Does anyone else “smell” … funny?😳

[BruceLeTerror]

When I was a kid, the loo always smelled “funny” after my DMum had used it.

Fast forward 40 years, now I’m smelling that smell when I use the loo (or just on/about me in general)

I can’t describe it 😳

Am 48 - guess Mum would have been similar age at the time?

FWIW I shower every day and wash at other end of the day

tia 🙏

My sister in law is Hindu. The family don't eat any meat. Occasionally my brother while out with friends has fancied something with meat in. She says she can smell a change in his body odour when he eats red meat.

Another friend had to give up meat after a radical hysterectomy said it made her smell awful. She's okay with fish though.

Aren't we strange creatures, I wonder if animals can recognise if we smell different.

So here we are, trying to help. In a group - menopausal women trying to offer advice/suggestions/empathy. Here you are just offering ......what??

No it isnt, its just part of the aging process and bit by bit your body changes how it breaks down different compounds. For some people it will be a bit earlier than others.

It’s a very distinctive smell, that’s why old peoples homes and wards have a smell. Younger people don’t have it.

It is, I know the smell but its not just 70+ as you claimed, our bodies change day by day, they're changing all the time. Its just something that happens. Older people, but not just 70+

Yes, but apparently the skin changes that cause it start taking place at about 40 years old.

I need to unwatch this thread. It's making me feel sick!

Yes, as evidenced by those perennial MN threads about how often or not people shower, some people who claim they have good senses of smell -simply do not.

I know exactly both the two different smells being described here, the menopausal wee smell and the older person musty skin smell. I also know the smell of a young baby and of a teenage boy. I can smell when a woman is menstruating because it makes behind her ears & neck smell different, or whether someone eats a lot of dairy produce, whether they have the type of dandruff that Head and Shoulders will treat and if their skin has not been washed recently. That is all quite apart from the smells of illness, eating alliums or low-carbing, taking B vitamins etc etc.

Human bodies are basically constantly leaking bags of wondrous complex chemicals and full of equally complex smells.

I thought it was due to washing and incontinence

Thank You for understanding!
it’s not the “old person smell” 🙂

Oh bugger, I am 69 so on the countdown to decomposition.

Trees that smell of semen???

Onion pit update!

after reading this thread I was doing a work out in the kitchen and the onion smell was very high.

out of desperation in between a set I grabbed a half squeezed lime and rubbed it under my pits.

they then smelt of limes and onions and I carried on, getting a shower about half an hour later.

HOWEVER this morning the onion smell is barely there.

perhaps changed the ph enough to nuke some bacteria? Going to try with a lemon slice next time it gets ripe!

Im late 40s and have found my periods smell different than they did when I was younger. I describe myself as smelling like a freshly opened carton of minced beef at that time of the month these days.
Not sure if im starting to dribble and leak tiny unnoticeable amounts of urine post weeing as I dont feel any leakage but I have often noticed a not fresh kind of "pissy knickers" smell coming from myself by the evening.
Also as we know the vulva/vagina can have a slight natural musky smell, well ive noticed that has changed too to more of a vinegary type smell. Anyone else noticed these changes?
bloody good job these threads are anonymous!

🤣

I haven't read the whole thread properly yet but I was just posting to say I have been humming and haaing over posting the same thing. Almost word for word.

It was the smell after my mum used the loo - not unclean, not wee or poo. Just a strange and (honestly) unpleasant body smell. My auntie too. And now I have it.

I'd wondered whether it was something genetic, maybe related to allergies (both my mum and auntie have significant food/gut issues). Hadn't considered it being age but it could genuinely be hormones.

It’s could be down to your diet. Some people honk when they sweat at the gym.

Have you been checked for diabetes?

I definitely believe hormones play a pivotal roll in our lives, male and female and I'm not attempting to stifle discussion. I just consider terms like 'old woman smell' both ageist and misogynistic and very unhelpful.

I'm in no doubt if all women got to middle age and suddenly developed a certain smell managing it would definitely have been monetised by now.

I stand by what I've said upthread, but also another thought....maybe the people on this thread who think they've developed a certain smell in middle age haven't actually at all, it's just their sense of smell has shifted because of hormonal changes.

Except a lot of us have said that we recognise the smell from our mums? So we could smell it when we were younger, but on other people rather than ourselves?

That's a very good point!!
I'll stick with possible undiagnosed illness, effects of certain foods etc then as my theory 🙂

I know the smell. I can’t describe it either, it must be unique if we can’t quite equate it to another odour. But yes, it’s the “using a public convenience after an older lady” one. My nanna had it, my mum had it. I was mortified when I then developed it (late 40s). Definitely vag/pee related.

I started vaginal HRT, it went away - completely. So I can only assume it’s related to vaginal atrophy or perimenopausal hormonal shifts more generally. At least it’s entirely curable.

Yes a lot of toilets do! I usually find the zoo smell more evident if a man has used it though.

Maybe I’m stinky but rinsing my vulva with water wouldnt be enough to clean it! I use a gentle shower gel/sanex type cleanser and have never had any issues.

One of the reasons I went on HRT is that I realised I didn’t smell like myself anymore. It is hard to explain but I found it depressing and disorienting. I went back to normal very quickly once it kicked in.