# Leaky Gas or Something Else



## cojoe (Mar 4, 2016)

I am a 26 year old male and have been having LG for the past 3 weeks or so and it is progressively getting worse. Diet doesn't make a huge difference but junk food and alcohol increases symptoms. I can feel the LG come out and it is accompanied by an awful smell like rotten egg or dead animal. At first I thought I had Candida, but I went on a coconut oil and vegetable broth diet and none of my symptoms changed. Then I found this forum. I have an appointment with a GI doctor, but unfortunately the waiting list is a month out. I know I have not been suffering as long as most of you but this is starting to affect my job and social life as people are complaining and telling me I smell. Any helpful input would be appreciated. Here is what I have tried so far to try and narrow down the root cause:

Symptoms

1. God awful smell that lingers. My house has to be constantly aired out. On a bad day I can leave the office and come back the next day and still smell it.

2. Drinking lots of alcohol in one night and not much food greatly increases the LG and I do get a warm sensation in the anal region. I literally walk around streaming LG out constantly. Sometimes it also feels like some gas is escaping through the tip of my penis. It almost feels like a dribble, but when you look there is no liquid. This is why I thought it may be Candida or yeast fermentation to begin with. Now I am thinking it may be bacteria overgrowth or something.

3. I have been very stressed over the last 3 months, which appears to be a common symptom with numerous IBS problems.

4. Stomach ache's every once in a while, nothing too bad.

5. I feel the LG come out but can't control it. I still pass gas normally, which smells normally, not like the LG.

6. The LG tends to happen more at times when I am nervous or definitely don't want it to come out...and it does.

Things I have tried:

1. Eating salads and healthy for a week. Symptoms improved, but still there.

2. Coconut oil and vegetable broth diet for a week (Candida diet) - Not much difference. A little less LG but still awful smell.

3. Showering 4 times a day and changing clothes. Works for about 15 minutes and then the LG and smell comes right back.

4. Most recently I have started to fold up 4 squares of toilet paper into a rectangle and place directly on the anus. This seems to help the problem with the awful smell quite a bit while I am at work but the LG is still present. It actually causes me to get bloated as the gas doesn't escape as easily. It does seem to help keep my rectum inside, which I am starting to think is cause of the awful smell when the LG comes out. This seems to happen whenever the LG comes out so I am not sure which is the underlying problem.

Here are the things I am going to ask my GI when I see him in the order of likelihood IMO. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

1. Breath Test for Sibo
2. Stool/Urine Test for Bacteria/Parasites
3. Malabsoprtion issues
4. Rectal Prolapse
5. Hemorrhoids
6. Colon Cancer


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## struggling_har (Mar 11, 2015)

Already dealing with it 3 weeks in is great, means its going to be much easier to get rid of. I've had mine 9 years now so I'm probably going to die with it.

good luck!


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## InvestigatorLG (Feb 23, 2016)

I had leaky gas for almost 10 years now. I did many research and tests. This is where i'm at right now.

The last test I have done was a dynamic MRI of the pelvic and another test was a defecography.

What they found was Animus (Pelvic Floor Dyssynergia)

and rectal prolapse grade 1 (recto-rectal intussusception)

The doc strongly believes that this problem is cause by incomplete evacuation and Animus (Pelvic Floor Dyssynergia)

He published a study were the conclusion was that 95% of people who went the biofeedback retraining to cure the incomplete evacuation also cured there incontinence. 95% is very impressive. I will find the study he sent me and post it in my next post.

He also booked me in neurology for sacrel nerve stimulation tests. From what I understood our pelvic floor muscles have to relearn to work correctly and also the brain gut relation is very important

I"m starting the biofeedback with a real professional at the hospital, it should take a couple of months. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Also watch what you eat, grains complex carbs are hard to digest, fodmap diet is good for less gas, lactose etc...
The more your food is well digested the less the odor will stink. Its common sense, because the odor leaking is the odor of your fecal matter in your colon.


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## SeekingNormal (Mar 5, 2016)

I've had similar problems for 20+ years now, except that I have never been able to detect gas leaking out, either by smell or by feel. The only way I've been aware of it is by the reactions of others - who have never come out and told me anything directly, but they get their stinky poo face on and start with the inside jokes that I know are directed at me - stuff like that. I once went to a doctor to find out why this was happening to me, and her reaction to my story was an incredulous, "Do you really believe that?"...followed by an unwanted referral to Psych. Just about when I had convinced myself it really was all in my head, and started to relax about it, the same stuff would start happening all over again. It's been absolutely miserable, and I've often considered suicide, as there seemed to be no other way out for me.

Over the years, I've discovered a few things that each seem to help a little bit - but very recently, I discovered one major thing that helps a lot, and that is Kombucha (mostly I've been drinking the KeVita brand, ginger flavor, which is available at Costco). After a few days of drinking one bottle a day, I began to realize that I'm not getting those weird reactions from people at all (still my only gauge). Plus, I don't feel so gassy and bloated inside. I have a couple of ideas about why the Kombucha is so helpful, mainly because of the probiotics, and also because of the fizziness that actually causes the air to come up as a belch before it really has a chance to go the other direction. I was taking other probiotics before I started drinking Kombucha, but it seems that Kombucha is a better delivery system. That's just my experience with it, for what it's worth.

The other things that have been helpful were eliminating all animal products from my diet (I've been vegan for over 3 years now), and taking digestive enzymes (I've been taking Vital-zymes from Klaire Labs for the pasts few months). Oh, and also I try to avoid all processed, refined foods - especially products containing sugar and white flour - and keep my fruit intake to a minimum, eating more veggies in the place of the fruit.

