Minor Tinnitus Became Significant After Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

About two weeks after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, my minor tinnitus of a high frequency tone in both ears that could only be heard in quiet settings, became significant and can now be heard even in loud environments. My vaccine was administered on April 19, 2021, and the significant change in tinnitus was noticed around May 4th. I'm a sixty year old male in excellent health.

I'd never seen or heard of this possible consequence in taking any of the COVID-19 vaccines. I cancelled the second dose as I can't risk it getting even worse and one dose of the Pfizer still has more efficacy than the J & J vaccine. If I'd known this could happen I'd have not taken the vaccine at all given my risk factors and everyone has to make that determination based on their own situation.

I found Tinnitus Talk when searching online to see if my experience was unique and found it is not. There are Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of this problem and Tinnitus Talk has several postings and reply comments showing many others have had the same response from the vaccine. There appears to be a campaign underway to suppress adverse affects of the vaccines and so it's difficult to find objective information one can trust. To help this get more visibility on search engines, I've made this new posting/thread.

Everyone should read the discussions on the other postings on this same subject and I particularly recommend the remarks by Neil S (found here) for some of the biological details that may be in play here.

My significant tinnitus has only worsened since it started. I have an appointment scheduled with a GP to start the medical investigation and possible treatment. I've reported my adverse side affects to the US government's VAERS system and encourage others to do the same no matter what country they live in.

Report an Adverse Event to VAERS

I hope for myself, and everyone affected by this, that it naturally subsides over time. I will periodically report back on how it all unfolds for me in case it may be helpful to others.

 

I hope the spike improves and goes back to how you were before the vaccine.

 

I am in the same boat as you are, Valin Thorn. I cancelled the second dose as well because everyone I consulted said the tinnitus would likely worsen. The added noise has subsided, but I am still not back to pre-vaccine levels.

It's a bit of a "pick your poison" since getting the vaccine and getting the disease can both result in tinnitus. I have also discovered that regular flu vaccines can cause tinnitus. Since I learned that, I believe that's how mine may have started but I can't pinpoint it closer than knowing that the year my tinnitus began was the same year I first got a flu vaccine.

I sent a report to VAERS a while ago and hope everyone who has the reaction to the vaccine will do the same.

 

Valin - mine started out of the blue at 2pm 11/30/20 - no hearing issues prior. Had my first Pfizer shot on 3/29, volume tripled - and is still with me 24x7. Did not/will not get a 2nd shot. All you can do is ignore it - make the choice that you go on with your life with 'back ground' soundtrack as their is no treatment, supplements or fancy voodoo dances you can do.

 

Thank you for your post. My tinnitus story is exactly the same as yours but it happened only after the second Pfizer vaccine.

Just back from the ENT, my hearing is fine for a 66-year-old, ears look OK. I was hoping earwax clean out would help, but it did not. The ENT remarked that since COVID-19 he has seen a LOT of young people reporting tinnitus. He can't say whether it's from the vaccine, he thinks it could be from the "stress of COVID-19." I doubt that because the "stress of COVID-19" was probably worse for most people a year ago.

The only other event I can think of that could have precipitated my increase in severity was watching the movie "Sound of Metal" around the same time. (1) The beginning was extremely loud and screechy. (2) The whole movie makes you hyper-aware of your own hearing issues.

Anyway, now I'm 2.5 months past the second vaccine and no improvement.

 

Hello,

I visited a respected ENT that focuses on hearing health where I was examined, my hearing professionally tested and I discussed my issues with tinnitus. I learned that tinnitus is a key symptom of hearing loss as the brain is trying to amplify the missing or attenuated sound frequencies coming from the sensor in one's ear. The testing shows I have the same high frequency hearing loss in both ears that is worse the higher the frequency. I do not yet have enough loss at the lower frequencies to require a hearing aid. As most people here already know, there's no proven medical treatment today that can reverse hearing loss/tinnitus. Until there are break throughs in treatment, one can only try and adapt and accept the new reality of their lives. This is a very disappointing conclusion for me to reach...

