Everything smells and tastes like chemicals!

[Ninster]

I am a woman in my early 40s, and I have been suffering from a rare disease/infection, which is hard to describe. One year ago I lost my sense of smell and taste after a bad cold or flu.I can smell and taste things, but everything smells and taste like chemicals. I have ... [More] tried several doctors and dentits, but none of them can help me find a cure or any medicine which helps. If any one has the same symptoms or any information, please be kind and contact me ! Thanks!


This discussion is related to Everything tastes and smells chemical like.

[jojokid505]

I'm so glad I found this thread!! I was freaking out for a few days. A couple months ago I got what I assume was a bad sinus infection. I thought it was just a cold but it lingered for 2 weeks. Afterwards I realized I couldn't smell anything. I still liked to eat so I'm not sure if it affected my taste much. About 5 days ago I started noticing a very foul, chemical like smell in my bathroom. I assumed it was maybe my trash or toilet bowl. I then noticed that it was coming from me...down there. The smell was so chemical like I thought it had to be hormones spilling out from my Nuvaring. I smelled it so much when I wiped I thought it had to be that. At my annual exam I brought it up and my doctor told me it was just BV (bacterial vaginosis) but I didn't have any discharge, no itching, just this strong chemical like smell. I didn't quiet believe it and she didn't do a physical exam (which I'm now upset that she didn't). She just told me it would go away on its own. Then I started to smell it in my armpits and breath! I couldn't get away from it and I felt like everyone was smelling it too. It was so embarrassing. I smelled it on my toothpaste so I changed brands. I smelled it on my body wash so I switched. When I walked passed my shower after bathing it smelled so strong and I thought "why do I smell so bad??!!"

I searched online for hours trying to figure out what would make my vagina, breathe, and pits smell. I feared it was a deeper infection, tumor, or autoimmune disease. Upon finding this thread it sounds like this, altered sense of smell, is what is going on with me. I'm glad it's not my body that smells foul but rather my nose that is off. Now to see how long until I'm fixed...

[Dave2436]

Sounds like I'm not alone in my misery. In Dec 2014 I got hit with the flu that was going around, and it was a bad one. This particular strain apparently caused many people to lose their sense of smell, me being one. Both my wife and son got hit with the same flu but neither of them ended up losing their sense of smell. I started feeling better after a week but that quickly changed when I got pneumonia. I was sick for almost a month. Since then, my sense of smell was all but gone and I was left with a "sick smell" that can only be described as an infected gym sock. In the spring of 2015 I went to the doctor who prescribed  a 14 day round of Augmentin, the preferred sinus infection antibiotic. At day 10 I had to stop, as all it did was give me stomach cramps and diarrhea. I've read that this issue could clear on it's own and hoped that this would be the case. My wife recently started working as a nurse practitioner and had been seeing lots of patients with sinus problems and upper respiratory issues and she has been treating them with Keflex 500mg with great success. I decided to try this as well and started taking a ten day prescription, twice a day on Dec 1st. After about three days the "sick smell" disappeared leaving me with not much of a sense of smell, but just vague hints of normal smells, but the sick smell was gone!. I finished the antibiotics three days ago and the sick smell has not returned but I still cannot smell normally yet. Just getting rid of that nasty smell is a huge relief for me. I'm hoping if this sinus infection clears up further then the tissue will be able to heal and hopefully my sense of smell will slowly return. I've also used a Navage sinus cleaner on a daily basis which helped a bit to lessen the sick smell but it never got rid of it. I'm going to continue using it and hopefully it will flush out any remaining nastiness that might remain in the sinuses. Lastly, I was not expecting the Keflex to do anything as it is not among the list of usual antibiotics that are prescribed for sinus infections, but I am a believer now. I cannot explain how great it is to not have that awful smell all the time. I'd rather not smell anything than to have to smell that sick smell. If me sense of smell returns to normal I'll post a followup.

[Smellofdeath916]

I hit my head from a fall in a warehouse 14 months ago. I have no insurance or money and the smell began to go away very quickly. Not it is so horrible that I wonder how I make it through the day. Even water tastes horrible and the smell gets worse every day. How much longer will I be tortured?

[Smellofdeath916]

I hit my head from a fall in a warehouse 14 months ago. I have no insurance or money and the smell began to go away very quickly. Not it is so horrible that I wonder how I make it through the day. Even water tastes horrible and the smell gets worse every day. How much longer will I be tortured?

[joesardone]

Does anyone else use one of those toilet sprays? Like Poo-pourri? or Unicorn Gold? You spray it in the bowl before you 'go' - it's designed to block certain smells by bonding to the smell molecules. I feel like this, combined with sinus issues, is part of the problem.

[Tdif74]

Why does everything smell and taste like chemicals to me?