So, something I was kind of overlooking because I was so focused on other symptoms I've been having... about 8 weeks ago I noticed my stool had a odd smell. It didn't smell "worse" - just different. I don't really know how to describe the smell or what to compare it to. It doesn't particularly smell like blood IMO and most descriptions of bloody stool I can find describe the smell as very very bad - and that's not what this is at all.
The stool seems fairly normal colored. A little bit on the dark end of brown. Definitely not black (I've had bloody black stool before from a endoscopy complication). I'm not having any weight loss or pain.
However, I'm worried maybe it is blood or some other change that indicates colon cancer. I had a colonoscopy about 4.5 years ago that found one small benign polyp (I'm only in early 30s). The colonoscopy before that removed two small benign polyps. The doctor said my next colonoscopy could be in 5-10 years based on the type of polyp but he would do it at 5 if I wanted and he wouldn't blame me really.
I'm worried colon cancer has developed since my last colonoscopy 4.5 years ago. My great-grandmother died of colon cancer in her 80s and my grandfather had it in his late 50s / early 60s but it was caught very early and removed.
The only thing that *may be* causing it is a Zinc supplement. The smell first appeared the day after the first time I ever took a 50mg Zinc supplement. I didn't think much of it at the time and the smell isn't present every time I go to the bathroom. I haven't been exactly monitoring if it only appears after I take Zinc because I was focused on other symptoms bothering my hypochondriac brain. I'm going to take more special note of this though so I can determine if that is possibly what's causing it. I can't find anyone else online reporting that Zinc causes their stool to smell different though so I'm a little doubtful that is the cause.
If there is enough blood in stool to affect the entire smell of the stool, it seems like I would be able to see blood? But, I really do not see any blood on the stool and the stool is not black like bloody stool.