Man Uses Mom’s Poop As Treatment, Experiences Her Menopause Symptoms

• A mother donated her own poop to her son for a DIY “poo transplant” to treat his Crohn’s disease.
• He kept her poop in his rectum for over four years and experienced menopausal symptoms.
• The treatment was not approved to treat Crohn’s disease, so it was done without medical supervision.

A man hospitalized with debilitating Crohn’s disease found relief after a DIY treatment by putting his mother’s poop in his rectum, but he was also surprised by his mother’s menopausal symptoms.

That’s what Charlie Curtis, a man in his mid-30s from Toronto, Canada, did. DIY “Poop transplant”“Or the transplantation of fecal microbiota, over four years,” he tells filmmaker Safran Casaday in a new documentary.Designer $hit. ”

FMT Typically, a doctor collects poop from a healthy donor and mixes it with saline. In the FDA-approved procedure, a mixture of saline and feces is inserted into the recipient’s gastrointestinal tract via an enema or ingested via an oral capsule (also performed via a colonoscopy or upper endoscopy). I can).

Recipients absorb healthy bacteria from the provided stool, which repopulates gut bacteria that may have been reduced by the use of drugs such as antibiotics or illness. cleveland clinic.

FMT is currently only approved by the FDA and Health Canada as a treatment for persistent disease. C. Difference Because of the possibility of a bacterial infection, Charlie Curtis and his mother, Skye Curtis, decided to have the surgery done at home.

There is always a risk of contracting an infection when performing FMT at home. Illness caused by donor stoolDr. Amy Shah, a Maryland gastroenterologist, previously told Insider.

Curtis was hospitalized with Crohn’s disease.

Charlie Curtis was diagnosed with this ulcerative colitis He developed Crohn’s disease in 2006 at the age of 18, BBC News report Crohn’s disease is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus, part of which remains healthy, while ulcerative colitis is inflammation limited to the colon.

Symptoms of Crohn’s disease may come and go depending on whether the symptoms are “active” and may include fever, diarrhea, fatigue, abdominal pain or cramps, blood in the stool, canker sores, loss of appetite, weight loss, This includes pain and drainage around the area. anus. There is no cure, but treatments include medications, dietary changes, and surgery.

Despite taking medication, Charlie Curtis’ Crohn’s disease symptoms got so bad that he was hospitalized and had to go to the bathroom 40 times a day, his mother Skye Curtis told Casaday. told.

Desperate to restore her son’s life, Skye Curtis contacted Thomas Borody, director of the Center for Digestive Diseases in Sydney, Australia, who pioneered FMT treatment in the 1980s. He suggested she donate her own healthy stool to her son.

The transplant began on Christmas Day 2008 after her stool was tested for infections and diseases.

They did it “every day for a month, then every two days for a month, then every third day for a month. Once they got down to once a month, they did it once a month for three and a half years.” I did.” Skye Curtis told Casaday she donated stool each time.

And it worked. Charlie Curtis said, “During the actual surgery, I felt a tingling sensation inside my body. It felt healthy and effective.”

charlie Curtis had no symptoms and was not taking any medication. Casaday spoke with him in 2019.

Curtis experienced his mother’s menopausal symptoms.

Charlie Curtis experienced unexpected side effects from FMT, including sweating, hot flashes, and mood swings, similar to those experienced by his menopausal mother.

“I was going through menopause at the time,” Skye Curtis said in the documentary. “And so was he!”

The donated poop “transmits high levels of hormones,” Borody told Casaday, so Charlie Curtis may have been absorbing it and experiencing the same symptoms as his mother. . hormone It’s from her poop, but that hasn’t been proven.

This is not the first time that FMT has been thought to cause changes outside of the gut in patients. A 2019 study in children with autism showed that FMT not only improves gastrointestinal issues, but is also associated with improved social coping and developmental age. Studies suggest that it can improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as sleep problems. There are several cases of people with alopecia regaining hair growth after FMT.

However, there hasn’t been enough research yet for FMT to be approved for treating other health problems, and Charlie Curtis’ case is only an anecdote.

There is always a risk of contracting an infection when performing FMT at home. Illness caused by donor stoolDr. Amy Shah, a Maryland gastroenterologist, previously told Insider.