Scientist Weighs In on a Stinky Gender Debate

In a contest no one really wants to win, a Minnesota gastroenterologist spent decades figuring out whether men or women produce more offensive gas—and declared it a draw. Writing in the Washington Post, physician and author Trisha Pasricha revisits the work of Michael Levitt, a VA hospital scientist dubbed the "King of Farts." Levitt used gas chromatography, rectal tubes, and even "flatus odor judges" to quantify what most people only complain about. In his small but rigorous study, 16 volunteers ate gas-promoting foods, then had their emissions collected and rated on an eight-point smell scale.

Levitt's team found that women's gas was more pungent, but men produced more of it per release—roughly half a cup at a time—leading him to conclude that, in practical terms, neither sex can claim the high ground. Pasricha notes that what people perceive as differences may come down less to chemistry than technique, with women often better at the slow, controlled release that changes the social experience. The bigger takeaway: Odor intensity and volume effectively cancel each other out. "It was, in other words, a tie."

The excerpt from Pasricha's forthcoming book, You've Been Pooping All Wrong, leans into both the absurdity and usefulness of the research, offering practical advice—like using Pepto-Bismol to neutralize odor-causing gases—and a reminder that some situations level the playing field entirely. At high altitudes, for instance, expanding intestinal gas makes airplane cabins an equal-opportunity offender where flatulence thrives regardless of gender, thanks to basic physics. In the end, the science may settle the debate, but it doesn't exactly crown a winner. As Pasricha puts it, these are "almost certainly among the few findings in the history of research produced by members of the American Gastroenterological Association that has ever settled a domestic dispute."