But a heightened sense of smell isn't always a bad thing — you may just notice things more strongly than usual. If it's really bothering you, there are some tips to try.
This includes perfumes, bath and body products, scented candles, etc. Some things you can't avoid, like car exhaust or your partner's meal, so having a pleasant counter-smell can help," Blumenfeld says. Other people prefer peppermint. Additionally, the traditional morning sickness suggestions should help with any queasiness your heightened sense of smell may bring.
Is there anything an expectant mom can do to tame the effects of her new bloodhound-like schnozz? Bohn recommends avoiding strong smells and doing the things that minimize morning sickness. What else can you do? Try washing your clothes often since odors cling to fibers , switch to unscented cleaners and toiletries and surround yourself with the scents that you still like.
Lighter scents like lemon and mint might help quell your nausea. Like many early pregnancy symptoms , a superhuman sense of smell usually recedes in the second trimester. Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. As with so many pregnancy symptoms, when it comes to your keener sense of smell, you can once again blame those pregnancy hormones.
In this case, estrogen can make every little scent that wafts your way feel like an all-out assault on your nostrils. You can't cut off your nose, but you can try to avoid scents that drive you crazy especially those that ramp up your nausea and other pregnancy symptoms. Some strategies to try:. This is one of those mom-to-be experiences you'll have to wait out until the later months or after your baby is born. Think of it as your very own pregnancy superpower!
For many women, sensitivity to strong and sometimes icky smells starts to subside fairly quickly and early in pregnancy. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations.
Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy. The educational health content on What To Expect is reviewed by our medical review board and team of experts to be up-to-date and in line with the latest evidence-based medical information and accepted health guidelines, including the medically reviewed What to Expect books by Heidi Murkoff.
For example, West and Doty pointed out that there is considerable inconsistency in the epilepsy literature, Murphy et al. In light of evidence that self-reported chemosensory function can be unreliable Nordin et al. Given that the self-report data suggest the presence of hyperosmia in pregnancy, it is important to distinguish between the measures used to assess olfaction in pregnant women, some of which, at least on the surface, do not appear to measure sensitivity per se.
This section reviews the literature on olfactory detection and recognition thresholds. Several studies have examined the effect of pregnancy on olfactory detection thresholds. Savovic et al. Thresholds were determined by the smallest volume of air, presented during normal inspiration, that resulted in the detection of an odor.
There were no significant differences between the detection thresholds of pregnant and non-pregnant women. Laska et al. The finding from Laska et al. While the decrease in detection threshold in late pregnancy is consistent with Laska et al. More recently, Cameron measured detection thresholds for PEA longitudinally across the three trimesters of pregnancy in 23 women and found no significant differences in detection threshold between pregnant women and 25 non-pregnant controls. This study employed the standard 1-up, 2-down staircase method, as described by Doty The only study in the literature that clearly demonstrated a significant decrease in olfactory detection thresholds in early pregnancy was conducted by Luvara and Murizi For each of four odors anise, musk ketone, carnation, and citral , the authors established detection thresholds using the blast-injection technique Elsberg and Levy, There were 47 women tested in this study, some of whom were tested twice in two phases of pregnancy or during pregnancy and postpartum.
Doty previously conducted statistical analyses of these data and reported that all comparisons were significant. Data from Luvara and Murizi Threshold in cubic centimeter, as measured by the blast injection technique across pregnancy trimester and postpartum.
There were a total of 47 participants; 14—21 per session and some participated in more than one session. Of particular interest, with respect to the purported heightened sensitivity in early pregnancy, is that there is a significant difference in thresholds between the first trimester and the postpartum period. To my knowledge, this constitutes the only empirical support in the literature for lower olfactory detection thresholds in early pregnancy 4. However, the blast-injection technique, unlike other measures of threshold, may reflect changes in nasal engorgement in the later stages of pregnancy see Pregnancy and the Nose.
It is worthy of note that all of the studies that have measured olfactory detection thresholds in pregnant women have employed validated methods for measuring thresholds; these methods are sensitive to differences in smell function between sexes and age groups Doty et al. Thus, failure to observe changes in olfactory detection thresholds in pregnant women is unlikely due to the method employed.
However, some cases of increased sensitivity to odors have been demonstrated using sensitive signal detection measures.
For example, Doty et al. Cameron adopted the same method as Doty et al. In this method, hits refer to trials in which the signal was present and the participant said it was and false alarms refer to trials in which the signal was not present but the participant said it was. Cameron employed this signal detection paradigm, albeit with a smaller number of trials than used by Doty et al. The data suggest that pregnant women exhibit a more liberal criterion i.
A more liberal criterion would be consistent with the greater number of false alarms reported in Good et al. In summary, there is only limited evidence for decreased in olfactory detection thresholds hyperosmia in pregnant women, even using sensitive measures and despite the self-reported increase in sensitivity. Two studies have measured olfactory recognition thresholds in pregnant women.
