Anyone had loss of taste/smell?

[Frazzled13]

I read a headline the other day saying that researchers have said that the loss of taste and smell from coronavirus is different to the loss from a cold, but didn't say how.
Has anyone had this and can explain the difference? I'm just curious about how a loss of a sense can have different presentations? Surely you can either taste/smell it, or not? Is it more of a total loss of taste than with a cold?

I haven't had a coronavirus test bit I did have a raised temp, felt generally awful and had loss of tasty and smell in early March (before these were being discussed as symptoms).

For me it was different. When you have a cold you can't smell well because you're bunged up. It feels.like all the snot and stuffy nose is blocking you from smelling anything. Even then you can often smell a little.

With this I didn't have a blocked or stuffy nose at all. I didn't have a cold at all. But when I was feeling better and was taking kids to school on the bus my kids were really complaining about the overwhelming smell of a homeless man and begging to get off at the next stop and I couldn't smell him at all. Total absence of smell.

With taste, I could taste food but I had some spicy Indian food and it just lacked it's usual strength of flavour. Tasted really faint and wishy washy for something that's usually quite strong.

It’s been one of the main C19 symptoms for weeks now.

@Feminist10101 yes it has. Wasn't in early March though.

As PP said, I wasn't blocked up or stuffy. Not snotty at all, just couldn't smell anything at all. I noticed it first when I sprayed myself with perfume and had a sniff.

DH brought me a coffee when I'd asked for tea, I didn't notice until I was halfway through it and saw the colour of it.

I suppose when you have a cold, your senses of smell and taste are a bit dulled. With Covid they aren't dulled, they're just missing.

My sisters symptoms were only that she couldn't taste or smell and this is before this was an official symptom, we just thought it was random she was eating foods and she was saying how she couldn't taste it at all, she has recently been tested to see if she has the antibodies and it came back that she had covid, she lost her smell and taste senses back in March

Yes I had no blocked nose. Felt tired.

Someone was saying about smell and I couldn't smell it.

We all thought it was hilarious.

Well until 2 days later when I had an elephant sat on my chest, couldn't breathe well, temp and heart palpatations.

I was just getting over worst when the announced lockdown and then this was a symptom.

I agree. I've lost the sense of smell but my nose doesn't feel blocked and I can taste food normally. I'd say its just an abscence i don't have a stuffy nose, I feel tired but not coldy and if I smell something it just doesn't have any sense of smell almost like it can't access that information.

I had no other symptoms but lost my taste and smell entirely at Easter. i.e. I could open the spices / flavourings and even normally strong ones (cinnamon, chilli powder, vanilla, ginger) and not be able to smell anything at all.

I was fairly unwell in April & the loss of taste & smell was different to a cold, I literally could not taste or smell anything at all (it lasted almost 2 weeks)
To show my family how complete the loss of taste was I ate a teaspoon of English mustard (something I would normally avoid at all costs) I didn’t even flinch, couldn’t taste it at all.
My daughter was most amused by this & then made me try toothpaste & mayo on 2 spoons with my eyes shut - I couldn’t tell which was which (and yes my daughter is evil😂)

I had COVID 19 in April (confirmed with test). I was unwell for a few days before with fatigue, bowel issues, tight chest and breathless when talking. It felt like I was at a high altitude when I breathed and had a few tummy pains. I then completely lost my sense of taste and smell with no blocked nose. The taste loss was strong and lasted for three days. I could taste sweetness in things but nothing else. I couldn't smell a single thing no matter how strong the smell or how closely I held it to my nose. I buried my nose is vicks vapour rub trying to smell it but absolutely nothing. I usually get a few stinking colds but have never noticed such a profound loss of my senses. Even now I can't smell most things. It is slowly coming back and I can smell nicer things such as clean washing if I breathe it in but can never smell meals cooking or nasty bathroom smells.

With taste I actually didn't eat for 4 days.

I was drinking loads though. About 8-10 sports bottles a day.

I was drinking water with lime cordial.

There wasn't anything then about losing taste and smell and although I'd noticed smell it took me a day to realise I couldn't taste the lime!

Husband lost both in March. He had recently been out for a meal with a mate who then became really ill and subsequently has recently been tested and has antibodies for COVID-19.

He didn’t have a blocked nose and just those senses had completely gone! He said it was very weird.
5 months on and he now gets this strange disgusting smell. He said it really is awful, I definitely can’t smell it. It’s random things, certain foods, ‘bathroom’ smells, even mens shower gel. It’s so weird

No blocked nose. I actually didn't realise I had lost my smell until I was with people who were complaining about a strong smell and I couldn't smell anything

I had thought my fabric softener was rubbish because my washing had been smelling of nothing 😂😂

It is definitely a total loss of smell rather than the dulled sense of smell with a cold. I had vapour rub right next to my nose I could smell nothing. When my sense of taste started to return things tasted strange like the smell of something rather than the tastes iyswim , I ate a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and i could taste the smell of soil!

