Fecal Transplant Led To Obesity For One Woman

Fecal transplants are oftentimes used to help replace good bacteria in the body that's been killed or suppressed. However, it caused significant weight-gain for one female recipient.

Doctors found that a woman who received a recent fecal transplant from her daughter gained 36 pounds and is now classified as obese, according to health officials. However, she needed the fecal transplant as her infection was resistant to antibiotics.

Previous studies have shown that transplanting gut bacteria out of obese people increased the risk of weight gain in mice.

"There is some evidence in animals, but we have to be careful - it is a different organism," Dr. Andreas Karatzas from Reading University, said in a news release. "Just because it happens in animals doesn't mean it happens in humans as well."

The 32-year-old woman's daughter was obese at the time she acted as a donor for her mother. Though the procedure was successful in treating infection, the added weight gain was an unexpected surprise. 

At the time of the procedure, she had a body mass index (BMI) of 26 that quickly climbed to 33-34 following the sixteen months after she received the treatment.