Losing your sense of smell – one of the symptoms of Covid-19 – can deter you from having sex, according to a new study.
U.S. researchers have found an association between odor loss, known as anosmia, and diminished sexual motivation and emotional satisfaction in older American adults.
According to the experts, the sense of smell plays a uniquely strong role ‘in sexual motivation – and that both are’ intimately linked ‘.
Researchers only looked at adults aged 65 and older, which means that the link can only get stronger as we get older and that it may be less pronounced in young adults.
Despite this, researchers say that possible treatable causes of sensory loss as addressed by clinicians should be improved to improve ‘quality of life’ – in other words their sex life.
Odor loss from Covid-19 does not appear to be permanent, scientists say, but may be an early symptom of the disease. According to researchers, the loss of smell as a whole is related to reduced sexual motivation
As we age, our sensory functions gradually decrease, with different impacts on older adults.
Previous research has already suggested that patients with olfactory disorders complain about disabilities in their sexual life.
To find out more, researchers examined the effect of loss of olfactory function or sense of smell on older people’s sexual desire and satisfaction.
The team, which also included an expert from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, worked with a sample of 2084 older adults in the U.S., all 65 years or older.
The adults, described as a ‘nationally representative sample’, were recruited from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, an ongoing longitudinal, population-based study of health and social factors.
The experts measured their olfactory sensitivity to olfactory sticks and their frequency of sexual thoughts and sexual activity through a questionnaire, as well as satisfaction with their most recent sexual relationship.
“The reduced olfactory function in older adults in the US was accompanied by reduced sexual motivation and less emotional satisfaction with sex, but not a reduced frequency of sexual activity or physical pleasure,” the researchers say.
However, a decrease in odor sensitivity does not indicate a decreased frequency of sexual activity or a decrease in physical pleasure.
Analyzes were adjusted for age, gender, race, education, cognition, comorbidities, and depression – but the team was unable to determine causality, meaning it is not known if the loss of odor causes a diminished sex drive, or vice versa.
Researchers only looked at adults aged 65 and older – which means that the link between loss of smell and a low sex drive can only get stronger as we get older and that it may be less clear in young adults
“Our research shows that a decrease in olfactory function can affect sexual pleasure in older adults,” said study author Jesse K. Siegel at the University of Chicago.
“Therefore, clinicians need to address treatable causes of sensory loss to improve sexual health.”
The experts believe this may be due to ‘evolutionarily-preserved’ neurological links between smell and sexuality.
“Olfaction has a strong, evolutionary-conservative relationship with the limbic system, which plays a critical role in processing emotions and sexual motivation,” Siegel and her team said in their paper, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine .
“Neurons in the olfactory bulb also project directly to the hypothalamus, another important mediator of sexual motivation.”
Study author Dr Jayant Pinto, also from the University of Chicago, told MailOnline that the olfactory system is connected to centers in the brain that make the experience of pleasure possible.
‘These compounds are old because lower organisms have to detect chemicals in the environment [such as] ‘nutrients to feed, toxins to avoid,’ he said.
‘Since sexuality is essential for reproduction, it also depends on sensory input.
‘The associations we find may therefore be signs that these two old parts of our nervous system physiology are connected.
“The benefit is more efficient mating and more offspring in an evolutionary sense.”
The study was conducted pre-Covid, meaning that it is also not known that the loss of smell in people with Covid is specifically linked to sexual desire.
The three most common symptoms of Covid-19 are a high temperature, a new and persistent cough, and a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.
Public Health England also contains some less common symptoms, including aches, headaches and skin rashes.
In general, according to the NHS, the loss of sense can return to normal within a few weeks or months, and treatment with steroid nasal sprays or drops can help people with sinusitis or nasal polyps.
People who specifically lost their sense of smell due to Covid may not get it back two months later, a January study suggested.
A study from last year July also found that one in ten people who lose their sense of taste and smell with the coronavirus cannot regain it within a month.