@Frazzled13

I read a headline the other day saying that researchers have said that the loss of taste and smell from coronavirus is different to the loss from a cold, but didn't say how. Has anyone had this and can explain the difference? I'm just curious about how a loss of a sense can have different presentations? Surely you can either taste/smell it, or not? Is it more of a total loss of taste than with a cold?

I read something that said it’s a true loss of the senses and not like with a cold where it’s only because your nose is blocked, also that you can’t taste anything - eg with no smell and taste with a cold you could taste a lemon and that it was bitter even if you couldn’t taste the lemony taste, or a chilli you could tell was hot even if not the full flavour of it ,

For me with a cold, your sense of smell dulls as you get more blocked up and gradually gets worse, then as you get less blocked up returns accordingly.

With what I think was covid I did not have a blocked nose, and my sense of smell went suddenly and totally. Literally could not smell anything in the slightest. Just gone, so bizarre. I did have a slight stingy feeling, like the inside of my nose was 'stripped'. My taste was affected but not as totally. I had no smell at all for weeks, now nearly six months on I have very little compared to before. Some things I can't smell at all, others faintly, and in many cases the smell is distorted. Many things that I know should smell different to each other all just smell of burntness, and some things that were pleasant smell revolting and 'off'. It is horrid.

It was all v different from a cold and I couldn't have confused the two.

I lost my sense of taste and smell for a few days. This was about 3 weeks before it became a recognised symptom.
My hay fever was dreadful at the time so I did have a runny nose and eyes and an itchy throat too. Everything apart from the taste and smell responded to antihistamines and I didn’t feel unwell.
I have since had an antibody test at work and that has come back positive. I’ve not felt unwell at all so I can only assume that thatepisode must have been it!
I’d like to get a repeat antibody test in 3 and 6 months to see if I still have them - not sure if I’ll be able to though.

Ps. Just recently realised how bad it still is when we went somewhere freshly painted....I did nto even realise, couldn't smell paint at all, DP was choking on it.

It's freaking me out tbh. So much smells so bad, or of nothing. I miss nice smells.

I think I may have had coronavirus back in February (I work at a university with a hugely mobile international population so not impossible). Along with other Covid symptoms I had the loss of taste/smell thing. It wasn’t at all like a cold, I wasn’t even snotty, but it was rather an absence of being able to detect flavour and for me a metallic taste was pretty constant. I barely ate for days and days because I just couldn’t face food

The loss of taste was so strange for me. Food just tasted of ... nothing.

Food I especially liked eg my favourite brand of dark chocolate tasted vile. I still can't eat it. (This represents my greatest disappointment!)

Like others my symptoms were in mid March, immediately before the initial lockdown in Ireland. I was very ill with flu like symptoms but not much in the way of respiratory symptoms. I did see my GP as I needed a cert for work. I didn't meet the criteria for a Covid test - tho I would have a week later. She said to self-isolate (but we went into lockdown a few days later so it was a moot point, and I just wfh & didn't go out).

I had a lot of the symptoms that only got mentioned much later - loss of taste & smell, vomiting & unwell stomach, had v extreme temperatures & sweated to the point of saturation - which actually helped a lot. I had no cough & initially no respiratory symptoms at all. I developed them about a week after, when I thought I was feeling better. Several weeks after all this, I got a dreadful vomiting bug. I was so ill. I assumed it was unrelated but in retrospect it was all linked. I gradually felt better after that but the tiredness was awful.

Honestly tho this is all clear to me in retrospect. I had to have a call with my GP subsequently & she agreed it was likely. I think a whole group of my wider family had it too, as we'd been at a family meal together. None of them thought they had it or were tested at the time (one being a doctor!) but it seems highly likely they did.

In my own family, my 13yo was very ill for 2 days in a way I'd never seen her but better very quickly. It may not have been Covid but I suspect it was - again, all in retrospect. Then about 2 weeks later my 11 yo had a much milder version of all the same symptoms but it hardly affected him & my 9 yo was fine. Timing & symptom-wise it all fits in retrospect but can't be sure.

I barely ate for days and days because I just couldn’t face food

Exactly this. People kept saying just eat something small but it was like asking me to eat paper or grass ... just seemed incomprehensible that I could do it.

I lost my sense of taste and smell on Monday night, got tested on Wednesday and just had a positive result this morning. Am absolutely gutted - was so careful and still caught the damn virus! Hating not being able to taste food it just seems so pointless, weight is falling off me I just don’t have any appetite. I hope it comes back soon :/