Is It Okay to Take Trimethoprim If You Have Tinnitus?

I have a bad UTI and I’ve been given Trimethoprim as I’ve had a bad reaction to Nitrofurantoin in the past.

Has anyone had a bad experience with this antibiotic? Can it make tinnitus worse? As I can see a very rare side effect is tinnitus! Please help ☹️

 

Hello @worriedd -

Trimethoprim and nitrofurantoin are antibiotics that are commonly used to treat uninary tact infections. They are from different antibiotic classes and have different mechanisms of action - so the fact that you had a bad reaction to nitrofurantoin does not mean that trimethoprim will present a problem of any sort.

Neither drug causes auditory damage. Trimethoprim has been reported to rarely cause tinnitus - but since it does not cause auditory damage, in the unlikely event that your tinnitus gets louder while on trimethoprim, you can ask your doctor to switch you to another drug. If your tinnitus does not settle back down within a few days, the trimethoprim was not the culprit in the first place.

I personally would have no qualms about taking trimethoprim for a UTI if my doctor felt it was the drug of choice.

Hope this helps.

Stephen M. Nagler, M.D.