Why Does My Poop Smell Like Sulfur?

Family Medicine, Primary Care Roots Community Health Center, Hippo Education, Kameda Medical Center

Supervised by Kenji Taylor, MD

Your poop can smell like sulfur when certain foods, supplements, or gut problems cause your gut bacteria to make extra sulfur compounds.

Explanation

Inside your tummy, many tiny bacteria called gut microbes help break down the food you eat. Foods that are high in sulfur, such as eggs, meat, and some vegetables, can cause these bacteria to create sulfur compounds that give your poop a strong, smell of rotten eggs. Iron supplements like ferrous sulfate, when broken down in the gut, can lead to poop that smells like sulfur. Similarly, bowel conditions or antibiotics which change the balance of microbes can increase the amount of sulfur-smelling breakdown products in the stool. Although having a sulfur smell in your poop is usually not serious, if you have other associated symptoms like pain or the smell does not go away, it is wise to speak with a healthcare professional.

(References)

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Tolkien Z, Stecher L, Mander AP, Pereira DI, Powell JJ. Ferrous sulfate supplementation causes significant gastrointestinal side-effects in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2015 Feb 20;10(2):e0117383. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117383. PMID: 25700159; PMCID: PMC4336293.
Moon JY, Kye BH, Ko SH, Yoo RN. Sulfur Metabolism of the Gut Microbiome and Colorectal Cancer: The Threat to the Younger Generation. Nutrients. 2023 Apr 19;15(8):1966. doi: 10.3390/nu15081966. PMID: 37111185; PMCID: PMC10146533.

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