A woman who had debilitating ulcerative colitis for 15 years says she's cured herself by performing DIY homemade fecal transplants with feces taken from her husband. 

Saffron Cassaday, 36, had been living with the type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the colon, causing painful inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract for years.

One of the hallmark - and most distressing - symptoms is the sudden and urgent need to have a bowel movement.

Despite taking medication, Ms Cassaday said its effectiveness was waning and she found herself afraid to leave the house because of 'trigger situations' where she would panic she wouldn't be able to reach the bathroom in time. 

Traffic jams, airport lines, and the fasten your seatbelt sign all caused her to spiral. 

Then she read about a treatment currently showing promising results in medical trials, where medically-screened stool from a healthy person is transferred into the gastrointestinal tract using an enema to rebalance bacteria in the stomach.

But she couldn't get access to the treatment because it is not FDA-approved to treat ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. 

So - after reading about someone who'd seen an improvement in their condition  using a DIY version - she went against doctors' recommendations and used stool from her healthy husband, Al Mukadam.