Hansen and Glass , using a Zwaardemaker olfactometer and a method of ascending limits, tested 22 women and found that recognition sensitivity was lower at the end of pregnancy compared to two postpartum periods 2—3 days or 2—3 months after delivery for all three odors tested rubber, rose oil, and nitrobenzene bitter almonds. Doty reported that the differences between the thresholds in the two postpartum periods were not statistically significant, but that they were both significantly lower than thresholds at the end of pregnancy.
Data from Hansen and Glass Sensitivity inverse of threshold for recognition for each of three odors, plotted for the end of pregnancy and two postpartum test sessions. Zwaardemaker olfactometer was used to measure thresholds of 22 participants who were followed longitudinally. Noferi and Giudizi compared recognition thresholds for a lemon odor using the blast-injection technique in a cross-sectional study.
Again, this may be due to the method of testing. Data from Noferi and Giudizi Recognition thresholds for non-pregnant, pregnant, and postpartum women. Blast olfactometer was used to determine recognition thresholds for lemon. There were 15 participants per group in a cross-sectional design.
In summary, the data on recognition thresholds suggests that late pregnancy is a period of low sensitivity recognition thresholds are high relative to the postpartum period.
These results are inconsistent with the detection threshold results from Cameron , Good et al. The inconsistency between the self-reported increased olfactory sensitivity in pregnant women and the lack of evidence of decreased olfactory detection or recognition thresholds begs the following questions: How is olfactory processing affected by pregnancy?
Do pregnant women outperform non-pregnant women on other olfactory tasks, such as odor identification? And do pregnant women rate the intensity and hedonicity of odors differently than non-pregnant women? This section reviews the literature on the effect of pregnancy on several measures of olfaction other than thresholds.
Eight studies have assessed odor identification in pregnant women Gilbert and Wysocki, ; Laska et al. Participants were instructed to scratch and sniff the odor and then to select one of the following words that best described the odor: no odor, floral, musky, urine, foul, ink, spicy, woody, fruity, burnt, sweet, and other. They found no significant general effect of pregnancy status on odor identification, except that pregnant women were able to identify clove significantly more readily.
Participants sniffed the odors presented in squeeze bottles and were instructed to generate a name or attempt to describe the odor 6. Despite different methods, the results were consistent with Gilbert and Wysocki in that pregnant women outperformed non-pregnant women in identifying eugenol. However, they were less able to provide appropriate descriptors or accurate names for peanut, banana, aniseed, and lemon.
No data were presented as to the relative ability to identify specific odors. Consistent with these studies, Kim et al. Swallow et al. Non-pregnant women outperformed pregnant women and men, but correct identification overall for strawberry was relatively poor and worse than for other odors Swallow, personal communication.
Finally, Cameron measured odor identification in pregnant women 20 in each trimester , 20 non-pregnant controls and 20 women in the postpartum period on the item scratch and sniff University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test UPSIT; Doty et al. However, watermelon was identified significantly better by pregnant women 7.
In summary, odor identification has been explored in pregnant women using a wide range of odors, with several methods, and in a number of different cultural contexts. There is no evidence that pregnant women generally identify odors consistently better than non-pregnant controls. In fact, some studies have even reported a tendency for worse performance in pregnancy, at least for some odors Laska et al. Notwithstanding these negative findings, there is evidence that pregnant women identify some odors better than controls [clove by Gilbert and Wysocki and Laska et al.
Olfactory perception in pregnant women has also been assessed by means of odor intensity ratings. Gilbert and Wysocki found that two odors isoamyl acetate and a mixture of mercaptans of six were rated as significantly more intense by pregnant women compared to controls, but they also found that two other odors androstenone and galaxolide were rated as significantly less intense by pregnant women compared to controls.
Pregnant women rated only two galaxolide and androstenone of 12 odors to be statistically significantly more intense, but this was not consistent, nor stable across pregnancy. There were no statistically significant differences in the intensity ratings between pregnant women and controls in either study.
In a questionnaire study, Nordin et al. It must be noted, however, that this was a self-report measure, and not one based on rating of odors that were being smelled at the time of testing. In summary, although overall odor intensity ratings do not appear to be higher in pregnant than non-pregnant women, there is some evidence that odor intensity ratings for select odors are higher in pregnant women than in controls. Another metric of olfactory perception that has been employed to assess the impact of pregnancy on olfaction is hedonic or pleasantness ratings of odors.
Six studies have examined the rating of odor hedonics in pregnancy Gilbert and Wysocki, ; Laska et al. Cameron reported there was a tendency for pregnant women to rate most odors on the UPSIT as less pleasant than controls. Orange, grape, and natural gas were rated as significantly less pleasant by pregnant women compared to controls.
Only peanut was statistically significantly rated to be less pleasant by pregnant women across all trimesters of pregnancy. There was no consistent pattern across the remainder of the odors. There are relatively few studies that report that pregnant women rate odors as more pleasant.
Compared to the odors that are rated as less pleasant, there are relatively fewer odors that are rated as more pleasant, and the results are not consistent across pregnancy. Gilbert and Wysocki reported that androstenone was rated as significantly more pleasant in pregnant women pregnancy phase not known.
Cameron reported that only one of 39 odors fruit punch was rated to be marginally more pleasant in the first trimester of pregnancy, and Laska et al.
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