When does the taste and smell come back

[SummersBreeze]

I am on day 6 of this infection. First time having covid. I am fully vaccinated.

The main symptoms for me were fever and body aches.

Then on Wednesday a yogurt i ate was bland. I was able to taste 'sweet' from the tub but that was it.

On Thursday I discovered some medicine tasting off. Then I wasn't able to get other tastes from foods. Cheese was like rubber. Coffee was like warm sweetness. A cup of tea might as well have been a cup of warm sugary piss. It was horrifying.

My smell is gone too.

This is by far the most distressing thing for me.

When does it come back?

My smell came back 10 months after. But everything smells weird now like burnt caramel or sewage.

i didn’t lose my taste but everything tastes weird now. Like it’s artificial and wrong

sorry not what you’ll want to hear!

Altered taste buds and a lack of taste buds, cant taste the sweetness in sugar, even direct from the bag. Anything with some bitterness, tastes really bitter. Smell has improved, Delta last November 1st.

My smell hasn't come back yet. It's been 8 months.

I'm so sorry. I'm three days in from the loss of taste. The loss of smell isn't ideal. I can't imagine going on like this for months. I'm raging at tea and coffee. I will be out from the infectious period on Monday and my partner is talking about going out fro breakfast and to be quite honest all I am going to do is rage and temper tantrum about the place at the loss of taste. Fuck this shit. Its very distressing. You can't even have a cup of tea or you can but its like a warm sweet water. It's nothing but shit and piss.

No way will I be going around for months with this. I will be forcing a referral if it goes beyond next week. I'm going temper tantrum about the place and it's likely I will make the news at some point until this comes back.

Mine came back after a few days. Nearly everyone I know only lost their smell and taste for a few days.

I had Wuhan at the very beginning - January 2020 - and lost mine for nearly 2 weeks then. But it came back fully. I am currently ill with Omicron, and on day 8 of symptoms. Taste and smell went AWOL on Wednesday morning, but are starting to come back today, so only a few days this time.

Don't think I ever lost taste really but my sense of smell (bad smells only weirdly!) hasn't returned, 11 months on. I can detect when there's a bad smell but all bad smells are the same and not strong at all.

I think you should try to be more rational. There’s no evidence yet that this will be long lasting for you. If you have a temper tantrum to try to ‘force a referral’ your GP might well refer you to mental health services, rather than an ENT.

I tested positive today and I have lost my smell and taste.

despite feeling rubbish all day, losing my sense of taste is the very worst bit.

it happened all of a sudden too. I could taste this morning.

Covid in dec2020 and taste and smell have never properly come back but I'm probably unusual....

Just to give you a glimmer of hope mine went for 1.5 days and DP's for 3 days and it came back in full immediately. Like switch being turned off then on.

Lost my taste and smell too, it’s been nearly a week since recovery. Feel like I have a weird taste in my mouth to but can’t be certain as I obviously can’t tell. Joke really. Trike vaxxed!

So far a year... there are loads of us and there are various FB groups for support. The American one in particular has some useful advice.

Taste went for 10 days before fully returning. Smell started to come back after 2 weeks but at 3 weeks it's still only partially back.

10 months with original strain.
A few weeks with omicron.
Like another poster actually... interesting!

About 18 months of lots of foods tasting disgusting. Sorry!

I got it recently. Few days in lost taste and smell. It gradually returned and was probably close to normal within a week.

I was also panicking cos I live to eat.

Calm down?!

Most people get it back fairly quickly, 10 days, 2 weeks.

I've still got some distortion from having covid in march 2020, so over 2 years. It is what it is, there's no cure, there's lots of ideas of what you can do if it drags on.

Mainly I've explored 'new' foods, I wasn't a fan of sweet potato, now I love the stuff. You just have to get on with it.

Took about a month before my taste and smell came back. Nearly set the kitchen on fire - had the hob on, cooking baked beans, and some other stuff on baking paper was in the oven. Took the stuff in the oven out, put it too close to the gas hob, back was turned and the baking paper was on fire. I had no idea as I couldn't smell the burning omg! Thankfully covid didn't affect my eyesight... and the sink was nearby so disaster averted!

The only things I could taste when I was ill were ketchup and vinegar, both of which were absolutely FOUL (prior to covid enjoyed both). All back to normal now.

I've heard stories of people losing their sense of taste and smell for quite some time, but I think for most people it's a matter of weeks. Chances are, you'll have both senses back before too long.

Thanks for the replies.

It's very distressing. My taste and smell is gone now nearly a week. I think maybe there might be a smell coming back but it's very slow. I was able to smell a spray yesterday but I checked it again today but I wasn't able to get a smell from the same can.

I am able to taste sweet and salty but not flavours. Buttered toast is nothing for me. I tried marmite today and thankfully I can taste from marmite. I was able to taste salt and tanginess and it was nice.
I had dark chocolate today and I think I tasted. I tasted the sweet from the dark chocolate anyways.

It's extremely distressing though. All I want is a cup of tea and coffee but is like warm sugary Creamy water. It's awful.

I'm ready to bash my fucking face in.

Day 11 and sense of smell and taste are now back. A few days ago I could smell and taste nothing.

Only lost smell. For exactly 2 weeks.

Google smell therapy. You can try to help it return.

I had a year of absolutely no taste or smell. Then it started slowly coming back after a year, increasing around 5% a month. 18 months later and I’ve got about 30/40% back.

I’ve been positive since Tuesday. Can taste vague sweetness, bitterness, chilli heat and blue cheese. Get hints of smells but hardly anything. Annoying. Missed stuff burning in the oven as couldn’t smell it. Will start retraining with strong smells and tastes tomorrow!

Been a 11 months since I had covid and still don't have half my smell or taste. Don't enjoy a lot of foods I used to because of it