Sense of smell

[Phoenix_2812]

Just a quick question. How does transitioning affect ones sense of smell? I only ask because my sense of smell has been pretty much nonexistant since early childhood. I'm not sure I could ever smell anything. This has proven to be a real problem for meover the years. I can't even smell my own body odour, so I'm sure you can guess what that causes. What I'd like to know, mainly from mtfs, is if your sense of smell changed when you started transitioning? Did it become better if originally it was really bad or did it just become easier to sense things around you?

Thanks,

Chris

[suzifrommd]

I definitely notice smells more since starting E. But I could smell perfectly well before - I've just become more sensitive.

[Heather]

Yes it does just wait till you get around a man with cologne. My sense of smell was one of the first changes I noticed you get used to it after a while in someways it can be nice but get around somebody with some bo and it's not so nice. 

[Adam (birkin)]

I'm FTM, but I can say that transitioning definitely influenced my sense of smell. I smelled so many things before starting T. now, I don't notice a lot of smells most people do. Just yesterday, my brother was dog sitting and he had like three bags of poop because he couldn't find the community's garbage area. He said they stank, but I wouldn't have known they were there were it not for the flies.

[suzifrommd]

It kind of stands to reason. Back when the human race evolved, we would see females more likely involved in the preparation and storage of the meat, while the muscular males would more likely to be involved in hunting and killing it.

So females evolved a more sensitive smell to tell when the meat had gone bad. While the males, well when you charge into the bear's den (or whatever), you don't want to be distracted by what it smells like.

[Phoenix_2812]

Quite a few good answers here so far. Thanks.

The problem with my sense of smell, is that it's very random. 9 times out 10 I can't smell a thing (it's more like 95+%) and even in the summer, I can't smell anything. I imagine that if/when I start my transition that it might become a little more active, but going by some of the posts so far, it wouldn't change too much. I hate not being able to smell things and people around me, it makes me more uncomfortable than I normally am. If I spend any amount of time in a group, I'm not just constantly worried about fitting in with the other people around me, but I'm always wondering if my deoderant is doing a good enough job of masking my manly odour. And I though GD was bad enough.

Chris