HRT side-effect: taste buds?

[Pat]

Has anyone else found their ability to taste things enhanced by HRT? I've been on the program for a couple of months now and I'm starting to see certain effects but in the last few days my taste buds have really gone into overdrive. I've always liked wine, but for me it's always been red-tasting or white-tasting and all the subtle nuance flavors listed in the descriptions seemed like science fiction and pretense to me. But last night I had a glass of a wine I'm very familiar with but I could taste blackberry and a hint of a cinnamon flavor hiding under the tannins. I mentioned it and we pulled out the description and that was exactly what they said should be there. And this morning breakfast tasted incredible -- I could pick out the individual component flavors in a way I'd never experienced before.

I haven't seen this on the list of things to expect from HRT and was wondering if it's related or coincidence?

[JanePeterson]

I did notice an improvement to my sense of smell within a few weeks of starting HRT

[Zooey]

Smell and taste can definitely be affected. There are foods that I definitely enjoy more than I used to, although part of it is that what foods I periodically crave have also shifted a bit.

[jentay1367]

Seems like it may be so, but I quit smoking when I started so it could conflate the issue. We change habits and perspectives when we start, so who knows if hrt is the actual or only cause. I have personally developed a craving for hot and spicy foods.....go figure?

[Emma Beth]

I noticed that a little earlier this week with mine.

OMG, don't get me started on the Dove chocolate treat I had that day. Or the Gyro I had for lunch. They blew my mind away with how good they were, and I noticed a lot more to the taste than I normally would. Now it seems more subtle than what was happening that day.

It's almost as if that day they awakened and now I'm getting used to the difference.

[Christina Kay]

Taste changed somewhat, but sense of smell. Oh wow. I'm still presenting male at work, oh boy the difference in them (odor)is ,,,ahhh really doesn't do anything for me, and it's ...well a can of frabreeze might be in my tool bag soon.

[LeaP]

Any connection between hormones and sense of smell is speculative. Natal females have more olfactory cells than males - if you had them, there would be no difference before vs. after starting hormones. Women DO often experience differences in their sense of smell throughout their monthly cycle, but no-one has nailed that down to hormones.

Maybe - just maybe - you're paying attention more.

[Barbara Dugan]

My sense of smell did change with HRT,my taste sense I think is the same.

[AllieSF]

Lea, if estrogen can start breast growth why can't it have a physical, not mental, effect on the sense of smell, which is needed for taste?

[Zooey]

I think it would be difficult, without a biopsy, to determine whether an enhanced sense of smell is due to tissue changes and more inputs being triggered (i.e. more olfactory cells developing) or an increased neurological response to those inputs due to hormonal changes. I think both are technically possible, although the latter is far more likely.

[LeaP]

The olfactory cells I mentioned are in the brain, not the nasal passages. Ya got what ya got.

[Barbara Dugan]

I lost my sense of taste for a couple of month due to a side effect of a medicine, I kind of know about that, I ve been working on the same place for eight years, a place full of sweaty guys from all diferent ethnic groups and believe me my sense of smell have changed.

[arbon]

I don't remember a change like that. But was mentally occupied with my life crashing down around me at the time so who knows.