My Tinnitus Started 2 Hours After the COVID-19 Vaccination — Should I Try TRT?

Hi!

My tinnitus started about 2 hours after I got the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. I'm sure that's kind of a controversial thing, but my GP and ENT docs can't figure out what else could have caused it.

It's driving me absolutely crazy. I can't sleep, I can't focus.

After completing two Prednisone tapers and doing whatever I could to rest my jaw (in case it was caused by TMJ), I was told there wasn't much else that could be done. Nothing has helped.

TRT was suggested, but then so was just waiting it out. I was told it just goes away eventually for 80% of people, and that TRT, which is not covered by insurance, is expensive and has about an 80% success rate. I'm not sure I can put up with months of "waiting it out" - especially if I end up in the 20% that don't ever get relief. So does TRT even work? Is there anything else that's worth trying?

Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome here - I'm hearing the jab giving problems all the time, people are waking up to the fact that this is real, 'some' people are getting problems and no one listens, not yet, but they are beginning to...

 

@Amy42, when did you have the jab?

 

It was January 14th, so 5 weeks ago.

 

It's not really controversial at this point, but still rare. Which brand of the vaccine did you take?

5 weeks is still new. There is still hope that it will fade away, especially since it's not a classic case of noise induced hearing loss related tinnitus which is more of a done deal once it doesn't disappear within a week.

I'd wait with TRT unless it's been over 6 months since onset, if you have to pay for it. Live as stress free as you can and eat nutritious food, get your sleep and vitamins in and hope for the best. Try not to focus on and obsess over it. Read up on proper sound enrichment and find sounds that makes it easier to sleep without completely drowing out the tinnitus.

Then, if it sticks around and becomes a chronic problem, you can consider TRT. Or just deal with it on your own

I know it feels impossible to live with but as countless people on the forum will attest to: it does get easier to live with eventually even if the volume of the tinnitus remains unchanged. 2-3 years is a realistic time frame to reach some kind of acceptance of the condition.

 

@HeavyMantra Thank you for the advise. It was the Moderna version. I am sure 5 weeks is like nothing compared to many, and at this point I don't see how people function with tinnitus. Hopefully it will get easier.

 

You have to learn to keep busy so you don't notice the tinnitus most of the time - learn to relax well in short meditation. When mine has been high, I visualised me holding a big hoover sucking it up - a few times when I've held that 'single thought' for 30 seconds, it silenced my tinnitus for a second, and then being easier during that day. It's about calming the mind, lose the fear and get on with it as we say, and have that rest time once or twice a day, and much less over bright screen use.

 

@one-light Thanks for the suggestions!

 

@Amy42, there is no much that you can do beyond wait and see.

This is just the 21st century and most conditions are intractable in spite of the medical marketing.

TRT does not cure or really treat tinnitus: it is just a method to help the habituation process. Habituation and acceptance are the keywords, it takes a long time until they get engraved in our brain.

 

My tinnitus started a week after the Pfizer vaccine in November.

Before that, I had recovered completely from tinnitus for 3 years.

One jab and it was back. This time with bilateral pulsatile tinnitus and ordinary tinnitus in both ears.

I have been on sleeping meds since December. I have not noticed any real change in the pounding and hissing.

I guess we have to wait until the potency of the vaccine weakens which could be 6 months to a year.

It was the worst decision of my life to take that shot.

I took it to get a COVID-19 pass. Turns out I could only have used it for 5 days as they phased them out 5 days after I was due my second shot.

Now the world is opening up and I and others like me are stuck with severe debilitating tinnitus.

May God help us.

 

Austria for instance is asking for 3 or 4 vaccines to allow foreigners in Austria. It is ridiculous... and it is like a shot in Autria's own toes... a "COVID pass" is good for nothing, as conditions to enter a foreign country are changing daily.

Governments have exempted pharma companies from any liability related to side effects produced by the "vaccines".

 

@Amy42, I would wait with TRT and just have some light noise around your house as much as possible that you can manage.

And even though you didn’t get a noise trauma, you should know that you’re probably much more prone to get worse from loud noise than anyone without tinnitus would be from that same loud noise.

So think a little bit about your everyday life.

Alarms, construction work, parties or walking along much traffic.

Don’t lose hope the first half year. It can get worse and still get better. And it can be 4 more months before you have a glimpse of hope.

Take care.

 

Wait it out. The Pfizer jab worsened mine, but it lessened quite a bit after about 6 months. You have to give it time and think positive thoughts. It's very likely it will be temporary so just try and treat it like a temporary nuisance.

If I were in your shoes, I would start taking supplements to help mitigate Glutamate toxicity within your ears and protect your ears from loud sounds to allow your synapses to heal properly. But this is up to you and may not be required. I'm just very cautious.

NAC, Zinc, vitamin C, Magnesium to name a few supplements that help with free radicals and excitotoxicity.

 

I have much knowledge to share on viruses / bugs, and I have researched power of the mind / viruses / self healing for 5 years now since 2017 - so I had a head start on COVID-19, but no one would listen in power. Words and thoughts carry energy, especially fear 'low vibe word' and we have to learn to increase our vibes, and with tinnitus lose the fear words and anger in mind, and keep busy working, good rest time and creating stuff, and stopping to appreciate.

