My Voice Gets Louder in My Left Ear for a Few Minutes Every Morning — What Is This?

This is an odd symptom I used to get rarely only about once a month for the last 3-4 years. It's related to tinnitus because it has increased in frequency since my tinnitus started from ear syringing. I also have hyperacusis (no pain). It has many characteristics that I've been very familiar with:

-The main effect is that my voice gets amplified in just my left ear when I speak. It lasts from 30 minutes to 1 hour. My other ear, the right side, is the side that rings.

-Only lower tones get amplified (my voice is naturally low). If I speak or sing a high note, it doesn't get amplified (I know, really weird).

-The effect is very disturbing and makes concentration hard. It's almost like you know sometimes when you're on the phone and you hear own voice being played back you. It has that same warped/echo sensation. Very unpleasant.

-If you don't speak, you can hear your breath being a bit amplified too in that left ear.

-It oddly feels muffled. Like the pressure is sort of off or imbalanced.

-Chewing gum will help end it faster, but sometimes it will quickly come back though. What works even better is actually eating. This seems to end it every time. I think the swallowing element contributes to stopping it. I've been doing this more lately as soon as I notice it and I can end it in about 15 minutes.

-This only happens from around 10-12 AM. Never any other time even since the first time it happened years ago. It's incredible how punctual it's consistently been.

-It's been 2.5 months since my tinnitus started. About 1.5 months ago, this weird voice amplification thing started to happen on a every-other-day basis (this was right about after I finished my 5-day prednisone course. Coincidence?). This past week it's been every single day. Never more than once a day though.

-When it first started to increase in frequency it would often coincide with the ear fullness sensation in my other ear which happened about once a day (the right side ringing ear). The ear fullness has since decreased but this amplification thing still continues on-schedule.

-It also often times coincides with me needing to blow my nose too. Blowing the nose seems to make it worse (I do get mucus more in the mornings). I also tried to Valsalva during it (early on but not anymore though) and this would make it worse.

-By worse, I mean the amplification is even greater and it takes even longer to go away. It often varies in it's intensity anyways and can briefly flicker on and off.

2 ENTs and 1 audiologist said they don't know what this is. 1 ENT said it might be Patulous Eustachian Tube when I emailed him. I have a phone call with him tomorrow to further discuss. It is one of the symptoms when you research this.

Another possibility I found when researching on my own is the Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome. On this page, it lists one of the symptoms as 'Autophony: Boomy or echoey sound from voice (Open Eustachian Tube or conductive hyperacusis)'. This syndrome is correlated with hyperacusis which I have as well.

Any ideas what this is? I'm grateful it always does go away within an hour but worried that it's happening on a daily basis now. I'm also worried it might last even longer one day and maybe get stuck and not go away.

 

I can't tell you what it is, but I experience the same thing (but not every morning).
I always thought that could be due to blocked ET after night (I have allergies) and some kind of oclusion effect they make. My ears often feel full after waking up, it takes a few minutes or sometimes even hours to resolve. If I wake up in the middle of the night almost always one of my ears is clogged.
I had TTTS too, but it looks like it's gone finally (after about 1.5 year) and now I don't feel this strange phenomenal so often..

 

It does sound very much like PET. With being able to not hear the high note amplified it might be to how sound resonates in our mouths when we form different words and different pitches. Low tones need a more open mouth so the sound gets to the back of your throat more than a high tone that’s created by lessening the space in your mouth/throat. I hope that makes sense.