The Rise of the Do-It-Yourself Fecal Transplant

By Brenda Goodman, MA
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD

Dec. 9, 2015 -- Hallie found relief from 7 years of unrelenting stomach pain at the bottom of her 3-year-old nephew’s froggy potty.

She took his stool out of the training toilet, “mushed it up” with some saline solution in a plastic baggie and then squirted it into her rectum using an empty enema bottle.

“People say, ‘Didn’t it gross you out?’ And I would say no. This was like gold to me,” says Hallie, age 40, who lives in California. She asked us not to use her full name to protect her family members.

A growing number of patients like Hallie have flocked to blogs and social media sites like YouTube and Facebook to share advice and techniques for at-home fecal transplants. A web site called PowerofPoop even helps connect people to potential stool donors for a small fee, which ranges from $30 to $200 per deposit. The recipient typically also pays for any laboratory tests, if they choose to do them, to screen their donor.

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