I Now Have Tinnitus After Receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

Me too. I am Frank from Singapore.

 

Hi folks. I thought I'd come back and give an update on me. As I said in earlier threads, I had 2 Pfizer shots, and I was "fully vaccinated" on May 4.

However, about 2 weeks ago, I got slightly with headache, congestion (not bad, just blocked feeling), and one day of that feeling of "oh I'm getting sick chills and tiredness". I also almost got a sore throat. I had been out in our supermarket and at a doctor's appointment. Unmasked folks were at both but I did wear a mask. I put it down to ragweed season.

Then I have read that those symptoms "could" be Delta variant. But I didn't know that when I felt bad and so did not get a test. I got better after 3 days--wasn't even really that sick. However, my tinnitus spiked again. So yesterday I went to an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor. He could find no anatomical reason for tinnitus, no infection, nothing. I was given a hearing test and do have very minor hearing loss in my left ear. But the right one has louder ringing sound. I still have both the ringing type and the pulsatile type (now in both ears--but much rarer in the right and of shorter duration). He has me scheduled for a brain MRI in a couple of weeks to see if there is anything wrong in my brain that would cause it. The doctor said if the MRI shows nothing, then he's going to agree the vaccine caused this. Not sure what good that will do me, but at least I'll know I don't have a tumor or something.

I have found a new (to me) masking treatment that lets me sleep better. I already used a box fan (or a fan app when traveling). I now found videos on YouTube that play for many hours. They are "meditation" type sounds with binaural sounds and beats and different videos at different kHz. I just went through and found one my brain likes and it plays for 10 hours -- no ads. I have ordered a small blue tooth speaker to use vs my phone in the bed with me. I looked at the sleep headbands, but the reviews showed them breaking often. As of today, the ringing is still louder than it was before I had that odd almost sick feeling. But it is still bearable.

I am still glad I got the vaccines. My doctor said he has a 14-year-old patient that caught COVID-19 and went completely deaf. His hearing has never returned. So sad. I can live with ringing--it could be so much worse!

 

Did you get a test for Delta variants?

 

As I said, I'd not heard that there were reports of many breakthrough infections. And I had not heard the Delta variant had different symptoms. It fits, but I have no proof. If I did get the Delta, then thank the lord for my vaccines. If not, then it sure was a very bad 3-day headache and the ragweed allergy has gotten worse. But it would explain my new spike.

 

I still have my tinnitus worsening since 1st Pfizer vaccine on 12th May. Worse than ever. I am losing hope and can't cope. 3 whole months with no improvement. Can't mask it. Why did I choose to destroy my ears with a potent vaccine. I am shocked I am hearing medical people say "well, COVID-19 causes tinnitus so I am not shocked the vaccine can do as well". WTF??? I didn't take this with the chance of getting 3 new tones of tinnitus over the 1 I had before that was dormant. So now I have FOUR tones, BOTH ears, and one of those 4 tones that was dormant. I am at the end of my tether.

 

@CathyJ, I was confused by your post that you chalked the new tinnitus up to the vaccine. Until the point you concluded that, I thought to myself, “Oh, good thing she had the vaccine as this looks like a breakthrough case of the Delta variant and, typical of COVID-19, it has messed with her ears.” Curious how you don’t see it this way. (Unless I missed something!)

 

Hi All, Just want to contribute my experience.

I had my first Pfizer shot 15 days ago, I started noticing a spike (worsening of my existing tinnitus) after about day 5, it seems to be slowly starting to settle, but definately scared to take the second shot, and going to my GP tomorrow to discuss it.

It's hard to tell though if its directly from the shot, or from the stress of being thrown back in to a hard lockdown for the 6th time here in Melbourne Australia. (Hence going to the doctor to discuss)

I have been tone matching it with a signal generator (my tinnitus is around the 12khz mark) and db meter..
At it's worst its been about 42-43db, this morning it was 36db. It seems to be tapering back down, but not yet back to what I'd consider "baseline" Some Valium seems to knock it back enough that I can get back to sleep.

Cheers,
Sammy

 

Hi Frank from Singapore!

 

Mine faded after a couple of weeks. I think you will be fine.

 

Swedes don't use masks or do social distancing. There's no catastrophe of tinnitus increasing there.

 

UPDATE: Day 17 since first shot, and I have fully returned to "baseline", after chatting with my doctor, getting the second jab on Saturday.

 

Are they going to force us to get vaccinated in Canada? Or deprive unvaxxed people from social assistance, social disability etc.?

 

A question to all who have taken both doses even though your tinnitus got worse after dose 1:

Did it stay at the same level after dose 2 or did it worsen even more?
If it got worse after dose 2 - did it improve afterwards?

I have taken dose 1 and my tinnitus is worse than before at base level, even though it fluctuates.

Am afraid to take dose 2 if it gets even worse, but also I wish to take dose 2 to prevent from getting ill, since I fear COVID-19 itself would be bad for my tinnitus.

How did you react?

