Hi Alan
Your taste WILL return but slowly and it can plateau for a while. It has been 9 -10 weeks for me and now my taste is 90% back. Don't let this news dishearten you because it may be a speedier recovery for you! Most things taste as they should now apart from chocolate and tea however some days are better than others. After 5 weeks like you are now I did not have much taste sensation at all so you will probably be ok for Christmas!
Hi Laura
don't fret your taste will return. Mine has taken 9-10 weeks off the drug. I have had a gastoscopy because my doctor took it all very seriously and thought the drug had caused my stomach to produce more acid and causing the very bitter taste pproblems I was having. It is difficult to descibe to people how debilitating it is and that everything trastes foul. Most things taste okay to me now apart from chocolate and tea. Ironically really bland things tasted better to me, white fish, brown/white rice/pasta/new potatoes and salad. No tomatoes though! Good luck! I became very depressed by the way - make sure that we report to the drug and food agency by filling in an online yellow card.
Hi Jonathon
Just to let you know that after 6 weeks of coming off terbinafine my taste has now returned to normal. A huge relief!
Best regards
Alan
Hi Millie
Just to let you know that after 6 weeks of coming off terbinafine my taste has now returned to normal. A huge relief!
Best regards
Alan
Hi Laura
Just to let you know that after 6 weeks of coming off terbinafine my taste has now returned to normal. A huge relief!
Best regards
Alan
Great news! My tastes also came back. It took 10 wks to really notice. I am SO happy! I would say I have 90 percent back, Best Wishes!
How cool is that. It took 13 weeks for mine to come back and it is so great. It makes me think God every time I eat something in taste it. I am really happy for you and everyone else that has gone through this and got it back.
I know exactly how you felt, Jonathon after taking Terbinafine. It is not just loss of taste it is how everything that goes into the mouth is absolutely disgustingly foul. More saliva is present and it is slick and thick and all one wants to do is eat anything to rid oneself of the disgusting foul taste that is in the mouth. I thought I could simply eat something that would 'wash' away the foul taste. It is neither a bitter taste or a salty taste, it is just foul. I have never eaten a rotting dead animal but the smell of such decomposed flesh is how I feel the taste would be, and always in my mouth without let up. Some days I cannot bare living with my own mouth. I go from here to there cramming in anything and everything to try to rid myself of it. I was never one for sugar and would only have one level teaspoonful in tea or coffee and found that too sweet but since I used terbinafine for 26 days from my birthday as it happens (and what a horrific birthday present that was) I have piled in my tea 5 heaped spoonfuls and STILL I cannot taste the sweetness. Things like ice cream and chocolate are the pits, its not just the foul taste that is generated from them it is the slinky slimy texture. The saliva just converts everything into horror in the mouth. I gained weght at first by eating everything and anything to try to get rid of the bad taste, but all to no avail. Now I just eat when I have to. Fruit a veg makes the whole mlouth worse, and I became ill due to not eating fruit and veg. I have to force myself to eat an orange a day now purely to keep up the vitamin C level to avoid getting colds. I used to be able to eat 5 or more oranges in a day, and a host of other fruits and veg, I simply loved them, but sadly not anymore. I am constantly thirsty but cannot bare to drink anything until my thirst gets beyond me. When I lick my dry lips, my lips taste foul. I guess its all to do with the tongue really, but I find that one corner of my mouth seems to ooze this foul saliva and today in desperation TEN weeks after finishing the course of Terbinafine, I was so desperate to rid myself of the taste I scrubbed the inside of my mouth with a toothbrush and my tongue too and made it bleed, and the blood tasted like pure salt!! How the hell can I live the rest of my life like this? Friends tonight brought me some edible peppermint oil thinking that would mask it. It didn't. I did not even taste it. I could smell it but it had no taste at all, my tongue tingled but no more than when i tried a very hot red chilli for breakfast in desperation a few weeks back all to no avail. I have been to an Indian resturant and ordered the hottest meal on the menu. It could have been cardboard. Only the next day on its exit did I realise how hot it was!!! What can we do about this? Will it stop? Does it get better? I am so depressed about it, so fed up, I just long to taste food again. Does anyone have any ideas? I tell myself I am not alone and other people do know how it feels but no one else does and it is so hard trying to explain to other people what having no taste and distorted taste is like to live with every second of every day and night.
