# Covid 19 smell/taste loss question



## Coreymacc (Jan 31, 2022)

First of all, I'm not asking this in hopes of any sympathy or to have this tread be about vaccinations or anything like that, this is just for information purposes and I have a question. Happily, I just recovered from Covid and I had lost my sense of smell and taste, I had other symptoms also but for sake of this thread I will limit this to smell/taste. It started last Tuesday while i was eating a sandwich at work, I ate half the sammy that i could taste and by the time I got to the other half my taste/smell was completely gone, almost like someone flipped a switch and my senses were gone, fast forward to Saturday evening when I got them back, (approx 4 1/2 days) it was the same type of thing, they just appeared like a switch being turned back on.

If your willing to share your experiences regarding taste and smell with regard to Covid. I am curious about what happened ? I have asked a few people I know who had this symptom and most people say it went away slowly and came back slowly, some lost it completely, while others partially. My experience seemed very strange the way it disappeared and returned so abruptly, has anybody else had this?

As I said this is by no means meant to trivialize this virus or diminish its seriousness and I have nothing but sympathy for folks who have had it more severe than myself or payed the ultimate price.  I am strictly wanting to keep this an an informative thread as I'm always interested in learning ,and if you are willing to share any insights I appreciate that, if this thread goes no where I'm ok with that also.

Thank You
Corey


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## Displaced Texan (Jan 31, 2022)

Developed anosmia April 24, 2020. Started getting smell/taste back April 28, 2020. Took a couple weeks for everything to come back to 100%.


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## SmokinEdge (Jan 31, 2022)

Yeah, seems as it’s all over the board with all people. The doctors can’t even really explain why.
That said I’ve had Covid twice. First time over a year ago. Lost my smell/taste for about 8 months. I was getting concerned as most had gotten it back by 6 months, then just over about two days in the eighth month my taste and smell returned. Then just about 2 months after that I lost it again. I did not have any symptoms or felt bad at all other than smell and taste. It came back in about one week that time and I’ve been smelling myself ever since, there were benefits to not smelling, but man not tasting was hard to cope with.


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## Coreymacc (Jan 31, 2022)

SmokinEdge said:


> Yeah, seems as it’s all over the board with all people. The doctors can’t even really explain why.
> That said I’ve had Covid twice. First time over a year ago. Lost my smell/taste for about 8 months. I was getting concerned as most had gotten it back by 6 months, then just over about two days in the eighth month my taste and smell returned. Then just about 2 months after that I lost it again. I did not have any symptoms or felt bad at all other than smell and taste. It came back in about one week that time and I’ve been smelling myself ever since, there were benefits to not smelling, but man not tasting was hard to cope with.
> 
> I can't imagine loosing my taste for that long, mine was gone for 4 days and I was starting to get a bit edgy, I'm glad my wife was supportive. Don't know how I would handle that.
> ...


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## noboundaries (Jan 31, 2022)

My wife and I both had Covid and neither completely lost our sense of smell or taste. I had short periods of diminished smell/taste, and she had the exact opposite, especially smell. 

We both have other cyclic issues associated with the virus. They follow a recognizable pattern.


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## Nefarious (Jan 31, 2022)

Wife and I both had covid and neither of us lost taste.  Wife said she had reduced smell, I lost none.


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## xbubblehead (Jan 31, 2022)

I lost some taste and smell; could taste apple juice but not an apple or V8 juice, could not taste a tuna sandwich but could taste cereal with milk.  This frankenvirus is really weird.  Yesterday in a flash, I mean it was almost explosive like clearing sinuses, my sense of smell reappeared as did some taste and today both are improving.


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## jcam222 (Jan 31, 2022)

My wife had it in November and lost it on about day 3. Took several weeks for hers to return I had it in December and didn’t lose it at all nor did my brother who had it bad a year ago. My best friend lost his and it was not right for near 6 months. I have a colleague who’s daughter lost hers and when it returned it was “confused”. Some foods she loved make her nauseous as they smell putrid to her. Right now she only can tolerate the smell and taste of about a half dozen items. Most other things make her sick


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## Ringer (Jan 31, 2022)

My wife and I currently have it and neither of us have lost any sense of smell or taste. I pray it stays that way. We are on days 3 and 4 respectively.


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## SmokinEdge (Jan 31, 2022)

jcam222 said:


> My wife had it in November and lost it on about day 3. Took several weeks for hers to return I had it in December and didn’t lose it at all nor did my brother who had it bad a year ago. My best friend lost his and it was not right for near 6 months. I have a colleague who’s daughter lost hers and when it returned it was “confused”. Some foods she loved make her nauseous as they smell putrid to her. Right now she only can tolerate the smell and taste of about a half dozen items. Most other things make her sick


I actually had to kind of relearn some smells. Deeper smells that should be there like with salami or aged meats.


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## DougE (Jan 31, 2022)

jcam222 said:


> I have a colleague who’s daughter lost hers and when it returned it was “confused”. Some foods she loved make her nauseous as they smell putrid to her.


