38 y/o Male — Asymmetric Progressive Hearing Loss in Left Ear with Tinnitus — How Worrisome?

Hi,

New to the forum and looking for some support.

I am 38 y/o male that just started having tinnitus in my left ear. It started two and a half weeks ago, after a long intensive workout session, and hasn't left me since. I saw an ENT one week after onset and he put me on Prednisone and anti-viral meds, but doesn't seem to get better from it. Some days it seems to get better, while other days it's back to square one again. My tinnitus seems to be fairly high pitched, probably not very loud yet, but the loudness seems to be increasing rather than going down.

Now my doctor has ordered an MRI and blood work, since he is concerned that my hearing loss is only in my left ear. I have had a habit of listening to music at work (moderate volume) for years, and probably way too loud when I am working out. However, the hearing in my right ear is good for my age, while my left ear has high frequency hearing loss of 20 db compared to my right. I have noticed for years that I have a harder time understanding conversations in crowded places, such as bars, so I am pretty sure my hearing loss in my left ear was gradual, and not sudden.

Now how concerned should I be regarding acoustic neuroma? It seems that the asymmetry of the HL is suspicious, since my right ear was exposed to the same music, but has much better hearing. Googling "asymmetric hearing loss tinnitus", acoustic neuroma is the first thing that pops up. Anybody that can chime in here or that has had to deal with same situation?

 

AN is fairly rare and will be determined with the MRI. Most likely it will rule it out, for your peace of mind (that's what I went through too).
The MRI isn't going to solve your tinnitus though, so you have to debug it further.

 

Thanks, that I am aware of (unfortunately). Since the Prednisone is not helping, I have pretty much resigned myself to joining the club of T sufferers. It's really unfair we have been cursed with this, many of us at a relatively young age. And it only seems to get worse as you get older.

It seems though that most people with T in only one ear either have no or sudden HL. It's the gradual HL in only one year that got me worried and wondering if someone else has the same. Something is clearly destroying the hearing in my left ear gradually, and I don't know (yet) what it is.

 

Well, I do have that problem: otosclerosis. It's destroying my hearing little by little, even though the onset was unusually brutal.