Intermittent fecal/sulfur breath odor

I feel like I could have written this all myself — the embarrassment of intermittent fart breath has caused me to dread social interactions.

I have diagnosed celiac for 10 years, but don’t have any symptoms if I eat gluten. I suspect I might have h2s sibo but my GI doesn’t think it’s a clinically valid diagnosis, so have been doing my own testing.

I have a few things that have definitely helped me (partnering with ChatGPT for ideas)

1) Pepto Bismol / Devrom (key ingredient is bismuth). This doesn’t solve the root cause but bismuth binds with hydrogen sulfide and neutralizes the bad smell. I don’t take it always since it’s bad on kidneys but for social events I typically take every few hours (up to max recommended daily dose). Important to start a day or 2 before you need it. Most recently was at a 4 day wedding trip, eating and drinking and nobody pulled back from talking to me (usually it would happen with 1 alcoholic drink).

2) Molybdenum supplements — this also binds with hydrogen sulfide, generally safe to use. This isn’t perfect but my breath feels less harsh (hard to explain) and definitely reduces frequency of smell but still have it. Added benefit of significantly reduced hangovers and for me lower heart rate while drinking (not sure if related symptom but my heart rate typically elevates when drinking)

3) Metamucil tablets (5x 3x / day). Not sure why this helps, but psyllium husk apparently combines with water and can help turn into a gel which can prevent leaky gut I suppose. This is recent for me in past week but have not had anyone complain so far since I’ve been on it so fingers crossed.

No idea what will work for you but haven’t seen these mentioned recently in this thread (besides someone mentioning metamucil also helped them).

Wishing everyone the best with their symptoms, it’s an awful disease

As I'm waiting for my medicine and starting this journey again I figured I'd give my own experience. It's been hell and embarrasing but I don't want anyone to feel alone. I got rid of it for 6 years so have hope to do it again. I've never wrote this out so it's hard reliving everything.

But starting at 12 I started noticing people commenting on a smell. I was in middle school and remembered feeling so scared and alone. It would smell up a whole class room, people and teachers would comment. I missed so many events and would remember crying and trying everything I could not to go to school. I felt like a burden and felt like I was causing anger and disappointment to everyone around me. My dad worked at the school as a custodian so it was worst and embarrassing with him seeing this. I remember he would yell at me to see if I brushed my teeth and always looked so ashamed of me. I have a twin brother that also was in the same grade that witnessed everything. The whole thing was humiliating. On top of this I was also obese and developed social anxiety.

I remember getting up at 3am to take a bath for hours every morning. I tried baking soda, laundry detergent, dawn soap, bleach, new shoes, everything. I was just a kid so didn't know any better. I tried to lose weight so ate pretty much everything that made it worst not knowing. I remember exercising for hours, just literally trying everything.

Fast forward to high-school and it was still bad. No one wanting to sit next to me, all that stuff until maybe 18. I made changes and somewhere from there to 24 it was cleared. At 18 the changes I can think of are getting on birth control, took antibiotics for a UTI, got prescribed Vyvanse, ate every 2 hours, lost the weight, etc. There's other things but maybe if someone messages me something we can find a common denominator.

Fast forward to when it started coming back. I was 24. I got covid so maybe that changed it. I also gained a lot of weight but also gained the weight back during the time period it was gone so there's more to it.

I remember whenever I got close to someone it would always smell like burnt rubber or idk. It got to the point at 25 I quit my job for a year. When looking for another one I got one at Lowes and damn it was humiliating. I liked it at first and had so much hope until someone said it smelled like burnt rubber and someone whispered to another coworker it was me. Thinking I didn't hear. That night I did everything possible to make it go away. I always had gum, perfume, hand sanitizer there, everything. The next day I had hope going in. The manager brought a fan up to the front desk, put the febreeze things in you would put in a car fan and said "you might need this". They looked at me and laughed. They also made other comments I don't wanna repeat and I was so mortified and humiliated. I told the coworker involved that I was feeling sick. She was quick to say I could go home. They were trying to run me out. I grabbed my stuff trying not to cry before I made it to the truck. When I did I broke down in tears. My parents were happy I just got this job and I they knew I still had 4 hours left. So those 4 hours I cried not wanting to tell them I quit. So I drove around crying wanting to die, thinking about crashing. Eventually I told them and got a new job at Rite Aid a few months later.
I've been here 4 months. My parents still mentioned a sewer smell. And people have made a few comments at work with the Febreeze up front. I just feel humiliated and I'm so scared I'll get fired.

But now I'm on this journey again. I do have HOPE though for all of us because like I said it was completely gone for 6 years. 100%. And it's been as bad as filling rooms. So I definitely have what you guys are describing.

I didnt think this post would be this long. But that's my whole life experience with it. I understand the defeat, humiliation, and embarrassment. But I wanna let you know your not alone. If we can get a group chat going or something I KNOW we can figure this out < 3

I can relate to this all too well. I'm not sure if you have had any luck recently? But I've decided this is my last year to get this sorted, after dealing with it for almost half my life (I'm in my 30s).

As someone who is naturally social and has been part of many activities this condition has ruined so many key moments in my life, which I can't let it continue to happen.

Like you I never truly know when the smell might occur, as much as I watch my diet, take all the vitamins, and gone for countless dr/ dentist/ hospital examinations (they think I'm it's all in my head). Fortunately I have shared my frustrations with family and close friends who have been supportive but also can't smell/ understand my daily struggles.
Therefore this year I am determined to get some answers, as I had given up and just excepted my fate and been living with it for the last few years.
I will update the chat with any findings...