I’m the sole male in my household… me, a wife and three daughters between the ages of 16 and 22.
Over the years I’ve noticed a distinct smell that the ladies can make that I can’t duplicate. If it’s not clear… I’m talking about the process known as #2.
Is there something about the female body that would cause a smell that a male can’t make with regard to that process?
Ummmm… is it better or worse??
I’ve noticed it as well. It smells something like rotten cheerios. I can confidently say I’ve never ever produced that particular odor though all the females I’ve ever shared a bathroom with have with some regularity.
In our house, all inhabitants (my husband, our daughter, and I) can, on occasion, create an ungodly stench that’ll knock a buzzard off a shitwagon. I can only wish it smells like rotten Cheerios.
I have noticed, when I worked at a small company (with a small bathroom) that certain people do seem to generate characteristic odors. It seems likely, to me, that there is a personal component to the waste produced. Whether this is a “deliberate” thing our body does (harking back to our ancestors “marking” territory) or a fortuitous result of differing amounts of digestive components (or both), I don’t know. But we could often tell who had used the bathroom last without having to see them emerge.
I haven’t noticed that it’s sex-linked. I may simply be unobservant, or you may be taking the sex-linking as a given when it is really individuals and heredity.
Ever since my son got married, there are never any males living at our house but me, just my wife and a daughter off to college most of the time and another daughter who lives with us about half the time. When they crap, it stinks. Mine doesn’t. So it must be a male-female thing.
My 4-year-old granddaughter went into my bathroom the other day, then immediately ran out, crying, “Ewww, it smells like boys!” She didn’t elaborate.
My grandmother has been known to do #2 and warn people that “it stinks to high heaven, I’ve left the window open but if you need to go there now you might want to bring in a gas mask.”
My mother’s #2 has been known to make me gag; she doesn’t seem to notice it herself. She’s visiting right now and there have been times I’ve walked into the house and gone to the bathroom almost tripping over my handbag, to open the window and close the door. Then I open the other windows in the house so it can go away. One of those times she had been out of the house for hours :eek:
Their two smells are different, and Grandma’s is clearly linked to diet. The Bros and I have a pact to let each other know if we or our bodily functions stink - so far they haven’t told me anything, so other than asparagus #1 I’m reasonably sure there isn’t any particular stench to my bodily functions. Plus, with a 5yo and 2yo kids around, believe me: if they go to the bathroom and it smells bad, they let the world know!
Maybe it’s a difference in diet, rather than one of gender?
I think diet has something to do with it, but I’m pretty sure it’s more personal or genetic or something like that, as CalMeacham said. I can tell you which of my family members (husband, one son, two daughters) has been in the bathroom, even now, when one of them lives out of state, one has a family and home of his own, and one of them is away for work as much as he’s home. (When the older daughter was home over Christmas I noticed this again, and thought it was strange, since she lives in an entirely different part of the country.) And they’re the same smells as they were twenty or more years ago. So it doesn’t seem to be something they do as much as how their bodies work.
And yes, some of them are much worse than others. In our case, it’s the men, but I don’t know if that means anything.
Some older people poop every other day. Two day old poop stinks worse. The longer it’s inside you the worse it is.
OMG!
I have been doing that for a few months now. I thought it was just the winter affecting my metabolism or something.
It is RANK!
Got a cite for that?
Generally, the more time the stool spends in the colon, the more water is absorbed, and the less aromatic it is.
Lots of older folks develop develop malabsorption from dietary indiscretions or pancreatic and other organ dysfunction. As a result, their stool is full of fat, which reeks to high heaven when acted upon by the bacteria in the gut and then exposed to open air.
This situation can plague younger folks too.
I’m not aware of any consistent gender differences in fecal composition.
I think girl poo smells worse because they don’t let their farts out like they should.
Probably shouldn’t have read this as I was scarfing down a bowl of greens and cheese… hmm. TBH I have never really been able to tell the difference. Either it stanks or it don’t. Mine don’t. grin
My husband also swears that mine smell worse than his. I, on the other hand, think his is the worst. So we cancel each other out.
Oh, what the hell…
Band name!
Everyone likes their own brand don’t they? It’s magic.
Hey, at least I didn’t say mine doesn’t stink. It does, to high heaven even. Just not as bad as the spouse’s. 
WAG, if this is the case – I know women who won’t do #2 in a public washroom, at work, and especially not at a friend or boyfriend’s house, so they ‘save it’ for home. Not sure how common this is outside of some of my more anal (ha) friends and coworkers, or if men do it, too (outside of the movie American Pie). I’ve noticed the opposite, living with men and women, but that’s just me, and maybe Glade scented candles.
I thought this thread was going to be about the smell of period blood exposed to air. I think Jeffrey Eugenides compared it, quite rightly, to stale popcorn.
Does period blood exposed to air have a unique smell?
As for the women you mention… I wish that was the case at my health club. Instead of doing their business at home or in the locker room, too many rush out of their pilates class to drop a deuce in the little bathroom right by the weights.