, but the underlying behavior is similar: something keeps a person sitting longer than necessary.
Today’s phone simply makes it much easier to keep going.
One more headline.
One more video.
One more social-media post.
Before long, a quick bathroom visit has become a much longer one.
And that habit fits into a broader pattern of Americans questioning how much time they spend on their phones. Parriva recently reported on new Pew Research findings showing that 53% of U.S. adults say they spend too much time on their smartphones.
There are other reasons health professionals have cautioned against turning the bathroom into a phone lounge.
Long periods of sitting can cause temporary numbness or discomfort, while holding the body in one position for an extended period can contribute to strain.
There is also a hygiene issue: phones can pick up microorganisms from the environments in which they are used, and taking a contaminated phone in and out of the bathroom can make hand hygiene more complicated.
But those concerns should not be confused with the findings of the 2025 hemorrhoid study.
The strongest evidence in this particular research is the association between smartphone use, longer toilet sitting and hemorrhoids.
The other potential problems require separate evidence and should not be presented as if the study proved them.
So how long should you sit?
The researchers behind the study suggest keeping toilet time with a smartphone to less than five minutes.
That does not mean five minutes is a medically proven deadline after which hemorrhoids suddenly appear.
It is a practical limit based on the study’s findings and the researchers’ recommendation.
And there is an even simpler approach:
Leave the phone outside.
If you do bring it with you, resist the temptation to turn a bathroom break into a scrolling session.
The goal isn’t to eliminate smartphones from your life.
It is to keep a quick bathroom trip from becoming 15 minutes of sitting because your phone gave you something else to do.
The latest research does not show that smartphones cause hemorrhoids.
It does show that smartphone users in this study were more likely to have hemorrhoids and substantially more likely to spend more than five minutes sitting on the toilet.
That makes the practical lesson fairly simple.
When the bathroom trip is over, put the phone down and get up.
A few less minutes of scrolling may be a small change, but it is one that costs nothing and may help you avoid an uncomfortable problem.
