Woman Perplexed When Her Toilet Seat Turned Purple. What It Indicated Shocked Her Even More (Exclusive)

In the early months of 2020, as the world shifted into lockdown, one New York City bathroom became the unexpected setting of a viral TikTok clip. Naginah Gogolli’s white toilet seat began mysteriously turning purple, revealing a secret that even a pregnancy test hadn’t yet confirmed.

“Beginning of 2020, me and my husband decide to get off birth control, and we weren’t actively trying — if it happens, it happens, it’s in God’s hands,” Gogolli explains exclusively to PEOPLE. Life was already uncertain as her office went remote and the stress of the pandemic set in, but the odd color staining her toilet seat was not something she ever anticipated.

Her first thought was purely practical, not life-changing. “I thought that either me or my husband were wearing not good quality clothing,” she says, laughing at the memory of scrubbing her bathroom in frustration.

Convinced that fabric dye was to blame, Gogolli tried every cleaning method she could find. “We cleaned it several times a day after it never [came] off…we’re nonstop cleaning it,” she explains.

The mystery deepened when her family came to visit. “Just like in the video, basically I had family over who was insinuating that I was pregnant,” Gogolli shares. Her sister didn’t hesitate. “My sister’s like you’re pregnant and I’m like the f— girl, no I’m not,” she recalls.

At the time, she was still days away from even missing a period. “I definitely am not pregnant now… There’s no way they’re right,” Gogolli says with a laugh. The teasing from her family stuck in her head, even as she dismissed it. “Honestly, once I found out that I was pregnant, I couldn’t wait to tell them that they were right,” she says.

Her small apartment bathroom soon offered more clues. “My bathroom is really small, so right next to the toilet like on the right side, your right thigh is gonna be touching the sink a little bit, like the bottom part of the sink, which is also white, so where my thigh touches is also bright freaking purple,” she shares.

That was enough to send her husband to his phone. “That same day he Googled it,” Gogolli remembers. The searches pointed to everything from fabric dye to rare skin conditions. “The first thing to pop up was like normal color transfer from clothes, then it was the skin disorder, and then some women have reported this during pregnancy,” she says.

Even then, Gogolli wasn’t convinced. “So my husband’s like you’re pregnant and I’m like no I’m not — like you guys are all so stupid,” she shares. But her body had other plans. “After cleaning up dinner, I have a very strong stomach… and immediately I run to my purple toilet seat and I’m just puking my brains out,” Gogolli recalls.

Her husband’s reaction added comic relief. “Because he was like just hysterically laughing, like no, you’re definitely pregnant, the purple toilet seat, now you’re throwing up, you’re pregnant,” she says.

The very next day brought confirmation. “Sure enough, [I] end up taking a pregnancy test like a day or so later… and I was pregnant,” she shares. For Gogolli, it was the beginning of an unforgettable journey. “I’m just so shocked [by] how many other women it’s happened to,” she says.

Her TikTok about the purple toilet seat quickly blew up. “I was blown away by the comments of people saying, yeah, me too, me too,” Gogolli tells PEOPLE. Validation from strangers mattered more than she expected. “Seeing the feedback that I got on my social media was honestly really validating for me,” she says.

Medical experts, however, had never heard of it. “The day I went for my confirmation…my first appointment to confirm I was pregnant, that was the first thing I said,” Gogolli remembers. “And she was like, huh, like no, I’ve never heard of that.”

While there is no medical research confirming that a purple toilet seat indicates pregnancy, Healthline reports that the change of color could come from an array of factors, including pregnancy hormones and Chromhidrosis.

Women have also taken to Reddit to share their experiences. One woman writes, “On normal prenatals and have been since I found out, no changes. All of a sudden, randomly, I turned my toilet seat purple today. Like a full on purple butt print on the seat, purple. I wasn’t wearing new clothes, haven’t worn jeans in weeks, nothing that would have dyed my skin or transferred or anything like that. Super weird.”

Despite the unknowns, the timing of Gogolli’s discovery felt strangely right. “It was kind of a blessing in disguise… I was home, I was happy even though the outside world, you know, awful things were happening,” she shares.

The extra time at home gave her a chance to savor the early days. “Finding out that I’m pregnant, being home in peace with my husband, I don’t think it could have gone any other… any better way in my opinion,” she says.

The extra time at home gave her a chance to savor the early days. “Finding out that I’m pregnant, being home in peace with my husband, I don’t think it could have gone any other… any better way in my opinion,” she says.

As her pregnancy unfolded, it brought enormous challenges. “He has a really rare heart defect…it was just a 1% chance of me even having a baby with that defect,” she shares. The diagnosis was devastating. “He has complete congenital heart block, and so that was diagnosed at 20 weeks.”

But she clung to signs of hope. “I definitely think it was a spiritual sign for me at least,” she says of the purple toilet seat. Every milestone felt miraculous. “The fact that he’s even alive is such a blessing,” Gogolli adds.

Today, her son is thriving. “He will need a pacemaker to live eventually… but thank God again, he’s such a little miracle,” she says.

Doctors once doubted he would survive. “First it was, he’s not gonna survive pregnancy, then it was, okay, the second you give birth, we’re gonna rush him to OR, and he’s gonna get the pace[maker], and they didn’t need to do that,” she recalls.

Instead, her family got to bring him home. “We were in NICU for a little while… he didn’t need [the pacemaker] and they sent us home,” she says. Nearly five years later, she remains grateful. “I’m so blessed at even getting to where we are today, and he’s almost 5, so I’m lucky,” she shares.

Her viral story continues to resonate. “A couple of comments were like oh my gosh, my toilet seat is also this color… They came back and commented that they were pregnant,” she says. That unexpected bond with strangers left her touched. “That felt nice, like oh my video kind of prompted them to go get a pregnancy test,” she adds.

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The experience also shaped how she approaches her body. “Ever since his pregnancy, I’m very much like… I’m going with my intuition, I’m going with what my body is telling me,” she says.

It changed her perspective on motherhood. “I just feel like a lot of women are told not to trust their body because that’s not textbook, but it’s like no, your body is always telling you something,” she explains.