Noticed Tinnitus After Migraine with Aura / Vertigo — Or Did Headphones Cause My Tinnitus?

Okay so I'm freaking out. I'm a very healthy 37-year-old woman with no history of tinnitus except for one when I took Wellbutrin. It went away when I stopped taking it.

I have been experiencing tinnitus now for about two weeks. I noticed its onset after a really weird migraine (I have history of migraine) where I had an aura (which was unusual) and vertigo for a few days after. I noticed the tinnitus after I had done some research and saw that vestibular migraine and vertigo can be associated with tinnitus.

Then I did some research but noticed I wasn't freaked out about the tinnitus constantly. I have been flying a lot lately too and wear my noise-cancelling headphones on the plane also with no music playing.

Before the first bout of tinnitus, I wore my new Bose noise-cancelling headphones for a few hours without any music playing. I've done this a lot in the past with my AirPods Pro, and never had any noticeable issues.

Every couple of days I would notice the ringing. Didn't think too much of it. Wasn't too concerned.

Well on Monday of this week (two days ago) I wore the Bose noise-cancelling headphones with the AirPods under neath. There was a lot of construction noise and it was driving me nuts.

So then I started doing research and have found other people saying this, and now I'm totally freaked out about this tinnitus being permanent, if I've somehow done damage to my ear (from what I read it seems like this is unlikely, since noise-cancelling headphones don't actually do anything to the physical ear - they just cancel out waves before they get to the ear). So I don't know if this is from the migraine, or the headphones. But it seems to be considerably more noticeable since I used the headphones again on Monday, although admittedly I'm MUCH more focused on it.

I called the migraine doctor and I called an ENT and I have an appointment tomorrow. Part of me wonders if I'm just making this all up, and another part of me is ABSOLUTELY freaking the hell out.

Does anybody have any experience with this? I bought that Neurosensory Buzz thing (it hasn't arrived yet) but basically I'll do whatever is necessary to fix this.

 

@Jaclyn, I'm sorry to say this, but I think it's unlikely that Neosensory Buzz will solve your problem. The Neosensory Buzz emits a vibration in the wrist that makes your attention focus on that vibration, not paying attention to the tinnitus.

You can try some supplementation that helped some people here on the forum.

And read success stories, until time can solve your problem, if it does.

If it doesn't, let's hope a cure will save us from this torment. Take care of your hearing until that time comes.

 

It doesn't seem like my tinnitus is caused by physical damage to the ear, though.

So this should mean it's curable, right? RIGHT?

 

The etiology of tinnitus is not well understood yet, so unfortunately there is no clear answer to your question. If your tinnitus stems from a detectable cause (infection, earwax buildup, TMJ, thyroid disfunction etc.), once the cause is eliminated / treated the tinnitus should fade. At this stage I think it is reasonable to assume that your tinnitus will fade in the next 6-9 months; the statistics is on your side. However beware that there is not a general cure for noise-induced tinnitus (which is probably the most common "type"); there is a plethora of (attempts of) treatments, your ENT will maybe suggest some.

 

Exposure to loud noise is one of the most common causes of tinnitus. Typically, it is listening to audio through any type of headphones regularly and at too high a volume without realizing it.

Please click on the link below and read my post: New to tinnitus, what to do?

All the best
Michael

New to Tinnitus, What to Do? | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum