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Review
. 2014 Feb 6:5:67.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00067. eCollection 2014.

Pregnancy and olfaction: a review

Affiliations
Review

Pregnancy and olfaction: a review

E Leslie Cameron. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Many women report a heightened sense of smell during pregnancy. Accounts of these anecdotes have existed for over 100 years, but scientific evidence has been sparse and inconclusive. In this review, I examine the literature on olfactory perception during pregnancy including measures of self-report, olfactory thresholds, odor identification, intensity and hedonic ratings, and disgust. Support for a general decrease in olfactory thresholds (increase in sensitivity) is generally lacking. There is limited evidence that some suprathreshold measures of olfactory perception, such as hedonic ratings of odors, are affected by pregnancy, but these effects are idiosyncratic. In this review, I explore the hypotheses that have been put forth to explain changes in olfactory perception during pregnancy and provide suggestions for further research.

Keywords: hedonics; hormones; hyperosmia; hyperreactivity; odor identification; pregnancy sickness; self report; threshold.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Data from Luvara and Murizi (1961). Threshold (in cubic centimeter, as measured by the blast injection technique) across pregnancy trimester and postpartum. There were a total of 47 participants; 14–21 per session and some participated in more than one session.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Data from Hansen and Glass (1936). Sensitivity (inverse of threshold) for recognition for each of three odors, plotted for the end of pregnancy and two postpartum test sessions. Zwaardemaker olfactometer was used to measure thresholds of 22 participants who were followed longitudinally.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Data from Noferi and Giudizi (1946). Recognition thresholds for non-pregnant, pregnant, and postpartum women. Blast olfactometer was used to determine recognition thresholds for lemon. There were 15 participants per group in a cross-sectional design.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels (and reports of nausea and vomiting) as a function of number of weeks of pregnancy. hCG level peaks during the first trimester. From Niebyl (2010), permission received.

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