I tested positive early last week and lost my senses of taste and smell about 3 days ago. I feel fine otherwise, but not being able to taste and smell is absolutely driving me crazy.

When did it return for other people on here? I know it's different for some, but should I expect this to be long term or short term?

I lost Taste on Day 1 of symptoms and Smell on Day 4. Taste returned on Day 3 and Smell on Day 8 (today).
Oddly, all of my symptoms were gone by Day 4, which is when smell vanished.
The guy I caught it from still doesn't have smell, and he is four days ahead of me. YMMV

I lost sense of taste and smell for a full week. By two weeks I was back to 75%. After a month I was pretty much back to normal. I had a very mild case, but this might have been the part that freaked me out the most. Hang in there!

beagle2009 said:

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I lost sense of taste and smell for a full week. By two weeks I was back to 75%. After a month I was pretty much back to normal. I had a very mild case, but this might have been the part that freaked me out the most. Hang in there!

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Pretty much my experience as well. Smell took the longest to come back full and still seems off months later

I never lost taste, but smell was completely gone for about 3 weeks.

I'm 3 months down the road now, and my sense of smell is still not back to normal. Maybe 60 to 70% right now.

Loss of taste and smell were my first symptoms and I am just over three weeks in and neither have returned.

Never had a symptom, save for loss of taste and smell. Completely gone for about 3 weeks, came back very slowly and has never really returned in full. That was in early August.

My Dad Earl said:

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I tested positive early last week and lost my senses of taste and smell about 3 days ago. I feel fine otherwise, but not being able to taste and smell is absolutely driving me crazy.

When did it return for other people on here? I know it's different for some, but should I expect this to be long term or short term?

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Bright side, if you wanted to lose some weight, it will never been easier to consume kale and other vegetables.

texagbeliever said:

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My Dad Earl said:

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I tested positive early last week and lost my senses of taste and smell about 3 days ago. I feel fine otherwise, but not being able to taste and smell is absolutely driving me crazy.

When did it return for other people on here? I know it's different for some, but should I expect this to be long term or short term?

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Bright side, if you wanted to lose some weight, it will never been easier to consume kale and other vegetables.

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Haha. My wife has lost her taste and smell too and we were talking about how this is the perfect time to get super healthy by making broccoli and kale smoothies.

I had a bundle of symptoms that KIND of said COVID but really didn't match up. My symptoms would appear and disappear within hours. I had about 90 minutes of nausea one evening, then fine. I'd have a headache that would last a couple of hours and go away. I did have a little cough, but it was productive, and everything says that is allergies or sinus, COVID cough is supposed to be dry. So I kept ignoring all this, until I lost smell. Oops. Never had fever, never short of breath, never fatigued (more than normal), never achy.

I've been without smell for about 11 days, other than that feel great. Never lost taste. All other symptoms gone.

Mine came back after about 5 days. Tuesday night I couldn't smell anything at all. That Saturday, the wife gave me a chili dog that Saturday (4th of July) and suddenly I could smell it and taste it.

BigN--00 said:

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Mine came back after about 5 days. Tuesday night I couldn't smell anything at all. That Saturday, the wife gave me a chili dog that Saturday (4th of July) and suddenly I could smell it and taste it.

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Did it come back suddenly or slowly? Does anything taste or smell differently?

My Dad Earl said:

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BigN--00 said:

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Mine came back after about 5 days. Tuesday night I couldn't smell anything at all. That Saturday, the wife gave me a chili dog that Saturday (4th of July) and suddenly I could smell it and taste it.

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Did it come back suddenly or slowly? Does anything taste or smell differently?

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Very suddenly and quite unexpected. I had been checking it all week by smelling my deodorant stick to see if it was back but had not checked it that day.

After a flavorless week of food, everything tasted amazing.

VKint said:

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In my practice very common to lose it for a few days, usually 1-2. Have had 2 people that have gone months with out taste or smell. Nothing I am aware of that helps. Tried steroids on one, did nothing. I think it is just a matter of time.

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I had the idea of trying smelling salts to see if I could "wake up" my senses. What would you say to that?

