An Australian woman who spent four decades puzzled by a pungent body odour "resembling rotting fish" has finally had the smell explained by Australian doctors.
The woman has been diagnosed with an incurable genetic condition called trimethylaminuria, or fish malodour syndrome, which affects the smell of sweat, breath and urine.
"The characteristic body odour resembling rotting fish can be intermittent, variable and influenced by diet, hormones and medications," her doctors said in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Professor John Burnett, of the school of medicine and pharmacology at the University of Western Australia, said the unpleasant body odour was first noticed when the woman was just seven, but the path to diagnosis had been "extremely difficult".
"After experiencing ridicule, distress, shame, anxiety and low self esteem during her school years, she first consulted a doctor about the problem at the age of 17, then again two years later, followed by a further four doctors over the next 20 years," Prof Burnett said.
Part of doctors' examinations included "being sniffed", with all writing her off as a hypochondriac. "She was repeatedly told that she had a hygiene neurosis," the specialist said. The woman, now 41, has finally been diagnosed by a microbiologist with the condition, a genetic mutation which triggers excess excretion of trimethylamine, a compound found in fish.
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