 

I have the exact same questions as @squirrelgirl. Your responses would be so incredibly helpful, folks. Please, please share your experience with shot no. 2 if the first shot exacerbated (or caused) your tinnitus.

 

Yes, that's where it's going. Mark my words.

 

Yeah, I really want to take the 2nd dose, but am terrified that the tinnitus will increase even more, to a level where it is actually something that would make life permanently worse.

 

My sentiments EXACTLY. Teetering on the fence is becoming quite taxing, isn’t it? Before the Pfizer vaccine my tinnitus was a 1/10. Since 10 days after the shot back in February it is a 4/10 and hasn’t improved in almost 6 months. Like you, I am seriously worried about how to manage it if goes to 6/10 or higher after the second shot. It could well be a lifelong sentence due to a shot that was voluntary. That fact makes this an incredibly difficult decision.

 

EXACTLY this. If it stays where it is now I am ok. It was better before but I can live with it where it is now. Some days are better where it is almost back to baseline and some days I hear it through pouring rain which wasn't an issue before. But should it increase even more I don't know how I would handle it.

So it would be interesting to hear other peopyles stories, if it was dose 1 that triggered it and dose 2 did nothing or if both doses made it louder.

I do really wish to get the vaccine since I don't want to get COVID-19. But living with evelated levels of tinnitus seems like something out of a nightmare.

 

Update. Had my hearing checked. No hearing loss, all looks perfect. Ears look fine. No irritation, nothing.

I just do not understand this, but I do hope that whatever reason for the increase in my tinnitus, or how I hear it - it will recede over time. Last weeks I felt a huge variation in level, some days it outbuzzed background noise, some days it’s a lot lower and the background noise cancels it.

Also, had my ears treated for potential ear wax build up last week, which seems to have elevated the levels again. There was no wax so the treatment was in vain, but I guess it did not help the tinnitus.

So I am at a loss. All looks perfectly fine and nothing seems affected - but the tinnitus is there. Either it is a side effect from the vaccine that causes no visible or measurable effect. Or it is stress, or tension or just that the tinnitus chose to increase now. Or low iron levels.

I would just still like to know if anyone who had a spike after dose 1 and took dose 2 has any comments, if it got worse or stayed at the same level. It’s all so very strange.

 

Governments should take the responsibility for the side effects produced by the vaccines, and compensate for any side effects. They do not want to do this because vaccines are unreliable and an accelerated process of validation has been used to expedite the use of these vaccines.

 

That's fluctuating tinnitus, same as there is fluctuating hearing, for instance in a case of endolymphatic hydrops.

 

The spike I got from the first dose had faded by my second shot 3 weeks later. I don't know exactly when the spike from the second shot went back to baseline because I was actively trying to not care, but it was somewhere in the 2-3 week timeframe.

For me this was all very similar to what happens every time I get a minor head cold or any other kind of viral infection, and while it obviously concerned me, I know like a dozen people with hearing issues and/or tinnitus in my day to day life, they're all vaxxed, they were all vaxxed before me, and they all had "no change" or "temporary spike". My read is firmly that an unvaxxed COVID-19 infection has a higher risk of nuking my ears, and I do think we're all going to be exposed to Delta one way or another over the next year, so I expect to get my 3rd booster at the 8 month mark, and, again, expect that there may be a spike and try not to be very concerned about it.

 

My spike from dose 1, if that is what it was, has been the weirdest tinnitus I have ever had. Yesterday it was back to baseline. This morning back up. I’m starting to think that it is also connected to the fact that I am pregnant and many seem to get weirder tinnitus spikes when pregnant.

I also had my ears flushed which seems to have annoyed the tinnitus a little, but that should be temporary.

I decided to take shot 2 since the delta variant is rapidly increasing, and should I get a mid-to severe COVID-19 infection I fear that it would cause even worse tinnitus.

I am hoping that the spike will fade back to baseline over time no matter what caused it. It has always done so in the past, even if it sometimes took 6+ months.

 

I’m taking the same road as you here. My spike lasted longer, but I think that is partly also due to other factors like flushing my ears from wax, which seems to have irritated them a lot. Plus a lot of stress, bad sleep and pregnancy issues.

I hope it will go back to baseline over time. I do not wish to catch a more severe case of COVID-19 for the same reasons - my ears are very sensitive to infections, and COVID-19 is something I fear would hit them hard.

 

May as well book your 30th for the 18 month mark too, while you're at it.

Yeah @squirrelgirl, gotta beware of that Delta Variant, or it'll get ya!

Never mind the fact that every one of the COVID-19 variants only has a 0.3% difference between them and the original version of the virus (which isn't enough for any of them to be more or less deadly/infectious)... but who cares about Science? Let's all just panic and vaccinate the sh*t out of everyone with useless and potentially dangerous vaccines instead. HELL YEAH!

 

Yep, people following the basic data with even a shred of incredulousness are pretty aware that COVID-19 itself poses dramatic risks to the ears, the risks of serious infection are vastly worse if you're not vaxxed, and the actual vaxxes pose a pretty minimal risk of long term harm. Minimal is not zero, but "just don't get exposed to COVID-19" is not going to be possible for a long time if ever.