Don't think a blast of noxious odor will wake up the cells. If you try it be sure and let us know what happens.
The cause has to do with damage to cells in the olfactory system. There is a guy at Johns Hopkins that wrote about smell training, he compared it to rehab.. Way out of my field. Need an ENT to comment
Here is a very technical paper about what happens.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/31/eabc5801

VKint said:

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Don't think a blast of noxious odor will wake up the cells. If you try it be sure and let us know what happens.
The cause has to do with damage to cells in the olfactory system. There is a guy at Johns Hopkins that wrote about smell training, he compared it to rehab.. Way out of my field. Need an ENT to comment
Here is a very technical paper about what happens.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/31/eabc5801

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I tried it. Didn't do anything. Oh well I'll just have to be patient.

I am about 50% smelling ability right now after losing it 7 days ago. Thankfully, I should be full up by Thanksgiving

My dtr lost them for 2 months. And she still says her taste is abnormal.

VKint said:

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Don't think a blast of noxious odor will wake up the cells. If you try it be sure and let us know what happens.
The cause has to do with damage to cells in the olfactory system. There is a guy at Johns Hopkins that wrote about smell training, he compared it to rehab.. Way out of my field. Need an ENT to comment
Here is a very technical paper about what happens.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/31/eabc5801

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I agree with your assessment of the utility (or futility) of noxious odor exposure.
I had read your article before. The summary is that SARS CoV-2 affects support cells for the sensory neurons, rather than the direct neurons themselves. Because this is a different mechanism than the normal anosmia/hyposmia/dysosmia that we see from viral URIs, it's going to take more time to determine just how well people resolve their olfactory issues.
The article below also mentions sensory training. I have never really been a big believer in this for recuperation of smell, but I also can't see how the simple recommendations they make would hurt.
Smell loss from Covid

I started the smell training at the week mark and I am at week four and still nothing.

I'm at around 80% normal smell.
On another good note, I did a 6 mile hike in 2 hours yesterday; HR was a little higher than normal, but overall I'm glad my recovery is on track. My RHR is back down to 50 as well

I never had a positive test, so cant say for sure rona. However, I lost my smell on day 3 of symptoms, which included aches/chills, slight fever for 2 evenings around bedtime and mild headaches. The day I lost my smell was also my last day of fever and minor symptoms.

I am now 4.5 weeks after losing smell and still dont have it back. I still have the mild headaches 3-4 days a week. I seldom take anything for the headache because it is mild enough that it doesnt sideline me. I never fully lost taste, but I would say sometimes its as low as 25%. Some foods just dont have that pizzazz like they did before illness. Its hard to describe.

moore42 said:

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I never had a positive test, so cant say for sure rona.

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With my TexAgs certification let me assure you that you had the rona.

Seriously, good luck getting over the long hauler headaches. That's a little bit scary.

Two weeks after losing my smell, it has completely returned. I am glad whiskey doesn't taste like vodka anymore

I'm on day 11 after my first symptoms (day 10 after my positive test), and my taste and smell have "returned" only to about 10% level so far.

Started losing my sense of smell at day 4, gone completely at day 7.

Now at day 14 and it is starting to return.

I had a mild case otherwise.

I tested positive on Oct. 20 and had the real illness until Nov. 6. I had modified taste and / or lost taste thoughout. However, there are still a few things that don't taste right, like coffee. All I can taste is the roast taste, nothing else.

Rock1982 said:

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Started losing my sense of smell at day 4, gone completely at day 7.

Now at day 14 and it is starting to return.

I had a mild case otherwise.

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Gone completely at day 7, back completely at day 16. I think I am symptom free.

Gone day 4 and I am now at day 8 and still nothing.

I was at 2 weeks without taste and smell last Saturday, still don't have either back as of today.

My Dad Earl said:

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I was at 2 weeks without taste and smell last Saturday, still don't have either back as of today.

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That stinks. Hope they come back soon for you. I was frustrated by 5 days of no smell

I started feeling fatigued Saturday after we deep cleaned the house all day. We got take out Mexican and I noticed I couldn't really taste my dinner. Saturday night had a 100 fever and went to bed. Haven't had fever since. Sunday noticed I couldn't taste anything. Got tested today and hope to have the results by tomorrow but pretty sure it will be positive since I have zero taste and maybe 10% smell.

I feel fine other than it feels like my nasal cavity is on fire. Kind of a crappy time to lose your sense of taste and smell, but I'm going to take advantage and try to just eat healthy and maybe lose a few pounds.