The Girl’s Guide to Guts: Chloe Melas and Judy Batalion on Ulcerative Colitis
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- Chloe Melas told LA Times Studios she has had ulcerative colitis for 15 years.
- Judy Batalion had her colon removed at 15 after ulcerative colitis that began in early adolescence, she writes in the book.
- About 3 million Americans have inflammatory bowel disease, which includes ulcerative colitis, according to Melas and Batalion’s book.
- Melas and Batalion’s book, The Girl’s Guide to Guts, is out in hardcover on Nov. 10, 2026.
For 15 years, Chloe Melas has been living with ulcerative colitis while working as a journalist. “That means on any given day there could be blood in my stool,” Melas, an entertainment correspondent at NBC News, told LA Times Studios in written answers in August 2026.
She and Judy Batalion, a New York Times bestselling author with a PhD from the University of London, have written The Girl’s Guide to Guts: Everything Your Doc Didn’t Tell You (But Your Bestie Would). The Dial Press publishes it in hardcover on Nov. 10, 2026. Both women have ulcerative colitis, and the book is their account of living with it, alongside interviews with experts.
“We’re not doctors, so don’t take this book as medical advice,” the authors write in the authors’ note.
Melas is also a co-founder of Bio.me, a gut health brand that sells fiber products.
“I wanted to break down the picture perfect façade and share my story to hopefully help others struggling think, ‘hey, if she can have a big life with a chronic illness, so can I,’” Melas said.
What Ulcerative Colitis Is
Ulcerative colitis is a disease in which the large intestine becomes inflamed, with symptoms that range from gas cramps to bloody stools, sometimes more than 20 times a day, the authors write. Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, is two diseases, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, they write.
About 3 million Americans have IBD, the authors write, and its occurrence is rising. They say environmental factors, along with better awareness and diagnostic tools, are likely contributing, and that researchers do not yet know what is driving the rise.
The book also covers irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease and diverticulitis, which the authors say often share the same day-to-day worries.
Its first chapter lists the warning signs that call for a doctor: cramping, bloating, a change in bowel habits, an urgent need to go, unexplained weight loss and blood in the stool. The authors’ advice on those symptoms is to get checked “like, now! Like, yesterday!”
Two Diagnoses, Years Apart
Melas first saw blood in the fall of 2011, when she was 25 and working long hours at a New York start-up. “I’ll never forget the day there was blood in my stool,” she writes.
A gastroenterologist, a doctor who treats the digestive tract, diagnosed proctitis, an inflammation of the rectum. Melas writes that he was “rather dismissive,” that he prescribed suppositories and said the symptoms should clear within a few months. She writes that she did not take the medicine consistently.
“In the year following my diagnosis, I continued to see blood on an almost daily basis when I went to the bathroom,” Melas writes. “As it became routine, I learned to ignore it.” Her symptoms worsened, and her mother pushed her to get a second opinion.
Batalion’s illness started much earlier, in Montreal, around the time she turned 13. “I became so ill that I was running to the bathroom more than ten times a day and bleeding more, not just on the paper but in the bowl too,” she writes. She fainted in class.
At 15, Batalion had surgery to remove her colon, a colectomy, and to build a J-pouch, an internal pouch made from the small intestine that takes over the rectum’s job of holding waste. A second operation let waste begin to flow through the pouch.
She celebrated her 16th birthday at home days after leaving the hospital. “I was able to sit through an entire movie without going to the bathroom,” she writes.
The authors write that the surgery gave Batalion her life back, and that in the decades since, she has had complications, including pouchitis, an inflammation of the pouch.
Living With Ulcerative Colitis on Camera
Melas’s job puts her on television and on the road. “I have had the opportunity to interview some of the most influential people from Oprah, to Jeff Bezos and President Trump,” she said. “But many times before an interview I might be thinking, ‘Where is the nearest bathroom.’”
She kept the disease to a small circle, Melas said: “Over the years, I could count on one hand who knew what I was going through.”
She has nearly missed a TV segment, canceled plans to attend an event and missed part of her son’s soccer game, Melas said, “because I’ve been stuck in the bathroom or scared to stray too far from one.”
Both authors write about finding clean toilets in New York City. Melas is a top customer at coffee shops across Manhattan to use their restrooms, and Batalion joined the Harvard Club mainly for steady access to a clean toilet in Midtown East, the book says. Among Batalion’s travel tips in the book: “Aisle seats only!”
Staying busy and positive is a choice Melas makes every day, she said, “to get out of bed and choose happy, versus feeling sorry for myself.”
Why the Book Uses Humor
Batalion said she was raised in a family that “saw the world through a comedic lens.” Humor “can deflect and distract, but it can also help shed shame,” and “finding the funny in a difficult or traumatic situation can help you feel a sense of control over your circumstances.”
“I wanted to write the book that I wished I’d been able to read as a young teenager who was diagnosed with IBD,” Batalion said. She wanted one that was “intimate and caring and hopeful.”
“Few people talk frankly about our culture’s final taboo: the bowel,” the authors write. Asked why that taboo has lasted, Batalion wrote: “I suppose… bowels are not, well, classically feminine.”
Melas said she hopes the book is “a much-needed hug of information and empathy.”
Advice on Doctors and Who the Book Is For
Much of the book’s practical advice concerns finding the right care. The authors tell readers to “Get a second opinion. And even a third.” In a section on leaving a doctor who does not listen, they write, “You’re not married to your doctor.”
“The book is not meant to be an argument for medical reform and we are grateful for the help of our doctors and extended health teams, many of whom we’ve interviewed in these pages,” Batalion said.
She hopes patients who read it might better understand their doctors’ decisions, and that doctors might better understand patients’ day-to-day concerns. “Increasing empathy on all sides would certainly be a win.”
Melas said the book is also written for the people around a patient: “friends, partners and parents on the sidelines watching a loved one go through not just IBD, but IBS, celiac disease, diverticulitis, and colon cancer.”
The book can be found here:
The Girl’s Guide to Guts
Sources
[1] The Girl’s Guide to Guts, The Dial Press (Penguin Random House), book page and release dates: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789632/the-girls-guide-to-guts-by-chloe-melas-and-judy-batalion/
[2] Judy Batalion, author website: https://www.judybatalion.com/
