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 had covid back in March, no sense of smell and I could only tell if something tasted spicy, sweet or bitter. I wouldn’t be able to tell what I was eating if I hadn’t seen it first. It lasted nearly 14 weeks and still isn’t back to normal.

I thought I had read that there is no physical issue with the sense of taste, but that the loss of sense of smell transforms the perception of taste. Sorry if that is expressed badly or has been updated.

I was eating some food that just seemed like tasteless rubber when I first realised I might have a problem, and went to try and smell something. That said, I did not have any loss of appetite and could still taste enough to get by throughout. It was definitely dulled because I remember demonstrating that by eating a heaped spoonful of neat marmite.

My friend said she kept smelling foul Body Odour. She couldn't taste anything. Felt sorry for her lol thankfully only lasted 2 weeks.

Complete loss of taste and smell for over a week, was really odd

Pizza is like cardboard when you can't taste it, I lost half a stone as it took ages to recover. I could much on scotch bonnet chilliest!

I had everything taste of chemicals or metal. Remember with disgust a hot cross bun in particular. Not sure about the sense of smell although I recall using a lot of bleach on the loos as they seemed to be very 'public toilet-y' (I'm sure they're not) and not smelling bleach. This was about a week or more after I'd been very ill though (mostly the gastric variant).

I've lost my appetite and that doesn't happen to me ever. I can gloriously eat so much food and crop in a single netflox binge (i have issues!) And today I've forced myself to eat a bowl of soup and a cracker bar.

With a cold your nose is so blocked that you can’t smell much. Sometimes if you can blow your nose well, scents will reappear until your nose gets bunged up again.

With Covid it is a neurological issue as far as I know ? Similar to how people can lose their sense of smell and taste after a brain injury.

I hadn't realised I'd lost my sense of smell until DH got really wound up that every time I handed DS2 to him, it was with a dirty nappy. I genuinely could not smell him.

This was back in March and even now I can't smell ambient smells like reed diffusers or food cooking but if I was intentionally trying to smell a candle in a shop for example I probably could.

My taste never completely went, but my tastebuds aren't the same. My favourite wine now tastes too sweet to drink any more.

@SirVixofVixHall yes that makes sense. When I’ve had a cold I’ve had the feeling of my senses being deadened, by being overwhelmed with snot. And it can be cleared momentarily. With this it was a much more fundamental issue, and there was no snot. The loss of sense lasted maybe 10 days? I had a fever for 22 days, mid 38s to begin with but high 37s for such a long time

I was ill in March, but I'm still burning the dinner because I can't smell anything.

Can't get tested though, so no diagnosis.

@SirVixofVixHall

With a cold your nose is so blocked that you can’t smell much. Sometimes if you can blow your nose well, scents will reappear until your nose gets bunged up again. With Covid it is a neurological issue as far as I know ? Similar to how people can lose their sense of smell and taste after a brain injury.

This would make sense, when my sense of smell came back I could smell burning & smoke all the time, I kept getting up in the night certain the house was on fire - I read that some brain injuries can cause sufferers to smell False burning /smoke smells

I had loss of taste before it was on the list. Felt 100% fine so thought my tea had gone off or faulty batch. Thrm the next thing I ate I thought must be a faulty batch, was extremely weird

@Idontknow23

Can you elaborate some more... I also lost sense of smell.

Your sister had this in March, and has just this month, August had a test? And she has antibodies....?

Also where and why did she get this anti body test. Thank you

@Spiderseason

I was living with my sister at the time and my parents through lockdown, my sister never gets ill and never fusses and this is when all the schools had closed and Lockdown had begun, she was drinking and eating and kept commenting how she couldn't taste anything or smell the food she was eating, I kept joking why is she eating so much then but she said she still feels hungry she just can't taste it, this lasted for around 2 weeks in March before this was even a proper symptom, it has obviously since been added as a symptom. At the same time my mum had a bad chest when she breathed, and myself and the rest of the household lost our voices and developed a bad cough and lungs hurt. My sister works for the NHS but has been working from home on the computer so she was made to have a test I think at the hospital probably for when she returns to the office to see if she's had the test and it came back positive that she has had coronavirus, she didn't have it at the time of the test but it showed she's got the antibodies so has had it in the past. They did say that test could come back negative if it's been a while since she had it but March was the only time she's had symptoms and she has been really strict with going out and yes August is how long it's still showing in her system, so all these months. She can taste and smell everything again.

Wow I don't know, thank you!!