The first time I noticed the feeling was at the Costco tire center. I stepped inside and was hit with a dizzying aroma emanating from the racks of rubber tires. The smell was thick in the air. I took a deep breath and shuddered with pleasure. Tires had always smelled vaguely interesting, but this was something completely new. I wanted to get as close to the smell as I could.
A few days later, it happened at Kinkos when I was printing out a return label. I sucked in the air, dense with the smell of printer ink, and felt overwhelmed with satisfaction.
Then, it was the lavender Dr. Bronner’s in our bathroom. I started washing my hands even when I didn’t need to. The flowery scent, generally pleasant, had become intoxicating to me.
I knew a heightened sense of smell was common during pregnancy, but this felt different. Usually, you hear about people being strongly put off by strong smells, not feeling obsessed with them. One day, I finally turned to Google. My instincts were correct.
It turns out that intense cravings for smells – aka desiderosmia – is a lesser-known symptom of pica. You may recognize pica as the condition that causes people to eat (or really want to eat) non-food items such as dirt, laundry detergent, and starchy substances. Pica is actually quite common in people who are pregnant people.
Pica during pregnancy is usually caused by iron deficiency, which is extremely common as the pregnant body has an increased demand for iron. Why this causes people to want to eat and smell non-food items isn’t entirely clear, but it may have to do with the body's attempt to obtain nutrients it lacks.
Lo and behold, after telling my midwives about my symptoms, we did an iron panel and discovered that my ferritin levels – which measure the amount of stored iron in the body – had plummeted since the beginning of my pregnancy. I was quickly put on an iron supplement regimen, and my ferritin returned to a healthy level by the time I delivered my baby. (My olfactory senses are back to normal as well, thankfully.)
There is so much about being pregnant and having a baby that is hard to put into words. It really is like living in an alternate reality. My relationship to the world has been forever changed by becoming a mother — and it’s safe to say that I will never look at my hand soap or the tires on my car the same way again. |
