There are some scientific findings you hear once and can’t un-hear. This is one of them. According to actual peer-reviewed research, women’s farts smell worse than men’s. Not louder, not more frequent. Just…stronger. On some level, this feels ironically correct, but still, nobody expected science to plant a flag in it.
Humans pass gas up to 23 times a day on average, so Dr. Michael Levitt—a gastroenterologist affectionately known as the “King of Farts”—decided back in 1998 to understand why some of them hit harder. His study in Gut recruited 16 healthy volunteers and strapped them into what he described as a “flatus collection system,” which was essentially a rectal tube attached to a bag. Participants ate pinto beans, took a laxative, and let biology handle the rest.
Levitt and his colleagues analyzed each sample using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Then they went a step further. They brought in two unsuspecting judges to smell every fart and rate it on an eight-point scale. The judges did not know what they were sniffing. You can imagine how that debrief went.
Women’s Farts Smell Worse Than Men’s, According to Actual Science
The findings were blunt. Men produced more volume, but women’s gas contained a significantly higher concentration of hydrogen sulfide—the sulfur compound behind the classic “rotten egg” smell. The judges agreed, consistently rating women’s farts as more intense. Science had spoken, and the conclusion was undeniable.
Socially, this tracks with other research. A 2005 study found that heterosexual men were the least bothered by their own emissions being audible or detectable, while heterosexual women were the most self-conscious. Which honestly makes the biochemical twist even funnier. The thing women tend to be more embarrassed about might actually be helping them.
Hydrogen sulfide, though toxic in large amounts, plays important roles inside the body. It helps brain cells communicate through a process called sulfhydration. Levels drop with age and are especially low in patients with Alzheimer’s. A 2021 Johns Hopkins study on mice genetically engineered to mimic human Alzheimer’s found that a hydrogen sulfide-releasing compound improved memory and motor function by about 50 percent over twelve weeks.
Researchers stopped short of claiming this translates directly to humans, but the implication is wild. A smellier fart might reflect higher hydrogen sulfide activity, which could be linked to healthier brain signaling over time.
So the next time a woman drops something eye-watering, remember you might be witnessing peak neurological maintenance.
The post Do Women’s Farts Really Smell Worse Than Men’s? appeared first on VICE.
