Persistent body odour is ruining my life
Hi all I'm 24 F and before October last year I NEVER had a body odour problem.
Last year I went on a trip to Japan and on the second day went to an all-you-can-eat beef restaurant. Needless to say everyone ate WAY too much beef. Now I feel it's important to mention that I do not come from a beef eating household and was pescatarian for around 4 years since I was 18. So this was definitely a LOT of beef for me. Since that day I noticed that I started stinking a lot. I'd never noticed this smell before but it smelled almost like catpee and would be super persistent no matter how much deodorant I applied. I was travelling with friends and would get so embarrassed that I bought more deodorant to spray on as the day went by. This smell wasn't horrid but it was definitely noticeable at least to me. Across the trip there was more beef eating (I hadn't made the connection yet) and so the smell lingered.
Cut to a few weeks later and the smell is BAD. Like tradies after a full day of work bad. I shower and scrub and within 10 minutes of leaving the house I can smell myself. My friends had even started to drop small hints about the odour without trying to hurt my feelings which made it even worse. I tried avoiding beef for a long time but that didn't help. I went to the doctor and she said it might be stress or hormones and that I should just try to cut out beef and see what happens.
For months I tried EVERYTHING I possibly could. Using antibacterial soap, medical grade anti perspirant, glycolic acid, exfoliation, using a bar of soap and then liquid soap, layering perfume. Nothing helped and as a girl who used to love smelling nice this was absolutely devastating. I felt like a lowlife. After a few months of being extremely embarrassed of myself and hesitating to go out which affected my mental health immensely, the smell went away... for a little bit. I hadn't eaten beef but I had eaten goat which leads me to wonder if it's any sort of red meat that causes this smell. Chicken doesn't seem to affect me the way other meats do.
I have also tried exercising and eating more vegetables but that didn't seem to help. I'm just scared that this will be a life long issue and that I will always be stinky and no one will want to hang out with me... : (
Has anyone experienced something similar and/or been able to fix it??