I have been emailing MPs here in England and telling the world on various forums and groups they're doing it wrong since mid 2020. They've been creating mass fear and panic via the news lowering millions of immune systems, and I had some nice replies off MPs especially recently when they read my work, saying in reply to me - you raise some important points and they're beginning to listen.

 

I really feel for you.

I know patients in the United States are seeing immunologists about the COVID-19 vaccine and tinnitus. They think it is causing neuroinflammation by activating dormant viruses such as EBV, HSV, Coxsackievirus etc, and/or autoimmunity. Either way, there is a window of treatment there to focus on: the possibility that you have inflammation/reactivated infections/autoimmunity. The other consideration is histamine excess (mast cell activation) secondary to the infections.

From what I am told these patients are doing the following:

- Driving down inflammation by inactivating viruses if relevant
- Many are taking LDN, Curcumin, steroids to reduce TNF-alpha (major driver in inflammation)
- Get cytokine panels done, including inflammatory markers including ESR, CRP

- Identify activated viruses using serum studies
- Treat accordingly

- Autoimmune serum markers
- Consider LDN for this
- Deactivating viruses may help shut down autoimmunity

- Deactivate viruses
- Drive down histamine - low histamine diet, Quercetin, Magnesium and others

I hope this helps.

 

That’s interesting Deb. Thanks. Hadn’t thought along those lines.

Is it easy to be prescribed LDN by doctors?

The low histamine diet is probably a good idea.

I had my blood markers done and they came back normal.

I had tinnitus and pulsatile tinnitus before and they resolved naturally over a few years. They may initially have been caused by a virus. I remember having a terrible flu like illness in early 2014 which led to an eardrum rupture. Initially the pulsatile tinnitus followed from this and then ordinary tinnitus.

At the moment it is the pulsatile tinnitus which is causing the most suffering. It would be interesting if the vaccine had reactivated something leading to that.

I will continue taking Magnesium.

 

I hope these suggestions help.

LDN shouldnt be an issue. I think you can even buy it online. I think if you can't get a GP to agree to it, you should have more success with an integrative/functional doctor who is more open more and familiar with it.

If you cant find a doctor, then maybe printing off Dirk de Ridder's trial using Naltrexone off label for tinnitus along with referring them to the LDN Research Trust Charity might help them feel more comfortable with prescribing it.

Another thing you could do is ring your local compounding pharmacy, and ask them who the LDN prescribers are in your area.

Blood markers? Do you mean inflammatory markers or autoimmune markers?

Reactivation of a dormant virus may be worth reconsidering. You can do serum tests to look for viruses, or simply consider an antiviral like Acyclovir or a herbal one like Lysine.

I would have to google it, but I have heard of viruses such as EBV causing neuralgia since they live in the nerve pathways, so i do think it's worth looking into. You may be familiar with the John from Ohio Protocol for Meniere's disease, but part of his treatment is using antivirals...

Yes, keep taking Magnesium, but let me know if you do look into the above.

Don't give up hope. You can recover again

 

Thanks Deb. I am at a very low point at the moment. To have been free of all noises for years. Then to have everything come back with additional severe Pulsatile Tinnitus within 8 days of vaccination is literally soul destroying.

The psychological effects are just as devastating. I actually went and asked them to inject that stuff into me after holding off for so long.

I will consider your recommendations but at the moment my motivation is near zero.
I feel like I have destroyed the beautiful healing my body had achieved. I don’t know if I can do it again. If it is even possible. The spike proteins may still be active in my body.

But I know people have recovered.

Thanks.

 

@Amy42, how's it going? Any improvement in the past month? I've had ringing since first dose on 2/26. Left ear went away in a week but right ear still there.

My ENT noted I have a deviated septum to the right side, making that side of my nasal passage more constrained but unlikely that matters here. I do notice that when I try to clear my ears by plugging my nose and blowing out of it, my left ear clears the air no problem but right ear feels blocked. However, swallowing does result in the crackling/popping in both ears like normal so not sure what is going on there.

Almost done with Prednisone taper and it hasn't done anything for me. Truly don't know why mine went away in one ear entirely so fast but nothing changed in the other ear. But hopefully that means the right ear will also get better since I'd assume the cause was the same in both ears, with the right side just being stubborn for some reason.

 

@Slambonie - sometimes I think my left ear is getting better, and then I'll go somewhere quiet and it feels like my whole head vibrates with the noise. I'm dealing with it better now than I was. I'm practicing "radical acceptance" and just waiting out the storm in hopes that it will eventually pass. I use headphones with a noise app for sleep, otherwise the ringing keeps me awake.

I really hope your right ear tinnitus resolves quickly! It's encouraging to hear that it went away in one ear at least. There's hope!

 

I'm in the same boat.

Very down atm.

Was in a good place last year.

Now I think either antibiotics or menopause has done on a number in me.

Back to severe tinnitus.