I hope that helps. Wishing you the best of luck!


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## cojoe (Mar 4, 2016)

Thanks for the responses and information. I tried some Kombucha (Reeds & GT's) the first few weeks when I first noticed the symptoms. I couldn't really tell if it helped or not, but I don't think it made anything worse. I just got some probiotics in the mail that I am going to start on. My candida diet ended about 4 days ago and since then I have went back to my original diet, which isn't great and included some alcohol over the weekend. My symptoms are still present, but they seem to have dissipated a little and by no means completely. I'm not sure if I can attribute this to the candida diet or the fact that I am constantly eating solid foods now. It seems to help the symptoms if I constantly eat food. I will get bad LG for about 15 minutes after eating and then it seems to die down for 2 or 3 hours at which time it starts again and then I eat again. I am still having to use the toilet paper trick which is starting to get annoying, but at least it helps. I think I will try a fodmap diet for a week or so to see how that affects things. Hopefully things continue to get better. I am keeping a log of everything for my doctor appointment so hopefully this will help. Having to go through this really makes you realize how bad this problem sucks, something most people take for granted and never have to deal with.


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## centraleurope01 (Nov 24, 2008)

You have only had it for a few weeks, so if i were u i would start to take medazepam ( 2X1) . If u are lucky your body will remember the right balance and fix it.


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## cojoe (Mar 4, 2016)

medazepam? Never heard of it. Wikipedia says it is a long acting benzo. Have you taken it before?

Side Note

Had a few bad days after thinking things were getting better. I am now on day 2 of the Florastor pro-biotics and they seem to be helping with the smell quite a bit. I haven't smelled the rotten egg smell once yet today but I do still have LG but it doesn't smell or maybe I am just getting used to the smell.


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## FRLS (Mar 8, 2016)

I'm a female and I have had this issue for almost 4 years. I have left two jobs and lost two jobs over this time period. I mostly do contract work and on two of the jobs, the contracts ended much sooner than expected. I made really good money but to be honest, I was tired of the humiliation.

When it first started, I had no idea. I noticed some weird reactions and comments from coworkers. I have been to so many doctors and had many test and no one has given me any reason for this, nor solution. Most of the doctors wanted to blame it solely on anxiety and possibly depression just because I mentioned to a doctor that this was causing depression. I am not a depressing person in general....I think anyone that has passed smelly gas around coworkers (mostly without your knowledge), would be depressed about that. I do think that because I am so nervous about this happening that anxiety makes it worse.

I have been off work since the the end of 2015. I just cannot even think about starting another job until I get this resolved. My self esteem is at the lowest. I have had to remove so called "friends" out if my life because of this. A couple of them actually talked about me as if I was dragging my feet on getting this fixed. Many of my ex-coworker were horrible in their comments and reactions (the jokes and side talk was just horrible). I really refuse to put anyone else through this...nor myself. In fact, I am to the point where I just cannot even think about it too much because it brings me to tears.

I have tried diet, over the counter medication, probiotics, vegan diets and you name it. Nothing has helped. Sitting seems to aggravate it. I have been terrified about going any where that will call for excessive sitting. I had been approved for a trial interstim device by my insurance, but right when I was supposed to get it, I started having bad sciatic pain and had issues even walking. The spine doctor that I saw talked me out of the interstim because it would prevent me from getting another mri of my back (disk issues too).

I am just praying, doing research online and looking for yet another specialist to consult with. I will keep all of you in prayer too.


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## cojoe (Mar 4, 2016)

Made it to the GI doctor today and explained pretty much everything I wrote in my original post. He basically said I have "excessive gas". He said it is most likely caused by a food intolerance of some sort which caused the gas to be created in the colon. The second most likely cause is something is inflamed or irritated. He ordered some blood tests to test for food intolerance and Celiacs disease. He also put me on a FODMAP diet for the next week even though I told him I had a food diary for the last 2 months and have already tried one.

I brought up possible bacteria infections and he didn't seem to think it was a likely cause. I mentioned I thought that hemorrhoids may be causing leaky gas but he basically dismissed that and said he thought it was just excessive gas build up and the sphincter releasing the gas as a result. He did say we can explore these options later if the problems continue and the blood tests and diet results don't provide any insight.

I guess that is good. I just wish I could have all the tests done at once. Dragging this out isn't fun but I guess you have to start somewhere.

FYI, the Florastar pro-biotics are continuing to help with the smell making it more pleasurable to go out in public and to work. The leaky gas is still present.


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## cojoe (Mar 4, 2016)

I got the results back and everything was normal except I had really high liver enzyme levels. Kind of expected because I like to drink, but the doctor wants to do an ultrasound of my stomach to investigate further. I am going to keep doing what he wants as I still think there may be something wrong with my digestive tract.

Within the last week or two, I have started getting a lot more symptoms that link to hemorrhoids, such as pain, burning and a feeling of incomplete evacuation when there is nothing there. I was able to visually confirm a prolapsing hemorrhoid, not pretty. You would never think anyone would feel happy about this, but I am hopeful I have found the cause of my smell and LG. I am pretty sure I have at least one stage 2 or 3 internal hemorrhoids and 80% sure that is what has been causing the smell and gas. More sure about the bad smell, not so much about the gas. I am scheduling an appointment with a seperate Colo-rectal Surgeon to confirm and get surgery if necessary. Keeping my fingers crossed. Will update when I know more.

EDIT: Got in to the specialist right away. He said I had 3 large internal hemorrhoids and they are likely the cause. He injected them to make them smaller so hopefully that works. If that doesn't work he said we can try rubber band ligation.


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