Page 7 | To be annoyed that my gym only has open mixed sex showers

Hothothothothotdog · 2025-07-25T07:24:37+00:00

My local council gym with a swimming pool only has open showers in the mixed-sex swimming pool. This means I have to rise off, dress, then go home and shower which just seems absolutely ridiculous to me. AIBU to be fuming about it? It means an early morning swim is off the cards as I’ve not got time for that faff (or ever tbh!).

CuttedPearPie · 25/07/2025 22:54

I never shower after the pool

StMarie4me · 25/07/2025 23:08

ChompandaGrazia · 25/07/2025 08:34

Clearly I’ve been going to different pools to everyone else. I’ve used the pools in a number of different towns and counties and none have had mixed sex changing or showers.

Mixed showers everywhere… they’re in the access/ egress route to the pool? Then lockable changing cubicles in a mixed area. Never seen it different anywhere!

usedtobeaylis · 25/07/2025 23:33

One of the pools here has a communal shower but a few private cubicles. The other pool has separate showers. I've never been to a pool where there was ONLY open mixed showers.

GarlicMetre · 25/07/2025 23:41

Onelifeonly · 25/07/2025 08:41

It's definitely not always been the case. I have frequented several pools in my time and most have had showers within a single sex changing room - often open, not necessarily in cubicles, but you could shower naked if you wanted to. Our local pool now though is as OP describes.

However after being in a pool and having the chance to rinse off and wash my hair, I would consider myself clean enough to go to work.

The first time I encountered this, I didn't really notice (it wasn't busy) and cheerfully stripped off, only to realise I had a mixed-sex audience 😳I fronted it out ... and never went back to the leisure centre.

There is data on the vastly increased level of sexual assaults on women & girls in mixed changing facilities.

Newstartplease24 · 26/07/2025 07:05

Havent read full thread. Totally agree with OP. In the 90s and 00s I often swam before work or after work before drinks. All the other women in the changing room like me were getting properly showered and dressed, hair and makeup done, tights and shoes. Now everyone is expected to slouch out in pyjamas essentially and there are always men banging about outside your flimsy door. I absolutely hate it because you feel horrible and hurried and a bit watched, physically uncomfortable, and you can’t fit in a swim in a working day. I also hate the craven insistence from so many that making things worse is normal and to be expected. Why? Whose interests is it in that everything has to be a bit more shit than it was before?

TheignT · 27/07/2025 13:43

Newstartplease24 · 26/07/2025 07:05

Havent read full thread. Totally agree with OP. In the 90s and 00s I often swam before work or after work before drinks. All the other women in the changing room like me were getting properly showered and dressed, hair and makeup done, tights and shoes. Now everyone is expected to slouch out in pyjamas essentially and there are always men banging about outside your flimsy door. I absolutely hate it because you feel horrible and hurried and a bit watched, physically uncomfortable, and you can’t fit in a swim in a working day. I also hate the craven insistence from so many that making things worse is normal and to be expected. Why? Whose interests is it in that everything has to be a bit more shit than it was before?

Why is it making it worse? I learned to swim in a Victorian pool, the showers were open at the side of the pool. People rinse off the chlorine which is what the showers were for. I've been to other pools of a similar vintage and they were the same. So as far as I can see we are just using the traditional model.

PestoHoliday · 27/07/2025 14:07

I agree, OP. I used four different council run pools and each has a different layout.

The newer one (16 years old) has no single sex showers at all. The one built in the 1990s has mostly communal with two in a single sex room to the side (and a massive queue of women wanting to use it after AquaFit class).

The two really old leisure centres dating from the late 1960s have 5 communal showers and 5 each single sex showers in the same room as the toilets. One has single sex changing rooms plus a family changing area, the other is mixed sex except for the shower/loo rooms.

I want a proper shower after swimming because I don't like smelling of chlorine all day.

Nina1013 · 27/07/2025 15:13

Ryeman · 25/07/2025 08:27

I think this is pretty standard at public pools. YABU to be ‘fuming’.

This

Youcancallmeirrelevant · 27/07/2025 15:23

I just shower... I can wash my hair as normal and I can wash the majority of my body - arms, legs, 'pits'. Not sure why I would still feel gross as you put it OP?

Absentmindedsmile · 28/07/2025 08:26

Of course YANBU. It’s grim.

MauveExpert · 24/11/2025 20:14

Finding it so strange the people that think going for a swim will somehow wash your bits.
I need to feel fully clean after exercising, which includes washing with soap and clean water. FYI- the vulva is not self cleaning and does require soap.

Id be worried about infections not being able to properly clean. Sitting all day with chlorine down there cannot be healthy

Newstartplease24 · 24/11/2025 20:35

I absolutely hate this and it has not been the standard everywhere for decades.
it uses to be possible to leave a council run pool showered, hair and make up done, in tights and shoes, after getting dressed in a female only space. Now you cant

girljulian · 24/11/2025 20:48

The swimming pool I went to as a child only had a communal changing village and open showers. My dad used to take us because my mother doesn’t swim, so this suited us. This was in the early 90s. My local pool now is the same. It’s never bothered me.