The Menopause Symptom I Never Knew Existed: Phantom Smells

Have you ever smelled something burning and asked everyone around you, “Do you smell that?” only to have them look at you like you’re losing it?

I have a version of this with eggs.

I’ll pick up a glass at a restaurant and smell eggs on the rim. I’ll smell it on a plate. Nobody else can smell it, so naturally I make my husband smell it too because I need confirmation that I’m not imagining things.

I never once considered that it could have anything to do with menopause.

Then I sat down with my friend Andrea Donsky for The Tamsen Show, and somehow we ended up talking about one of the strangest symptoms I’ve learned about yet: phantom smells.

Andrea is a nutritionist who has spent years researching perimenopause and menopause, including collecting symptom data from thousands of women. She also experienced phantom smells herself, beginning years before she understood that she was in perimenopause.

For her, it was the smell of something burning.

She would smell cigarettes, burnt toast, electrical wires or something that seemed like it was on fire, except there was no fire and nobody else could smell it.

And she is far from the only one.

Wait, Phantom Smells Can Happen in Menopause?

According to Andrea’s research, women in perimenopause and menopause have reported smelling things that don’t actually exist in their immediate environment.

The most commonly reported category in her research is something burning, including cigarette or cigar smoke, campfires, burnt toast, burnt coffee and burning electronics.

But women have also reported sulfur, gasoline, body odor, animal waste and other unusual smells. A smaller number have even described pleasant phantom smells like perfume, flowers, chicken soup or muffins.

I joked with Andrea that if I’m going to have a phantom smell, why couldn’t I get chocolate chip muffins?

What fascinated me most wasn’t even the list of smells. It was how familiar the experience sounded: something strange starts happening to your body, nobody around you is experiencing it, and you start wondering whether it’s all in your head.

How Many Menopause Symptoms Are We Still Not Talking About?

We’ve made enormous progress when it comes to talking about hot flashes and night sweats, but menopause can affect so many different systems in our bodies.

Andrea told me her symptom research now includes more than 100 reported symptoms, and some of the most common aren’t necessarily the ones we traditionally associate with menopause.

That matters because Andrea’s own perimenopause symptoms started at 36. She went to doctors, had MRIs and tests, and was told they couldn’t find anything wrong. It wasn’t until years later, after experiencing more symptoms and eventually having her first hot flash, that she began connecting the dots.

I think about how many women are having their own version of that experience right now.

Maybe it’s a smell nobody else notices. Maybe it’s suddenly being unable to tolerate a glass of wine. Maybe your digestion has completely changed, your brain feels foggy, or you’re exhausted in a way you’ve never experienced before.

Sometimes simply knowing that other women are experiencing something similar can be the beginning of asking better questions.

Of course, a new or unexplained smell disturbance shouldn’t automatically be assumed to be menopause. Andrea was very clear in our conversation that phantom smells can have different causes, so it’s something to discuss with your doctor and get checked out.

This Is Why We Have to Keep Talking About the Weird Stuff

The more conversations I have about menopause, the more convinced I am that we need to talk about the symptoms that sound too strange, embarrassing or random to mention.

Because somewhere there is another woman smelling something burning in an empty room and wondering what the hell is happening to her.

And she deserves to know she’s not the only one asking that question.

In my newest episode of The Tamsen Show, Andrea and I go much deeper into phantom smells, but we also talk about the other ways our bodies can change in perimenopause and menopause, including gut health, bloating, brain fog, fatigue, hot flashes, protein, fiber, magnesium and the foods and nutrients that may help support us through this stage of life.

Andrea’s new book, Nourishing Menopause, is out now, and you can hear our full conversation on The Tamsen Show.

And I have to ask: Have you ever experienced a phantom smell? What did you smell?

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