Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Fifty Four Thousand Dollars a Year Selling Poo!! Yes Really
Reading Time: 3 minutesIt seems you can sell most things for a bit of money, but…selling your poo? Here at MoneyMagpie, we are constantly looking for ways to make a bit of extra cash. Some are pretty standard (selling CDs), others are more unusual (from your Orgasms). This definitely falls into the latter category.
Faecal Matter Transplantation
It does sound a bit far-fetched but seriously, FMT or Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, is a therapy involving the insertion of fecal matter from a healthy person into the gut of a sick one to treat gut microbiome-related conditions.
Fecal transplants are being used to try and treat long-term and chronic illnesses such as Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and even for things like Obesity. Some donations are being taken in by stool banks but most are being harvested online globally.
Not everyone can sell their poo, as there are provisos set in place in order for people to donate: you must have regular bowel movements that meet a list of criteria; you must live a healthy, low-risk of disease lifestyle, and have no history of the illnesses FMT is used to combat. In fact only 2 per cent of people that apply get selected. So this is a competitive business.1 in 1000 get selected and it is purely down to the luck of your gut.
How do I go about selling my poo?
In truth, it’s not that easy. Start by googling FMT and find someone looking for donations. OpenBiome and Centre of Digestive Diseases are a good place to start. They will then ask you to fill out a questionnaire. Once you have done that, they will make clear what comes next. If accepted, you will need to adhere to a wholefood, high fibre diet and commit to a healthy lifestyle that promotes wellbeing. You would also have to undergo regular stool, blood and COVID-19 screening. All necessary training and education will be given to successful applicants and reimbursement for services provided.
You might make a good FMT Donor if you:
- Are Aged between 16 and 60 years old
- Pass a healthy, well-formed bowel motion each day
- Can deliver your donation to the Centre within 2 hours of collection
- Are in overall good health and have a BMI within the healthy weight range
- Have no medical conditions, chronic or acute illnesses
- Are not on any regular medications
- Are willing to participate in regular health checks and undergo screening investigations.
How much does it pay?
Apply here with OpenBiome. They offer $40 per stool and although this is a worldwide standard, they have nearly doubled that to $75 “due to the difficulty of finding the quality of donor we need.” If you’re donating one sample each day, it totals $27,000 a year. The whole process — including shipping — should take less than 30 minutes.
OpenBiome’s website states that “If a donor is willing to mix their stool with an anti-freeze and then split it up into smaller pieces/doses, we’ll pay $150. This amounts to $54,000 per year if you do this every day.
If you’re willing to encapsulate the stool, we will provide simple instructions and tools to do so, and pay $5 per capsule. Since a single stool sample could be made into a hundred or so capsules it could amount to $500. However, please don’t expect the market to have enough demand to absorb 100 capsules per day.”
The prices above are just our recommendation. Donors are welcome to charge what they feel their time and stool are worth, keeping in mind that higher costs may result in less demand.
Also, you can get a $300 sign up bonus if you use this link for the donor screening questionnaire and list “makingsenseofcents” under “How did you hear about us.”
Another company doing this is Centre for Digestive Diseases.
MoneyMagpie are not an affiliated medical company and are in no way advertising FMT as a cure for the suggested conditions. We are however highlighting that money can be made in this area of scientific research.
In America! Too far to get to in 2 hours!