Also, Jonathon and to everyone else who has suffered after taking Terbinafine, another side effect for me from it was memory loss. That was bad in the first few weeks, really bad, but thankfully I have forgotten I had that - lol unless I still have it! But I would literally feel as though I had a blank space in my forehead. I could not think of whatever I had just been doing. I could remember things from the past but not immediate things, so it was affecting the frontal lobes like dementia does. That part of the side effect was frightening. I thought I was getting dementia speedily, and I did not asscociate the taste loss with the drug at the time, nor the memory loss. I thought the taste loss was due to a mouth ulcer and it wasn't until I had loss of taste for 2 weeks and tried everything to taste anything that I re read the leaflet for Terbinafine. Oddly, it had been my birthday (now 10 weeks ago) when I started the drug and I had read the leaflet and told my husband that i did not like the sound of the side effects, and wouldn't take it and he reminded me 'you are always doing that, getting medication and then reading the leaflet and not taking it. The doctor knows better than you do, just take the stuff!' so i did. I wish I hadn't. When I told my doctor of this conversation he said 'we doctors don't always know best but I have prescribed terbinafine to hundreds of people and you are the first to have suffered from it.' I see that the loss of taste side effect happens to 1 in 100 people, so that could be why my doctor only encountered me, and we here are all the ones in a hundred that had the misfortune to have suffered from taking Terbinafine. I wish we could sue the company for compensation. Its not just the experience its all the rest that goes with it, depression, suicidal thoughts (not me but some people have had) weight loss/gain, feelings of going bonkers, isolation and fear until finding a forum like this one that helps people to talk to others that know what the side effects feel like. Terbinafine and anything containing limisil should be struck off the medication market. In the first few weeks of not knowing one goes online to look up loss of taste and a whole host of terrifying suggestions appear, like stroke and diabetes and one could literally begin a course of treatment for the wrong thing. Terbinafine side effects can mask for many other things. The leaflet just says 1 in 100 people have reported taste disturbances. Possibly the other 99 people have not yet connected their loss of taste to the taking of this drug.
Hi wendy it took 12 weeks for my taste to come back fully and even then it was still better some days than others. I actually stood in the fruit and veg aisle in the supermarket and WEPT, I was so desperate to taste something fresh and sweet. Although I haven't a sweet tooth at all. My doc I think was well aware of the loss of taste side effect. I lost weight which I didn't need to lose and I was extremely depressed.
All I can say your taste will improve, I found ironically that bland things tasted the least foul. Rice pasta and leaves! Not a lot to live on.
Good luck,
Hi Wendy,
I know exactly how you feel!! My taste returned at the 11th week mark. It gradually comes back. I lived on Ramen noodles, baked fish, and other bland foods. It seemed to help a little. That gross taste in your mouth will fade. I feel I have about 95 percent of my taste back. I will pray for you!
Laura
Thank you, Laura.
A friend of mine works for doTERRA who make edible pure essential oils and she gave me a bottle of pure peppermint for Christmas and made me open it before the event so that I could taste Christmas dinner as it takes a few days to kick in. She instructed that I put one tiny drop on the back of my hand and lick it. I did this and she and her family and my husband waited for my reaction. I used 3 drops. They stared and said 'don't you feel anything?' I said what am I supposed to feel? Her partner said 'that amount would usually blow your head off.' I didn't have a reaction at all. I couldn't taste it. However they also advised that I placed one drop in a pint of water and drank it. I just used one drop in a tumbler of water and drank that instead and I got a bit of the taste straight away. I found over the next few days that if I drank a tumbler like this before meals I could taste the food, not distinctly as before Terbinafine but to a degree and each mouthful was so pleasurable. Terbinafine side effects teach one to appreciate the taste buds when they return. Teach one to enjoy every single mouthful of food, to savour it slowly and appreciatively. In a round about way it is the one lesson that is good for us to learn. Everyone should try it, but I wouldn;t wish that they used Terbinafine to experience it due to the gross taste in the beginning weeks.
Last night my son's girlfriend had a tummy ache and I gave her some peppermint oil for it helps purify the digestion too, and then gave my son some to try, and I had some again on the back of my hand, and all of us tasted it. It almost took my head off! So after using the peppermint oil for just a few days my taste is obviously returning. However I am into my 11th week now, so likely it was returning anyway. What I would like to know is, if anyone in lesser weeks of it reads this, if they would try the peppermint oil and report back to say if it is effective just a few weeks into the loss of taste.
