I specifically created an account here because even though this is super old, I just had to chime in. I was both surprised and relieved to find this thread, as I was beginning to believe I was the only person on the planet blessed (or cursed) with a “Tylenol nose”… believe me I’ve discussed it with MANY people. It’s the strangest thing and ONLY happens with acetaminophen… and that includes any medication containing acetaminophen no matter how small the percentage. I also experience the smell with liquid elixirs I wasn’t even aware contained Tylenol only to recognize that familiar weird odor shortly after ingestion and a quick label check of active ingredients confirms YEP! It’s in there. So I know it’s not psychological. I must add, this is not the odor of the tablets themselves, this is after they have been swallowed and had time to take effect. I usually begin to notice the smell about 20 minutes after ingestion. I too have always thought I was smelling the medication through the blood vessels that pass through my nose but why would acetaminophen be the ONLY chemical to ignite this strange phenomenon. I really wish someone would do some kind of study and get to the bottom of this. Who knows what new doors unlocking this mystery could open up regarding human biology/physiology.
But mainly because it has always BAFFLED me!
Also, I could use a little vindication because I’m fairly certain I’ve convinced some people that I’m crazy with this “blood smelling” notion.
Welcome to SDMB, Cblazer! I want you and the others in this thread to know: this is extremely weird, but I believe you all. What’s almost as weird is that apparently this is the only online community in the world in which this thing is being discussed. (I do assume the Tylenol people are reading this and planning drastic damage-control measures if this ever gets out into the mainstream media.)
I had a very strange medical issue years ago myself, and found a fellow traveler here on this board. Gotta love this place. Smell on, Tylenol-smellers!
Well mark me down as another person who made an account and helped revive this zombie thread. After mentioning it to a few people, and none of them having any idea what I was talking about, I decided to go on a mission to figure out why I could smell/taste acetaminophen this is the only place I found where people were actually talking about it. I seen where a couple people mentioned how they could taste and feel IV’s also, so I thought I would mention that happens to me also, but I think that is definitely more common than it is with the acetaminophen phenomenon. What’s a little different for me is I have been taking tylenol all my life, but I didn’t start having this effect until about 11 years ago. Idk if I’ll get any answers since this is quite an old thread, but I thought I’d ask a couple other questions just to see if there might be a common factor between some of us that could be causing this.
First, I have severe sinusitis. I never had sinus issues as a child, my sinus issues started when I was pregnant with my youngest. After having him is when I started taking daily sinus medicine. Oddly enough, this is the same time I noticed being able to smell/taste acetaminophen. So I thought maybe it could be because of some kind of small interaction with my sinus medicine, or my sinuses themselves, anyone else experience the same?
Second, I have had my gall bladder removed. I don’t think this has anything to do with it, but thought it worth mentioning since it does change the way we digest certain foods, and IDK if that would have any effect on
how we digest medicine.
Last, and this is really kind of embarrassing and TMI, but I tend to have issues with my bowels. I get backed up a lot, which from what I understand is opposite of normal people without a gallbladder. Which makes me wonder if I can smell/taste the acetaminophen because it takes a little while longer before I am able to actually digest the medicine completely, causing me to have too much in my system? That’s just a theory though, I really don’t know if that would make sense at all.
I’ve been experiencing this for as long as I can remember but it’s only with the adult acetaminophen . I don’t have a gallbladder but I don’t feel like that has anything to do with it.
I had a Doctor tell me it was a minor allergic reaction but also not verified .
I’ve had the same experience with Tylenol every time I take it. I first noticed it in high school, probably 25 years ago when taking Tylenol Cold, but it happens with any form of Tylenol I take.
It kicks in 20-30 minutes after taking and it smells slightly sweet and slightly musty. I also have a pleasant relaxed feeling that kicks in at the same time. Ibuprofen and other otc pain killers do not affect me in these ways.
I’ve only had this experience with Tylenol. No smell with IV’s. I’m also not overly sensitive to any smells or tastes. I still have my gallbladder, and no liver issues that I’m aware of. I’d love to find out the real reason behind this, but it seems to be really rare.
I get the phantom smell 15 minutes in from the red coated Tylenol. Its very pleasant too! I would have to describe it has a hickory smoke/bacon smell or similar to an exploded pen of ink. But its faint when im not sniffing. Its weird. When i get the sensation i notice im feeling better! Its also only acetaminophen not ibuprofen or any other pain reliever
Add me as another person who smells acetaminophen! I think there is a genetic factor. It happens to my 9 year old son, too. I usually give him acetaminophen or ibuprofen when he is sick. Last time he was sick he said, “are you giving me the one that smells like smoke?” I was like OMGl I immediately knew what he meant, except I would describe it as a more musty odor. So, we are not crazy and it may just be our genes!
Add me as another! Don’t know when it started or if I’ve always had it. I just assumed it was normal until i decided to google what it was and discovered this board. Also get a weird smokey paracetamol/acetaminophen smell in my nose around 20 mins after i take, and then my nose gets very runny and sensitive and I sneeze a lot.
That part would make me be concerned about it being an allergy. Taking it with a benadryl (or taking Tylenol PM) might help with the runny nose and sneezing. It would be interesting if it got rid of the smell too.
