My sense of smell has gone strange in pe

Book a GP/clinic appointment this week, and start a ten-minute smell log tonight. Three weeks of smelling things other people don't is worth being looked at even though you feel fine — it is not an emergency tonight, but it shouldn't sit another month.

Book it in 10 minutes, today. Phone or online, your usual primary-care clinic, a routine appointment in the next week — a nurse line or a GP both work for this. Say the whole thing in one sentence: *"For three weeks my sense of smell has changed and I smell things nobody else does. I'd like it checked."* That sentence is enough; you don't need to have explained it to yourself first.

Is it hormonal? This is not a diagnosis and it doesn't replace a clinician — here's what I can tell you honestly: smell change is not on the NHS's list of common menopause symptoms. That list covers periods, hot flushes, sleep, mood and brain fog, weight, vaginal, UTIs, palpitations, bones, bladder, headaches, aches, hair, skin, libido and teeth/gums. (nhs.uk/conditions/menopause-and-perimenopause/symptoms/, page checked 15 Oct 2026.) Hormones *can* change how the brain reads smells, and so can dry indoor air, sinus drip, a recent cold and some medicines. So treat "hormonal?" as a question for the appointment, not a verdict to wait out. Either answer leads to the same next step.

What this can't cover: I can't test your sense of smell, name the cause, or tell you which treatment — if any — would help. I have no coverage for *why* your nose is doing this, and I'd rather leave it blank than guess. Naming it needs an examination of your nose and throat, your medicines and your history.

1) What you've tried vs. what works better

Tonight, ~25 minutes, in three small blocks:

1. Log, 5 minutes. Three columns on paper or your phone: time → what you smelled → what you were doing (cooking, lying down, after a hot flush, before bed). Also tick: slept OK / blocked or runny nose / hot flush that day. That's it. Do it while it happens, not from memory.
2. Sweep, 10 minutes. Lid the bin. Wipe or replace the kitchen sponge and tea towels (they are the usual culprits). Check the fridge for anything in a drawer or at the back. Run the extractor or open a window when you cook, and let a pot of water go on the stove — damp air and steam settle nasal mucus and make everything feel thicker. If you use a gas hob or heater and you ever get a *gas* smell: leave the house with everyone and call your gas emergency line from outside. That's a different problem, and it's the one home smell that is never hormonal.
3. Tell one person, 2 minutes. Use the scripts below.

Sleep matters more than any kitchen trick here: perimenopause nights with hot flushes fragment sleep, and a tired brain reports smells more easily. If you're also being woken by night sweats, that's another thing to say on the phone when you book.

2) Constraints and the avoid list

• Don't start, stop or change any medicine, hormone, supplement or nasal product — including things sold as hormone-balance or "hormonal support". That decision is the prescriber's, with your own history in front of them.
• No online prescription medicines, no "hormone balancing" powders or gummies bought off the internet or shared with a friend. Unregulated, unlabelled, and impossible to check.
• Don't keep ignoring it. Three weeks of persistent phantosmia is exactly the point where a booked appointment beats more waiting.
• Don't let anyone argue you out of it. Not a doctor, not the family. Nobody in the house needs to test you with onions or lemon to prove whether it's "real" — that only adds stress.
• Don't trust your nose for food safety this month. Use dates, fridge temperature and cooking, not smell. If things seem off, throw them out rather than sniffing again.
• Don't dose anyone else. No smells or powders given to the elder, a sibling or a pet as a "fix".

3) Red flags — when to stop DIY and get help

Call your local emergency number now if any of these appear — don't wait to see if it passes:

• One side of your face or body goes weak or numb, your speech goes slurred or doesn't make sense, or your vision goes. Even if it eases in a few minutes.
• A fit or seizure, or you lose consciousness.
• New confusion — muddled, drifting in and out, not quite yourself, or seeing/hearing things other people don't.
• Hearing voices, or losing touch with what's real in a way that frightens you or makes you feel unsafe.
• Any thought of harming yourself. Stay with someone; don't be alone with it.

Note the time it started and have someone stay with you. Everything else — a gradual three-week drift with no other symptoms — is the routine-appointment path above, not the ambulance.

A decision tree you can screenshot:

• New weakness / speech / vision / a fit / new confusion / hearing voices / unsafe feelings → emergency number, now, stay with someone.
• No sudden change, just weeks of altered smell → routine appointment this week, with the log.
• It started suddenly, or after a head injury, a cold or sinus infection, or alongside one-sided facial pressure or dental work → say that word-for-word on the phone and ask for the first available slot rather than a routine one.
• It clears up completely and stays clear for a few weeks → keep the log, keep the appointment anyway.

Scripts to screenshot

Booking the appointment: *"For three weeks my sense of smell has changed — I smell things nobody else does, and it started around when my periods started changing. I'd like a routine appointment and I'd like to bring a log of when it happens."*

To the elder or a sibling who offers to help with the school run: *"I'm booking a doctor for a smell thing. It's not urgent, and I'm well. I'd rather have it checked than keep guessing — that's why I'm going."* (And: yes to the lift, no to driving yourself if the smells disorient you.)

If the kids ask what you're smelling: *"Mum's going to the doctor about it on Thursday. It's not catching and it's nothing you did. You don't need to do anything."*

To whoever says it's in your head: *"I know you don't smell it. I know it's not there. I'm still going to get it checked, because it's been three weeks and it's my nose."*

Questions worth asking the clinician (take the log with you): could this be my hormones, or something in my nose or sinuses, or a medicine? Is anything I take worth reviewing? Should anything change, or is it a watch-and-log? What should bring me back straight away? Could you check my sense of smell properly and my nose/throat?

What success looks like in 24 hours — not a cure, and I won't promise one: the appointment is booked with a date on it, you have 5–6 log entries with times, you know your two emergency signs cold, and the kitchen sweep is done. If you also sleep a bit better with a ventilated kitchen and less dry air, that's a bonus, not a promise. Three weeks is the amount of time a smell change gets *checked* — it isn't the amount of time you have to put up with it.

One thing that changes the timing: did the change come on gradually over the three weeks, or did it switch suddenly one day? And is your nose blocked, or is there pressure on one side of your face?

*No figures in this answer are estimates — there are no numbers to verify. The NHS symptom list was read this turn; no phone number is included because no city or country was given, and I won't guess one from language.*