Loss of Taste and Smell from Covid or something else?

it may be one of the medications that you take. Prednisone did that to me and took away my taste buds for a period.

I’m not on Prednisone now, but was prescribed that for 10 days during my Covid infection. That’s the only drug that was prescribed, no Paxlovid. You say it took away your taste buds for a period. How long? I’m going on 2 years.

My sense of taste and smell dramatically improved over a period of weeks or months….attributed to either Vitamin B12 daily treatment or dissipation of the covid virus from my body. We make never know.

Wow that sounds like a long time. I was only 1 week.

Trust me, it is a long time…I’m having my 5th Stellate Ganglion Block Injection tomorrow! If you’re not aware, and why would you be, they are injections of Lidocaine into your parasympathetic nerves in your neck and the last one I had actually helped slightly, but now it’s all gone again. I will be inquiring about next steps. I need next steps!

It took a full year before I got my taste/smell back with no treatment

I have autoimmune dysfunction due to tacrolimus and a transplant. I had COVID in the summer of 2022. It was less than sniffles. I had all the shots, plus. the monoclonal antibodies forced on me twice that the FDA later quietly admitted didn't work and withdrew. I stopped the shots as my 3rd booster sent me to ED 7 days later with a heart attack in April 2022, four months before contracting COVID. No more of these vaccinations for me. I don't whether the shots or COVID sucked the life out of my ability to smell and taste, but it was one or both.

I have UCTD and have only recently realized my recent reduced (anosmia) and/or distorted sense of smell (parosmia) is probably due to a hitherto undiagnosed double round of mild Covid. Resaerch seems to point to immune dysfunction in the olfactory epithelia and neuronal loss post-Covid-19 as a cause of smell loss:
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/scitranslmed.add0484?rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed&url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org
Parosmia actually may be a regenerative sign, though it may require a long recovery time:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9731923/
Could it be that autoimmune disorders make one more susceptible to smell loss?
That seems to be a reasonable question, as SLE, RA & Sjogren’s may independently be able to affect olfactory function:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9955947/#:~:text=Interactions%20between%20the%20olfactory%20process,common%20in%20Omicron%2Dinfected%20patients.
I would be interested in hearing how others have fared with smell retraining. 👃

Whether it is temporary or permanent, can you change it? I hear of people distressed because they ended up with Tinnitus. I've had it for 63 yrs. I hear of people who have lost their sense of taste and/or smell, but mine has been about 80% gone (of both) since I was 13 yrs old. Mostly likely from the boat load of antibiotics given to me for cystic acne in my teen years. Meanwhile, my hearing was way above normal until I hit about 55 yrs old, then it's slowly diminished now to "normal," the same now as most other 70 yr olds. It turns out, all 3 of my siblings have been the same. I didn't even notice that either, until a few decades ago. If you can change it, good. If not, focus on what you can do, especially what you continue to be great at. It's what small children do best.

I look forward to reading these reports. I have an upcoming appointment with Rheumatologist for evaluation.