My wife went through that, but it didn't last too long. One thing I remember right off the bat is just the thought of having her usual couple cups of coffee in the morning made her nauseous for at least a couple weeks. She is fine now, and back to having her morning coffee.


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## Nate52 (Jan 31, 2022)

I lost it on day 3 after my positive test. No idea when I was exposed.

On day 2, we had a 30" snow storm. After several hours if snow blowing and shoveling the next day with a lot of breaks, I came in and had a well earned swig of bourbon. I could feel the burn, but there was nothing else. Used one of those dissolving Vicks tabs in the shower. Nothing.

I was able to taste saltiness and bitterness, but no real flavor. That was December 17th of last year. On Christmas eve, I was walking across the living room and had a little gas passing event. I said "That was a smelly one!" I stopped in my tracks, shocked It was the most exciting fart I've ever had! I ran over and opened a bag of coffee and could faintly smell it. About ten minutes later, I could smell the bacon we cooked that morning.

My senses came back in stages. I could smell and taste certain things but not others. I still have no idea if my Christmas prime rib was any good. Just tasted salty to me.

Not being able to taste or smell anything was a lot more depressing than I expected. I think we underestimate how important these senses really are in our lives.


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## Nate52 (Jan 31, 2022)

Nate52 said:


> I lost it on day 3 after my positive test. No idea when I was exposed.
> 
> On day 2, we had a 30" snow storm. After several hours if snow blowing and shoveling the next day with a lot of breaks, I came in and had a well earned swig of bourbon. I could feel the burn, but there was nothing else. Used one of those dissolving Vicks tabs in the shower. Nothing.
> 
> ...


I could still taste olives though. I despise olives.

Buy my wife thought I should eat one, since I wouldn't taste it. Nope. Still gross.


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## DougE (Jan 31, 2022)

My granddaughter could only taste salty stuff


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## BurntWeenie (Jan 31, 2022)

Smell and taste disorders in COVID-19: From pathogenesis to clinical features and outcomes - PubMed
					

Patients with COVID-19 often complain of smell and taste disorders (STD). STD emerge early in the course of the disease, seem to be more common in SARS-CoV-2 infection than in other upper respiratory tract infections, and could in some cases persist for long after resolution of respiratory...




					pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov


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## Brokenhandle (Jan 31, 2022)

Can't say for sure if we've ever had it, wife's been exposed a couple times at work but always negative tests. Had a friend had it...said he could just as well eat cardboard with no sense of smell or taste.   Sometimes with our almost 3 year old Dobie crop dusting us the loss of smell could be a blessing!

Ryan


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## DougE (Jan 31, 2022)

Brokenhandle said:


> Sometimes with our almost 3 year old Dobie crop dusting us the loss of smell could be a blessing!


As someone who has done a ton of pesticide application to trees, there comes a point where your sense of smell becomes immune to the smell of the chemicals you routinely spray.


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## slavikborisov (Jan 31, 2022)

Lost my smell 10 months ago its just finally coming back.. tried like hell to do
Smell training with essential oils and eventually just gave up on it as it wasn’t getting any better then out of the blue it started getting better. Everything either ha; a foul smell or none at all
for a good 7 months it was miserable I just ate stuff hoping someday I’d smell
what I was eating. To this day my smell is still not 100% of what it used to be probably like 80-85% but it’s better than it was.


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## pc farmer (Jan 31, 2022)

I tested positive a couple months ago.   Never had symptoms other then a head cold.  Never lost taste or smell.     Bourbon still taste the same.


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## Bearcarver (Jan 31, 2022)

This probably doesn't have any connection, but as for length of times:
I lost my sense of taste after Open-heart surgery in December of 2012.
I got most of it back 8 months later, but I still don't enjoy any Beer or Coffee, of which I used to drink a lot of, especially the Beer.

So far I haven't had Covid---Knock on Wood!

Bear


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## Nefarious (Jan 31, 2022)

Bearcarver said:


> I got most of it back 8 months later, but I still don't enjoy any Beer or Coffee, of which I used to drink a lot of, especially the Beer.
> 
> Bear


No beer, not sure I could handle that!


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## Fueling Around (Jan 31, 2022)

Got Covid before Christmas.
I lost both taste and smell completely for a couple days.  The senses have been returning randomly.
At first, I could only taste salt and sweet.  A piece of toast made me gag from the salted butter.* I thought my love affair with cured meats was gone!*
I was going through a sack of Golden Oreos every 4 days and a box of Dots Candy every 2 days.  I am not a sweet eater in normal times.
Salt aversion was gone in a week, but almost 3 weeks for the sweet overload to reduce.
Luckily, I never lost my taste for beer.


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## DougE (Jan 31, 2022)

Fueling Around said:


> Luckily, I never lost my taste for beer.


A definite plus if I ever seen one!


