Anosmia -- reduced ability to smell things -- anyone?

Since quitting Finasteride, I’ve been able to smell things again, oddly enough. I thought I had allergies, but it turns out that one symptom of low testosterone is anosmia – the inability to smell.

Actually this is not a symptom of low testosterone at all.

It is the symptom that is sometimes found in men who have certain forms of low testosterone that are caused by defects in the hypothalamus/pituitary. It is a symptom typical of Kallman Syndrome for instance.

Interesting.

I got this on Dutasteride. I couldn’t smell squat–

I have noticed this when on fin as well.

Ive actually noticed this aswell. ive always said i have no sense of smell

Same here, smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing. I’ve lost acuity in all areas. At least 50%.

1 Like

I have definitely lost maybe 30% of my sense of smell. I also get a really bad runny nose when I eat.

Thought I’d give this old thread a bump.

I’m curious if anyone else has loss of or reduced smell? I have reduced everything a lot of the time, skin numbness fluctuates a lot now, some day’s i feel stuff more than others and the same goes with sense of smell which gives you sense of flavour while eating, some days I can smell a little, some days almost nothing, just hasn’t been the same, i find it hard to get a smell for the individual ingredients like seasoning etc, i usually have to ask someone does this smell or taste ok because i don’t have the precision.

A good meal doesn’t excite me because I can’t experience all the different elements that make up the dish, just a sort of distant flavour that gives me a hint of what it is. But as i said, this can change completely randomly, sometimes weeks, sometimes days, it’s annoying because I could get a meal and be able to enjoy it, then another day just not being able to experience it.

Just interesting how badly my sensory inputs are effected, so eyes, touch, smell and at the start of all this hearing, still have tinitus but at least i can hear a conversation better now :grin: i really appreciate the little things now which is nice I guess, hopefully some day I’ll be able to experience silence again.

3 Likes

Strange how so many of us have lost a good portion of our sense of smell it really doesn’t sum up but it’s obviously another part symptom that comes from taking finastetide that I attributed to the side effects
I have visited my go regarding this on several occasions i was given antibiotics twice and nasal sprays but neither made any difference.

I had terrible taste when I crashed, also no more desire for my favourite foods/junk food.

This changed completely, now I’m obsessed about food and invest a lot of money for it. I get great enjoyment from eating and often cant stop eating because it just tastes so good. This wasnt even the case pre pfs. Its obviously a dopamine thing.

Also makes it incredible hard now for me to maintain low bodyfat. Thats the negative part.

I think all these issues, physical, sexual and mental are all due to brain alterations caused by finasteride…Every ones neurological makeup is varied just like symptoms are varied…The hippocampus effects many aspects…which is proven nos by melcangi to be altered…

1 Like

And you think people recover by their brains returning back to baseline? If it was truly brain damage, I don’t understand how some recover quickly.

I would guess at this point pfs will be classified as disease of the nervous system. Which the brain is a part…Recovering appears based on how well signaling restores…The autonomic nervous systems seem damaged…Merck has history of this type of drug damage…

Skin. Hair, adrenal, internal organ function, salivary gland and genatalia all affected by this system…I would bet this is a major factor in pfs aa hormones seem to not be involved or altered much in pfs…

I have this symptom from SSRI, it was bad when i used SSRI but i lost completly my taste, smell , skin sensation overnight when i developed a bad PSSD case. Now maybe it’s 20% better. I had a windows for 10 minutes when my smell was like a dog’s one, i felt everything, road,grass,smell of tyres, everything!

1 Like

Thanks for sharing this, it seems the skin numbing and loss of smell is a lot more common that i thought which is good and bad i guess, good that I know I’m not insane and bad that other people have to deal with the same thing as me which us incredibly annoying. But regardless we’re all in this together :blush:

Yeah I get a few up and down day’s but I’ve never been able to smell the same yet, can’t wait till I can have a meal and be excited about it again, i was a big food head, when i was in college for a few months I joined a food society and we’d go out to different restaurants in Ireland, it was great.

I took Isotretinoin and I have exactly (very exactly) the same problems of smell. I finally find an explanation! I really did not know where it came from and I thought I had only my sexual problems due to the drug

1 Like