When people ask me about how my sense of smell is after the 13 years since my initial loss, and then the multiple cases of Covid, I always respond that under the circumstances I think it is pretty good. My yardstick has always been whether or not I can have a quality of life with the level of smell that I have. I realised early on that to expect a 100% return to my “old” sense of smell was going to be unreasonable. Like a person with a scar, I was going to have to accept change. Just how much was something only time could tell.
To date, here is a list of things that have compromised my sense of smell.
- Sinus infection, 2012 – total loss
- Covid infection, April 2020 – total loss, followed by 18 months recovery
- Covid infection, October 2021 – total loss, followed by another year or so of recovery
- Covid infection June 2022 – again severe loss.
I had four other Covid infections that did not affect my sense of smell. With each of the above four “insults”, as ENTs like to call them, I experienced full blown anosmia, hyposmia, parosmia, and fluctuations. Throughout all of them I smell trained intensely.
At the end of January 2025, I was contacted by Professor Claire Hopkins who asked me if I would like to be the first person in the UK to receive the new PRP treatment for smell loss. PRP stands for Platelet Rich Plasma. This is a procedure used for lots of things like joint injuries and cosmetic treatments. This is an “autologous” treatment, which means it uses part of your own body for the procedure–in this case plasma that is taken from your own blood with a spinning machine called a centrifuge. Because it uses your own blood, your body will not reject it (incidentally, people who have severe dry eye can have eye drops made from the plasma of their own blood, and it is supposed be therapeutic and also feel amazing).
Before the first procedure there is an UPSIT test, which is a 40 question scratch and sniff test so that we would know just how good (or bad) my sense of smell was. My score was in the hyposmia category.
The plasma generated during a visit to Professor Hopkin’s clinic is then injected using long needles high up in the nose. This is a tricky area to work in, as it is close to the skull base. She uses special equipment, a tiny camera and of course the needles. One ml of the plasma is injected on either side of the nose. The needles are about 4 inches long.
Three such injections make up the treatment. Each treatment needs to be a few weeks apart, and when it’s over, there’s a waiting period of three months while the growth factors in the plasma get to work.
And last Tuesday, April 29th was the end of my three month waiting period, so how did I do?
I’ll start by saying that olfactory scientists will tell you that what we think about our sense of smell greatly affects how we perceive our sense of smell. Our opinions, state of mind, etc all have an effect on our experience. I have watched people who feel they are accomplished in food, perfume, or wine, with an excellent sense of smell, perform poorly on simple smell tests, and conversely I have seen people who are convinced that their sense of smell is poor (these people were outside of the Covid community– in random sampling) who then find that they perform very well on smell tests. This is the reason why so much emphasis is put on objective smell tests. This kind of test, for instance an UPSIT test or a Sniffin’ Sticks test, measures you in such a way that you can’t influence the result, and the numerical score is considered an uninfluenced “true” measure of your sense of smell–with a number or other kind of ranking.
So when the first week went by after my treatment, I realised that the improvement that I thought I had noticed might well have been the placebo effect. My attention might have been brought more frequently to smells in my environment. Was I really finding my meal more tasty or was I just imagining it? We’ve all been there before and we all know just how difficult it is to assess these things.
The weeks went by and I really felt I was noticing things. The lilacs came into bloom, and I took every chance to smell them and ask myself “is this a better experience than last year”? Lilacs are a good example. I have very intense memories of lying under the lilac bush in the garden of my childhood home, and picking them too. The smooth dry leaves, the feel of the branches in my hand, the sweet, intoxicating smell. In previous years, my only experience of lilacs was a vague heavy floral scent verging on something disgusting. This year, however, the smell was pleasant and floral, and strong enough to trigger a childhood memory.
I had been using a hair product for about 6 weeks when I suddenly realised it had a scent. I had thought it was unscented! It was this last experience that made me think that no, I wasn’t imagining it.
On April 29th, I took the test again, and…gained three points! That put me just a notch under normosmia, or normal sense of smell. There are still things that are missing, and I suspect I will always be like that, but there is enough going on now in my smell world to make things vivid and alive.
I have thought a lot about writing here to share my experience of the treatment, and how this will no doubt have an effect on whether you think this treatment might be for you. I am, after all, just one case. What you are reading here is essentially a case study – simply one individual’s experience, and statistically that is not enough to have an opinion about. I worried that if I told you it helped me, and perhaps encouraged someone to have the treatment, that may not work for them and lead to terrible disappointment. It’s costly too. On the other hand, if I had not improved, I might discourage someone who might truly benefit.
Before I close here, I’d like to remind you that Professor Hopkins’ original decision to offer the treatment was made on the basis that statistically, more patients benefited than those who didn’t. Let’s unpack that. Looking at the numbers, we are talking about the likelihood of something happening. Not that this person here, or that person over there will/won’t benefit. This is such an important concept in science, and especially in the area of health/medicine. I seem to be one of the lucky people.
And finally a big shout out to Professor Hopkins, who made it all possible!
FAQs
What does it cost?
Please contact Professor Hopkins at OneWellbeck in London, or Simon Gane at the London Nose & Sinus Clinic if you are in the UK to ask about pricing
Who offers it in the US?
Please contact Dr Zara Patel at Stanford, California. Dr Patel hopes that other doctors in the US will offer it soon. Her office will tell you about pricing and waiting times in her Stanford clinic.
Is this the same as Dr Rosen’s treatment at Jefferson, in Philadelphia?
No. He applied the plasma topically, not through injection.
Can’t other clinics that do PRP offer this treatment?
No. It requires specialist knowledge of skull base treatment and equipment only used by these specialists.
Is it painful?
No worse than a trip to the dentist, and the injections take just a few minutes.
Is there down time?
A slight runny nose, perhaps a bit of pink discharge, but for me, nothing to write home about.