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## Brokenhandle (Jan 31, 2022)

Bearcarver said:


> This probably doesn't have any connection, but as for length of times:
> I lost my sense of taste after Open-heart surgery in December of 2012.
> I got most of it back 8 months later, but I still don't enjoy any Beer or Coffee, of which I used to drink a lot of, especially the Beer.
> 
> ...


Don't mean to get off topic but in response to Bear...certain surgeries do that to ya. In 2009 I had diverticulitus and it ruptured, drank Black Velvet cokes back then, after 2 weeks in hospital I couldn't stand the taste of whiskey or pop...this started November 6th. In January of 2010 had another surgery, only a week in hospital but could now stand the taste of whiskey and pop. It was wierd for sure!

Ryan


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## xray (Feb 1, 2022)

I had Covid in early October and lost my sense of taste and smell for about a month. My taste came back first slowly and I still think my sense of smell isn’t fully back yet. It’s weird because it comes and goes.

I was only able to taste anything salty or something vinegar/pickled. Since you have no desire to really eat I just ate vegetable soup with hot sauce, chicken breast and antipasto. I figured with the salami and cheese in the salad I was getting some nutritional benefit. I mostly was able to taste the dressing so between that and the crunch of the salad, it made it at least enjoyable for me.


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## bhambrewer (Feb 1, 2022)

my son caught omicron from our pastor's daughter and promptly passed it on to both me and mama. He had symptoms for about 2 days. Wife and I had a rough couple of days, only remnant is a lingering cough (mostly productive).

None of us lost smell / taste. It was just a nasty cold.


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## BurntWeenie (Feb 1, 2022)

We still don't know long term what can occur due to infections


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## BurntWeenie (Feb 1, 2022)

The UGT2A1/UGT2A2 locus is associated with COVID-19-related loss of smell or taste - Nature Genetics
					

Multi-ancestry genome-wide analyses identify variants near UGT2A1 and UGT2A2 associated with COVID-19-related loss of smell or taste. Both genes are expressed in the olfactory epithelium and play a role in metabolizing odorants.




					www.nature.com


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## SmokinVOLfan (Feb 1, 2022)

Took my son 6 months to start to get his smell back. His girlfriend hasn't been able to smell anything for almost a year now. 



Brokenhandle said:


> Sometimes with our almost 3 year old Dobie crop dusting us the loss of smell could be a blessing!



My boxer is the worst about that. Her rotten ass will clear out a room. Burn the nose hairs.


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## mike243 (Feb 1, 2022)

Had it in August 2020 was so sick I couldn’t tell you if I tasted or smelled anything for 2-3 weeks , praying for everyone


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## Humo18 (Feb 1, 2022)

The sense of smell is something very unusual and obviously quite contolled by your brain.  Not related to covid - when I was 15 (not going into details) witnessed a bunch of bloody burnt bodies and the smell was just plain horrible.   For about six months I could smell that burnt odor in my hands no matter how much I washed them.  Could not eat meat for a year when finally that horror subsized.


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## normanaj (Feb 1, 2022)

Losing your sense of smell/taste due to illness is absolutely nothing new it happens with hundreds of different viruses/infections including rhino virus(aka the common cold).

When I contracted a very rare form of bacterial meningitis I lost all my senses for a very short time...107 fever will do that.And yes all my senses are back but other things are permanent.

The damage to my body will last a life time.I'm 53 and this happened when I was 14 and I've had 39 years to accept this so it simply no longer bothers me.


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## Fueling Around (Feb 1, 2022)

DougE said:


> As someone who has done a ton of pesticide application to trees, there comes a point where your sense of smell becomes immune to the smell of the chemicals you routinely spray.


I will never go nose blind to Counter insecticide.


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## DougE (Feb 1, 2022)

I can still smell, mostly putrid crap I wouldn't want to smell anyhow is what my sense of smell is deadened to. And farming pretty much makes you immune to manure smell. You can still smell it, but the smell just doesn't bother you.


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## negolien (Feb 1, 2022)

Hope you get it back having changed taste is sucky. I had cancer twice and chemo messed up my taste and smell for good. Things I used to like I hate and vice versa. Not cool but what can you do but trial and error


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## sandyut (Feb 5, 2022)

I lost no taste or smell with my asymptomatic Covid.  I would never have known i even had covid except for the pre-op screening required a test and BOOM out of nowhere it was positive.


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## Plinsc (Jun 8, 2022)

I didn’t realize it at first but noticed I was only eating about half what I normally did, then realized I couldn’t taste the food.
 The worse part was going from 4-5 hours of sleep a night to 9+ with a 3 hour nap during the day.
 All better now and eating like a pig!


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## Sven Svensson (Jun 8, 2022)

I got covid last week. I lost all smell/taste about 3 days after testing positive. I’ve had light symptoms except for the exhaustion. I could still taste the basics like salt, sweet, sour, bitter. It’s just starting to come back and lasted about 4 days. It was odd. I knew when I could taste cucumbers I was on the mend.


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