Man who performed ‘DIY’ fecal transplants from his mom after Crohn’s disease left him hospitalized experienced her menopause symptoms

A Canadian man who used his mother’s poop to treat his debilitating digestive disease suffered from menopausal symptoms.

Charlie Curtis of Toronto, Canada, spent four years performing “do-it-yourself” fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) after his Crohn’s disease got so bad that he ended up in the hospital and had to undergo surgery 40 times a week. went to the toilet every day.

During the FMT process, he experienced sweating, hot flashes and mood swings, similar to what his menopausal mother, Sky Curtis, experienced.

Mr. Curtis, who is in his mid-30s, now reports that he has no symptoms and does not need to take the medications he previously relied on.

“It’s something I would do a hundred times in my life,” he said documentary Designer S***.

“It’s something I would do a hundred times in my life,” Curtis said in the documentary Designer S***

Curtis was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2006 at the age of 18. A few years later he developed Crohn’s disease.

Both conditions are forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which is characterized by inflammation in the digestive tract. Ulcerative colitis only affects the colon and rectum, which are part of the large intestine, while Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus.

These conditions are usually diagnosed in young people. Patients with ulcerative colitis are typically diagnosed in their mid-30s, while patients with Crohn’s disease discover they have the condition in their teens or between the ages of 20 and 30.

Despite being on medication, Mr Curtis’ symptoms landed him in hospital, where he went to the toilet 40 times a day.

Desperate to help her son, Mrs Curtis contacted Dr Thomas Borody, the director of the Center for Digestive Diseases in Sydney, Australia, who pioneered FMT treatment in the 1980s. He suggested that she donate her healthy stool to her son.

FMT, which is not FDA-approved in the US to treat this condition, involves transferring medically screened stool from a healthy person into a patient’s gastrointestinal tract using an enema in an attempt to reintroduce the bacteria in the stomach to bring balance.

An enema is an injection of fluid into the lower intestine through the rectum.

The purpose of the procedure is to take a screened donor’s healthy microbiota – the healthy balance of bacteria in the gut – and give it to someone who does not have a balanced microbiome to try to restore the health of that person’s digestive tract , which contains trillions of bacteria, microorganisms and fungi.

A balanced microbiota contributes to a person’s overall health, and when the microbes are out of balance it can be detrimental to health.

Good bacteria are extracted from a healthy donor and processed into pills or a liquid. It is then administered to patients using an enema, a liquid administered through the rectum

The Curtises performed FMT “every day for a month, then every two days for a month, and then every third day for a month,” Ms. Curtis said in the documentary.

‘At first we came to once a month, we did that once a month for three and a half years,’ each time with newly donated stool.

“When I actually performed the procedure, I felt tingling inside me,” Mr. Curtis said.

‘It felt healthy. It felt like it worked.”

However, he started experiencing unexpected side effects.

During their FMT treatments, Ms. Curtis went through menopause, which caused her to experience excessive sweating, hot flashes and mood swings.

After performing the transplants, Mr. Curtis briefly began experiencing the same symptoms.

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

Dr. Borody said the donated poop could “transmit high levels of hormones,” so it’s possible Mr. Curtis had absorbed those hormones through FMT, causing him to experience menopausal symptoms. However, there is not enough evidence to prove this theory.

FMT works by replenishing bacterial balance because it acts as a probiotic, with stool samples often containing as many as 1,000 different types of bacteria.

The transplant is carried out through tubes – inserted into the recipient’s nostril, down the throat and into the stomach – or directly into the large intestine.

The fecal sample can also be transplanted via enemas or pills containing freeze-dried material that is taken by mouth or inserted into the rectum.

FMT is most commonly used to treat recurrent C. difficile infection – inflammation of the colon spread by bacterial spores found in stool. This is the only FDA-approved treatment for FMT in the US. It is 90 percent effective.

The protocol has been approved for various treatments in different countries and can also be used for gastrointestinal conditions such as colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and constipation – but success rates are much lower.

Doing it yourself can lead to infections because stool from the donor who is not properly screened may contain pathogens that could be harmful to a recipient with a pre-existing condition such as Crohn’s disease.

It can also damage the rectum or colon if stool is inserted incorrectly.

Recent studies have delved into the benefits of treating conditions linked to a poor balance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria in the gut, such as autism.

However, there is not yet enough research for FMT to be approved for other health conditions.

The long-term safety and effectiveness of FMT are relatively unknown, and researchers have called for more research to determine the risks.

FMT is approved in other parts of the world, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. It is only approved for C. difficile infection in the US.

According to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, Crohn’s disease affects one in 100 Americans, and ulcerative colitis is three times more common.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease can cause stomach pain, bloody diarrhea, constipation, an urgent need to have a bowel movement, rectal bleeding, loss of appetite, weight loss and fatigue.

Crohn’s disease can also cause other symptoms, including mouth sores, anal tears, ulcers, infections, and narrowing of the intestine.

Mr. Curtis credits FMT with curing Crohn’s disease and is now symptom-free and no longer needs to take medications.

He said, “I feel like I have a new system. I feel like I have a new body, a new digestive system, and I feel like it’s working for me now, which is great.

“I feel normal again.”