Another thing if you have blocked sinusus, use the peppermint oil, it will blast away the blockage! No more than one drop though okay? Or your eyes will water and your ears will ring - lol only joking about the ears.
See my comment below regarding using doTERRA pure essential edible peppermind oil for loss of taste.
I understand how you felt about standing in the fruit and veg isle, Millie. I used to fill most of my trolley with fruit and veg and I still wanted to, but I had to tear myself away saying, 'do not bother you know you'll bite into it and throw it away in disgust.' Such a shame the taste altering effects fruit and veg that way. I seldom get colds due to how much vitamin C I take in but since Terbinafine and no fruit I have had colds and flu.
I gained weight I couldn't afford to gain. Prior to taste loss I was successfully losing weight at Slimming World and had lost 21 pounds. But due to the taste loss and in desperation to taste at least something I ate everything in passing, fooled myself into thinking I could just about taste cream doughnuts (I think that was from memory though) but I did find at one point that doughnuts and yum yums were pleasurable, the more sugar on something the more chance I got a little sweetness in my mouth. I also discovered that 5 heaped spoonfuls of sugar in beverages gave me a slight sweetness that I craved so desperately, and so I have piled back on 15 of the lost pounds, sad to say, but I could not stop myself. When the taste returns, if only not as before I will return to Slimming World and start over.
I have wondered though just how Terbinafine has wrecked my body in other ways, due to craving some taste if only marginally, as the reason I was losing weight was because my doctor told me I was 1% away from becoming Diabetic and if I did not lose weight immediately I would become Diabetic. That freaked me and I started at Slimming World immediately. So I guess I need to take another Diabetes test now.
Jonathan, I just stopped taking terbinafine (Lamisil) 5 days ago due to loss of taste. I was in my 5th week from starting the medication. I have had toe nail fungus on my right foot for over 10 years. Previous Drs would not even discuss Lamisil due to the possible side effects on the liver and my 2 pregnancies. Finally, at the age of 42, the dr said I could try Lamisil. Unfortunately I have stopped taking it and will just have to deal with the gross thick toe nails. I also lost the salty and sweet tastes almost completely. Everything tastes bland. The sweets and ice cream that I usually crave taste terrible. I agree with others that even water has a slimy, almost snotty taste. It is like a slimy coating on your tongue and mouth. I'm so happy I found this discussion group and hope I regain my taste within a few months. One question, was anyone else taking other prescription meds while taking Lamisil? I am taking a low dose cholesterol med and Metformin.
I also took other meds while taking Terbinafine. It took about 11-12 wks for my tastes to come back. All I can say is be patient and hang in there. It will come back! I lived off of Ramen noodles, Ensure drinks, and fish was tolerable. Will pray for you!
Thanks Laura!
Hi Jonathan. Thank you so much for your post. I wish I'd seen it earlier.
I too have the same problem. I lost my sense of taste about 10 days ago after taking Terbinafine for 10 weeks of a 12 week course. Unfortunately it took 7 days before I stopped taking the drug because I thought the loss of taste could have been caused by a slight cold (although this had never happened to me before). I went to the doctor and he said he thought it was probably a virus, but suggested I should probably should stop taking terbinafine as a precaution.
Like the rest of people my loss of taste is a little hard to describe. I have a persistent salty taste in my mouth, and water tastes like a mixture of salt and soap. It sounds trivial, but one big issue for me is I normally love bread, but bread in particular tastes awful.
I'm grateful for your post because it gives me hope that my taste will return. I was starting to worry that it would be permanent, and the quality of life would be significantly impaired.
Best wishes
Rob
Hi Robert,
I had the same things that you were going through also. It took about 10 to 12 weeks for mine to come back. I also thought it could be permanent. It will come back!!
Hi Laura
Thanks for the encouragement. Hopefully my taste will come back, and soon. I can't wait!!
I'm not sure if it will make any difference to the recovery time, but I've decided to drink lots of water with the idea that it may help to flush the toxins out.
I've also filed a "Yellow Card" [1] describing the side effects. I think the more people who do this, the more likely that the NHS will take this problem seriously. I'll certainly pay much closer attention to the patient leaflets on medicine in future!
[1] https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk
Best regards
Rob