I joined just so I could post. Both me and my son both experience this “Tylenol nose smell”. No one knows what we are talking about. My son just came in and asked for some head ache meds. Then is said not Tylenol, because those weird nose smell and sensation. I have been searching like crazy, with no answers.
I believe it can be hereditary.
There needs to be a study done.
I made an account just to add I get the same thing after taking Exedrin. Though the smell makes me think of Marigold flowers.
I was searching on line to see if this is a thing and I am actually glad it is. But it is so weird that this is the only place that really talks about it.
I really wonder what causes it…
I found this post/site after googling “Why do I smell Tylenol after taking it”.
I can’t remember a time I didn’t “smell” it. For me it feels like it’s further up the nasal passage that I smell it from. It also kinda “feels” too. Like it’s there on the exhale, too. As if my upper nasal passage is coated in something. It’s just weird!
When I was still taking liquid, I could faintly smell it. I never knew what I was even taking but I knew it was different than the only other thing my mom ever gave me which was children’s amoxicillin aka “bubble gum medicine”. I knew that the smell only came from the red stuff. That’s how long ago I remember being affected like this. The first time my mom gave me an actual Tylenol pill, I remember the smell being so much stronger. It got to the point that I’d feel like I was going to throw up. Smells don’t usually bother me but this lingering, invasive, sterile medicine smell drives me nuts! .
My mom never was an ibuprofen or aspirin mom. All we ever had was Tylenol. I tried to avoid taking it as much as possible because the smell drove me nuts. In my early teens a family member gave me ibuprofen and I couldn’t smell it. I was impressed! My pain was gone and I didn’t feel like I was going to gag every time I took a breath.
When I was in my early 20’s a doctor gave me Vicodin for the first time. I’d heard of it but never had it so I didn’t realize that it had acetaminophen in it. I sat in my hospital bed gagging for the next 2 hours. To go home I was prescribed hydrocodone with ibuprofen and I was fine!
This brought up a conversation with my pcp about me being able to smell/feel something and even tho he claimed to believe me he didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. He even talked to some other medical professionals and looked it up. Said he couldn’t find any reason for it.
I’m kind of determined now to find out what this is. I’m shocked to see so many other people afflicted! I can’t count how many people I’ve mentioned this to over the years, I’m in my 40’s, and everyone just looks at me like I’m crazy.
Zombie … no idea why I never saw this thread previously
However … having amazing numbers of IVs in the past 6 years [cancer, yay.] There is a notable smell to having a basic IV set and started, my infusion techs and all the lovely tecs setting the IVs for my imaging all know about the IV smell [just like the imaging dye that makes you feel like you peed yourself, and the IVP dye that makes you feel like you just did a double shot of booze, that one I like =) ]
For shit like this, don’t ask the doctors, as the lowly techs who deal with IVs day in and day out, when you go through thousands of patients in a year, you get to hear things =)
I get this too. Whats crazy to me is that there are no articles or anything on the internet or otherwise that makes mention of it.
I generally avoid taking it but took some cold medicine the other day and i knew within a couple minutes that it contained tylenol. So strange.
I cant really describe it the way others here have, it just smells like tylenol. Its a very distinct smell to my nose, the only thing remotely similar being sort of mothball like. I used to compare it to the smell of a medicine cabinet, but im not sure if the medicine cabinet we had growing up just smelled like that because tylenol was in it, and its not something ive noticed later on in life.
I stumbled upon this thread because I was looking up why Tylenol does this to me!! I describe it as more of a taste/smell deep in my nasal passage. It is awful enough that I avoid taking Tylenol if at all possible. It is very unpleasant!! I am surprised with as many people who experience this just on this post that there is nothing documented scientifically as to what this is and why it occurs in some people!!
Well, I am another person who has joined up just to get in on this thread.
I’ve had the Tylenol smell thing since I was in my mid-20s, I’m in my mid-50s now, so 30 years.
No one I’ve spoken to (medical or lay person) has experienced this.
I’d describe it as kind of chemical-ly, kind of metallic, kind of dusty, maybe a bit moldy, like moldy hay.
Interestingly notice the same (or at least very similar) odor from compact fluorescent light bulbs, as well as my friend’s induction cook top (it is the only induction cooktop I’ve ever been around, so it may just be this one).
I found this forum looking into the odor that I too experience on dipyrone, wasn’t going to comment anything but I need to clear some misconception people have on this.
Agranulocytosis cases with dipyrone are extremely rare and can be reverted in a few days only by interrupting the medication.
Diclofenac has higher chances of agranulocytosis yet it isn’t outlawed like dipyrone.
In fact, acetaminophen is known to cause liver damage that leads to death or needing a liver transplant.
Dipyrone has been dosed billions of times and had about 50 cases of agranulocytosis that’s like 0.00002%?
(I didn’t do the math so take that number with a grain of salt).
And here is the thing, dipyrone is extremely cheap and easy to produce so there’s very little profitability.
Opioids in the other hand are easily obtained in the USA and used widely for pain.
Some even believe the reason Brazil doesn’t have a Opioids crisis with fentanyl like in the USA is because we have dipyrone.
USA suffers a lot with healthcare because of lobbyists, and shouldn’t be used as a guide on medicine safety.
Remember, insulin is free in Brazil and pain killers are cheap, in the US it’s expensive and very lucrative to the companies that holds the patent.
