How a woman’s strong sense of smell doesn’t always mean someone is pregnant
For the pregnant woman on the 9-month-long journey to delivering her baby, although a strong sense of smell is absolutely to be expected, as much as a sharp taste bud, the sensitivity isn’t limited to this particular field.
For every time a woman confirms a heightened sense of smell going on within her body, the tendency often might be that 10 people out of a hundred probably think such to be currently expecting a baby, which was almost the exact scenario Meiza Nigeria found when a social media profile tweeted one frequently asked question surrounding the topic on the evening of Oscars 2025.
Reactions coming from both male and female audiences on Sunday, 2 March agree that a woman reporting an exceptionally strong olfaction – it might just be that she is pregnant – although that isn’t the only reason science points to when searching for answers about multilevel hyperosmia.
In her cute little world, maybe the X profile _harnar who wanted to know what was going on in her body had been reacting to trauma that comes along intensely picking up scents, rushing up to follow the self-diagnosed analysis on her page could lead a person astray.
Particularly since those analyses are from random strangers, possibly off somewhere using public transit to a destination they are trying to reach under limited time or at home on a couch lurking behind a keypad, instead of being experts.
My sense of smell is stronger than before. What is happening? The speed at which _harnar’s tweet reached a diverse range of communities and how the responses appeared one-directional reveals a vital conversation that every gender should be having about women’s health so that the proper context might be spared.
In this case, the restricted public view will not get the entire stage due to other factors that bring about hyperosmia beyond pregnancy.
There were trivial replies to the Sunday tweet, like the reaction from Banks thinking that’s the universe saying you should start a perfume business as the explanation to the Sunday tweet, but understanding hyperosmia, a term that means having an overwhelming sensitivity to smells, means to know that this is a condition not peculiar to pregnant women in their first trimester alone.
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There are many reasons behind this change in smell. WebMD points to genetics, hormone changes, and migraines.
For the pregnant woman on the 9-month-long journey to delivering her baby, although a strong sense of smell is absolutely to be expected, as much as a sharp taste bud, the sensitivity isn’t limited to this particular field.
Like at a judicial court sentencing, most comments engaging to _harnar’s query about what was happening in her body carried an authoritative header pointing out what was supposed to be obvious. You are pregnant, several tweets asserted to create a pile of threads underneath her post.
Sometimes, to drive focus, the threads carry an exclamation mark, but now the emphasis is on other reasons for hyperosmia often missed due to low education on this quite so common experience that humans go through.
Hyperosmia, says WebMD, can be temporary and minor or have lasting effects and be a sign of a more serious condition. That’s why anyone who feels caught up in such a moment ought to find out if there’s an underlying cause behind this change in smell and taste they are going through.
Before reaching the verdict, Meiza Nigeria already sieved through reliable sources for a quick a run-through of other reasons for hyperosmia that anyone who seeks better empowerment about their well-being should get familiar with.
So, here is off to doing that, but not without first showing the researcher a bit more about the popular pick, which we suppose you can guess by now. It is about the connection between hyperosmia and the early weeks of a woman being fertile.
Pregnancy.
During a woman’s pregnancy, it is expected that she will develop changes in her senses of smell and taste. Hyperosmia is most commonly found in these pregnant women. The changes will mostly happen in the first few months of pregnancy. On this side of the coin, foods and smells become unbearable to the preggies and may make them feel like they want to vomit.
Migraines.
After carrying a baby, there has been a migraine. Yes! It is one of the factors. Hyperosmia can happen when one gets a migraine – it happens in both women and men. This heightened sense of smell will happen during the headache phase of your migraine.
Neurological conditions.
Always best not to be in this kind of situation, but when it comes, seizures that come from the middle of your temporal lobe – that is, the part of one’s brain where memories are deposited – can provide a false sense of strong odors. What is often rated as an olfactory hallucination, which comes right before a seizure happens.
Autoimmune diseases.
It was WebMD’s painstakingly gathered position that a connection exists between autoimmune disorders and changes to one’s olfactory system. The link greatly depends on environmental and hereditary factors, according to the experts.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
