Sudden Bilateral Tinnitus for 1 Month — Normal Audiogram and Ear Pressure

Hi - Sorry for the long post, I'm new to tinnitus and this is just some background info for anyone that may have advice or a similar experience.

I noticed a buzzing/static noise in my head (which I think comes from my left ear) and a medium/high pitched whistle tone in my right ear around the beginning of January. I woke up one morning with it and thought it would go away but it hasn't subsided. My tinnitus can be heard over most things but walking along a street with busy traffic does mask it.

I booked an audiogram appointment two days after it developed and the results were within the normal range for my age (24). I then saw a nurse practitioner within the same week who noted some redness and bubbles behind my left eardrum. She prescribed some antibiotics and nasal spray hoping it was just an infection. This cleared the bubbles/fluid however the noise is the same. I've had another audiogram recently which again was normal. A test to check ear pressure was performed and this too was normal.

Weirdly, I have been slightly congested since Christmas (6/7 weeks!). Nothing major, just a blocked nostril every day and post nasal drip for which I'm still using a corticosteroid nasal spray. This has been getting better but slowly. I hear more 'clicking' noises when swallowing since this all started, presumably from being congested and the Eustachian tubes being a bit gluey.

I've had times where one of my ears will go almost deaf and I get a high-pitched tone that fades after a few seconds. During the first two weeks of tinnitus, this happened multiple times in both ears. Sometimes my right ear would do it once and then not do it again for days but my left ear did it four times within about 2 hours once. It has reduced in frequency since but again yesterday my left ear did it again. It doesn't seem to have a trigger. My ears also ache/hurt sometimes. Has anyone else experienced this fluctuation?

It has been a difficult month but I have read the success stories here and they give me hope. I get days where I feel I can deal with this and then this is followed by a day of worry and sadness. It's better than it was in the beginning though. The anxiety really gets me when my ear goes deaf and the new high-pitched noise comes in. I worry that it isn't a normal tinnitus symptom and it scares me a lot.

Thank you for any support.

 

What you are describing about the sudden loud unilateral tinnitus is what we call "fleeting tinnitus" or "SBUTT". It's a thing that almost everyone (with or without regular tinnitus) gets and you don't have to worry about it too much, although I know how terrifying those can be if you already have the regular constant one. It's caused by a contraction of a muscle near the inner ear and goes away by itself usually very fast.

I personally had those since I remember myself (28 years old), but they somehow became more frequent since I got regular (mild) T almost a year ago. Like a few times a month, or a few times a week, or once every day. Rarely two times a day, but you get the point. I think one or two times a few years ago, it was a really scary vibrating low tone, but thankfully it just went away a few seconds later.

I don't really know (no one knows actually) if or how those are connected or mean anything to the regular tinnitus, but many people report that they get the fleeting kind a lot more since the onset of their regular.

I'm afraid I can't help you more, as I am in a similar situation (normal audiograms, tympanometry tests etc) and I also have a suspicious congestion for months (!) now, but no doctor could find anything wrong really. I suggest you look at the research section to get some hope from upcoming treatments.

 

@DimLeb, thank you for the reply I had no idea what SBUTT was! Knowing it's a normal phenomenon has eased my mind.

I'm sorry you are also going through this weird idiopathic tinnitus. Fingers crossed things will improve with time for both of us x