 

Seriously, your frequent endorsement of COVID-19 vaccines has gotten beyond a joke now.

Why are you so intent on persuading everyone here to get them? And why do you bother with all this rambling on about "data" and other scientific jargon you like to drop into your posts to make them sound credible? Why don't you just save yourself (and us reading) time, and spam the site with something to the effect of: "if you don't get a COVID-19 vaccine, your tinnitus is likely to explode to volumes you never could have imagined!"?

Um... dramatic risk? Being a bit dramatic here aren't we? All coronaviruses (common Flu etc.) pose a risk to the ear, not sure how you've come to the conclusion the risk is any higher with COVID-19...

What I will say however (for if you like data), is that just a quick search of the term "COVID-19" (by relevance not most recent) on Tinnitus Talk gives a front page result that shows: tinnitus (worsening) attributed to the vaccine surpasses tinnitus (worsening) attributed to the virus by 77%... so.

FALSE. Unproven, and data suggesting the reverse might be true, also exists.

FALSE. No data exists to support this statement, and none will until a very long time into the future. Just pulling facts out of your arse/"ass" now.

EXACTLY. We've been told this is the most infectious respiratory disease humankind has ever had to deal with in it's existence. It's been circulating the globe now for 1 year and 8 months (possibly longer according to some sources). No one alive could have avoided infection by this point (unless they live in an Igloo in Antarctica for example). It's impossible. EVERYONE OF US has had this, at least once, by now.

Now tell me, have we seen a tripling in the number of members on Tinnitus Talk since the pandemic began? Are old forum members who had habituated and were living their lives, returned in their thousands, saying their tinnitus is now at astronomical levels?

Have all the people you know, prior to getting their vaccine, died of blood clots? (Something governments are trying to sell now: that viral risk of clotting is greater than vaccinated risk)

NO.

The only leg you (and anyone pushing vaccines) have to stand on, is this idea of "variants" re-infecting people that have already been infected (and developed immunity), WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN DEBUNKED by this guy (explaining that variations cannot harm people that have already been infected):

https://rumble.com/vhff1j-dr.-michael-yeadon-the-fake-idea-of-covid-variants.html

Funnily, his credentials outweigh your own by a ratio of 2000000000:1.

You are honestly so irresponsible in your spreading of misinformation it's unbelievable (especially because so many people on this forum, who are less scientifically inclined, trust you for advice).

I would love to know how much Pfizer etc. are paying you to flog this potentially harmful garbage vaccine to tinnitus sufferers' whose health is already a mess; because if you're not getting paid, then this is some sad sh*t.

 

I have seen the data which shows that, over time, the efficacy of the vaccine is decreasing. With that, there is also data showing that hospitalization is remaining the same.

This brings on theories that the Delta variant is just very quick at replicating before the vaccinated population's immune systems respond. Buuut, symptoms are very mild for the vaccinated population as their immune systems are proving very efficient at eliminating the virus once it is activated.

The Delta variant has been very serious for the unvaccinated and partial-vaccinated population.

This poses serious risk for tweens and children as they are not being vaccinated and as the vaccinated population continues living life unmasked and under the illusion they cannot become sick is a serious problem as they are now possibly becoming super spreaders.

Sorry for run-on sentences.

 

A bit of yikes here I'd like to course correct.

I agree the vaccine is in the end a bit of a risk, but the viral load from the actual virus would be far, far, far worse. Not all viruses express the same risk to small vasculature. Rhinoviruses could but they tend to be limited to upper resperatory. The gateway the virus uses being ACE2 means it can really infect anywhere, and smaller vessels with lots of ACE2 expression would be the most vulnerable.

There's also the fact that COVID-19 is linked to very high levels of phosphodiesterase A2, which basically starts ripping apart phospolipid cell membranes. The surface area to volume ratio of small vessels vastly exceeds large ones, making them more prone to these enzymes.

Finally, the fact we already have some kind of damage means any kind of damage spread equally across cells will disproportionately kill more of the damaged ones, as the same chunk of cells damaged would be relatively equal everywhere, meaning the per capita damage of a cell population would be higher if there were less healthy ones. So any condition where cell death was/is an issue will be exasperated (inner ear neurons or stria?)

Sprinkles on top: the flu is not the same family of virus as COVID-19 (the shape differs substantially) nor shares many similarities apart from being an infectious virus. "Some" cold viruses are coronaviruses (a minority).

Small mutations can have a big cumulative impact when you think of how many mutations do not survive, and the culling leaves the strongest inherently alive to dominate. This is akin to evolution but at a very high rate as the generational turnover of bacteria/viruses is very, very, very high.

There has been some fear mongering, but I'm only anti-vaxx in this case as being forced to volunteer myself to take something that is absolutely not 100% safe is not ok.

 

I'm all about being against the vaccine due to the side effects but COVID-19 is kinda kicking people's butts so I think we should encourage most to get it. And if more people get tinnitus, hey maybe more money to Jastreboff or whatever that guys name is lol.