2 yrs ago I went to the neuro with a lot of vague symptoms. He examined me and asked the usual questions.I told him I had lost my sense of smell 15 yrs previously,and he said that that was irrelavent because there would not have been such a time gap between losing the sense of smell and presenting with the first symptoms of Parkinsons. I had gone about 14 yrs with no symptoms at all. On the strength of that, he discounted the dx of PD. Two months ago I went to a different neuro and he dx me with PD. When I told him what the first neuro had told me, he said he agreed with what he had said and that I must have had plenty of symptoms during that 14 yrs. I said that I had not, but he discounted that and said it would be highly unusual. When I researched on this forum, it seemed that they were both wrong, and that my experience was not unusual at all.The second neuro said he specialised in PD, and I would like to present him with evidence from this forum, when I next see him, to show him that perhaps they should rethink on this topic. For two years I really clung to what the first neuro said, and it gave me false hope. Could I have anyone else's experiences on this, even if it different from mine? How long before the loss of smell and the first symptoms? Thanks in anticipation of your replies.

Hi Butterfly

At least 20 years for me

Just recalculated my age...... make that nearly 30 years

Hi Butterfly

I've know my hubby 25 years and he had no sense of smell when I met him.

I was dx 2 years ago. I complained that I couldn't smell the roses (seriously) at least 10 years ago

Ten to twenty years here, too.

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Complete or partial loss of the sense of smell is frequently one of the first PD symptoms to surface, although few people suffering from smell loss would even think of PD as a possible cause unless other (more familiar) PD symptoms accompany it. It's usually years later, after diagnosis, that hindsight allows us to track the deterioration of this sense over the intervening decades.

Smell actually makes up 70-75% of taste, so if you TOTALLY lose your sense of smell your sense of taste will also fall, to around 30% of its original effectiveness. In my own case I estimate I've lost about two-thirds of my sense of smell over 30 years, so my overall sense of taste should be at 50%.

This more or less matches my own experience. In my own case, mild flavours from my youth now seem bland and tasteless, whereas I now love flavours which used to seem far too powerful: gorgonzola, anchovies, etc.

Ray.
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dx 5 years. started to lose my sense 10 years or so before then and had lost it completely when dx.
good luck

Read only this morning on, I think it was the National Parkinson's Foundation:Ask the Doctor, that it is certain smells such as banana and liquorice. Any comments?

I can smell virtually nothing these days. From perfume to doggy-do's, from roses to rancid milk. Drives o/h mad!