V

 

Similar to you, Sammy, my mild tinnitus got worse after the COVID-19 shot, only for me it was the first shot. It happened at 10pm ten days after the jab.

You are suspecting the cause may have been the screechy movie you watched; I am wondering if the reason could be a period of intense anxiety I underwent after getting the shot. To be honest, the more and more I hear of individuals like us I think it is vaccine-related and it is highly individualistic which, in turn, makes it impossible to predict.

I am now over 3 months out and no improvement. I do feel immense social pressure to get the 2nd shot and just hope for the best but my rational brain says don’t risk it.

Curious how others are making their decision about the second shot!

 

I don't think the vaccine was a direct cause. Perhaps your worry and anxiety about the shot made your tinnitus worse? There are a million and a half reasons why tinnitus would spike so blaming it just on just the vaccine is rather unfair.

 

Hi @Meagan G. -- I suspect your gut is telling you the same. I myself wouldn't chance it, especially since there are numerous ways to prevent a COVID-19 infection from becoming serious.

Resolving "Long-Haul COVID" and Vaccine Toxicity: Neutralizing the Spike Protein

 

@Oabmarcus, this is the frustrating thing about tinnitus; in many, many cases the cause can’t be 100% known. We are left playing detective and trying so hard to understand something that the scientific community doesn’t even have a handle on. Even though there are hundreds of reports of vaccine-induced tinnitus, the pharmaceuticals and epidemiologists can’t dwell on those cases as the threat of COVID-19 to the global population endangers hundreds of thousands, if not more.

I am not worried about being “fair” to a vaccine, I am worried about my sanity and my quality of life for the next 40 years. I have responsibilities to my family so I can’t risk becoming a mere shadow of the person I was before moderate tinnitus. People depend on me to be sane and fully functioning. I rather prefer myself that way, too.

 

I did have an increase in tinnitus and hyperacusis 13 days after the second shot with the addition of vertigo. I had vertigo after the first shot for 1 day, but it resolved.

The vertigo and dizziness after the second shot has not resolved for 8 weeks. I have no prior history of vestibular issues.

 

I wouldn't attribute the flu vaccine to tinnitus. Totally different mechanism.

I have the worst tinnitus and got the flu shot. No effect on the tinnitus at all.

 

As a point of reference, I had only minor concerns about taking the vaccine and nothing I'd label as anxiety.

 

For the sake of your sanity and quality of life, how you got tinnitus is really not important. I recommend moving forward.

 

I had no anxiety about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. I was rather excited, and jumped at the opportunity to get it as early as possible. My tinnitus started going haywire about an hour after. It calmed down a bit after a couple days but some of the new sounds and increased volumed stayed and have yet to completely go away. That was 3 months ago.

 

Then your excitement was probably the culprit.

 

Seriously?

 

How would you know either way? Do you have tinnitus figured out?

 

Valin B., I was just wondering if your condition has improved. I certainly hope so.

Peace to us all,
Andrea

 

He’s not going to admit it was the vaccine lol.

 

I think the odds of your tinnitus becoming worse is a lot higher if you catch COVID-19 rather than from the vaccine.

 

Update on possible causes: Tinnitus is correlated with [not proven to be caused by] Lyme disease and I had been bitten by a a tick in Pennsylvania a couple weeks after the vaccine. I tested Positive for Lyme last week, but the second test (Western Blot) came back Negative. I took Doxycycline in between, and it really helps my knee pain, but did not change either the tinnitus or the eye floaters at all.

I'm not sure why someone would discourage you from trying to figure out the cause.

There are two good reasons to do that:

1) you might have serious underlying condition like a tick-borne illness, and

2) even if the underlying condition isn't serious, it might be something that you could change, like a medication with tinnitus as a side effect.

I do agree with those who say the vaccine is less likely to give you side effects than COVID-19 is. Get the vaccine! I asked my mostly-Boomer-age Facebook friends who had mild tinnitus before the vaccine whether it got worse after their second shot. 30+ answered, and they ALL said no, it did not.