Fecal transplant

[greylow]

Has anyone on this site had a fecal transplant, if so did it work?

[xjrs]

I haven't had a fecal transplant, but in the medical community it is currently reserved for extreme c diff. (Clostridioides difficile) infection for which all other treatments have failed.

Based on my research, it isn't currently something I think IBS sufferers should get. The fecal matter comes from donors. Those donors will have a genetic makeup that can make them more prone to certain diseases. Through studies, it has been found that some people who have been in receipt of a fecal transplant have put themselves at risk of and gone on to suffer from certain diseases that they wouldn't have done otherwise. See below:

bmjopengastro.bmj.com/conte...

Gut microbiome is thought to be associated with many GI and non-GI conditions including diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, colon cancer and many others.

Just as FMT is being explored in its utility to alter certain conditions, the opposite could be true. At least theoretically, FMT from a donor with certain disease phenotype could potentially transmit the disease to the recipient. Data on long-term safety of FMT is lacking.

A total of 4 of the 77 patients reported a new medical condition after FMT including peripheral neuropathy, Sjogren's disease, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and rheumatoid arthritis.

This article gives a warning about a death from fecal transplant for people with compromised immune systems:

news-medical.net/news/20190...

At the moment I don't think the safety profile is there for this type of treatment which is why it is currently used as a last resort.

[greylow in reply to xjrs]

Thank you for your input xjrs

[BabsyWabsy]

I attended a workshop on this a few years ago. I think it is only available privately in UK. It has had some spectacular results for C Diff, but I don't know how long they follow up with patients.

[greylow]

Thanks BabsyWabsy, I too saw you can have it done privately, it costs around £4000,. But as xjrs says, it's not quite worth the risk

[MatthewU]

A fecal transplant may be the way forward. Although the previously mentioned risks may apply, it depends on how bad your life is affected by IBS.

Fecal transplants can indeed alter many factors in the body, for example, if you receive one from a skinny donner then it's often been shown that the recipient (even if over weight) is likely to become skinny; but they may also inherit DNA changes that appear later in life as a disease, this may not have previously happened if there had been no transplant.

Basically, if life is so bad with IBS then I would would try a fecal transplant, otherwise try to live with the symptoms using treatments they are generally known to ease the symptoms, at least until a totally proven treatment (which may never happen in our lifetime) is developed.

[greylow]

Thanks Matthew U