The Effects of Hypothyroidism Upon the Ear, Nose and Throat

Here's a link to a bunch of papers regarding hearing related to thyroid. Quite a few of them mention tinnitus.

The Effects of Hypothyroidism Upon the Ear, Nose and Throat

Show this stuff to your ENT & Endocrinologist. Raise awareness...

 

Just to offer my testimonial. My TSH was checked by my GP in 2014 and was found to be low. Even if my tinnitus was triggered by an acoustic trauma, he prescribed me Levothyrox (one pill of 75 μg a day for 1 month) to see if it could decrease my tinnitus. No effect on tinnitus, but no side effects either.

 

@Frédéric, hello. Sorry to revive an old thread. Just came across this as I was looking about TSH and thyroid levels. Do you maybe remember how low it was that your GP advised to take the medicine? Apparently, the normal levels should be 0.3500 - 4.9400 IU/ml.

As everyone in here, I'm looking for possible tinnitus causes and recently I got the results I have TSH 1.0200 IU/ml. Not lower than the recommended level, but still to the low side and definitely lower than my previous years' examination.

I would greatly appreciate your response! Take care!

 

The lower the number the more your thyroid is working. You would need supplementation if your TSH was high. 1.00 is right around the number most endos try and get to when supplementing with levothyroxine. You are pretty much perfect in TSH.

If your TSH was well less than 1.00 with no medication, then you could have hyperthyroidism. Frederic would have hypothyroidism.

 

@Lukee, thank you for clarifying, you are right! Got confused a bit with what is what there, indeed. It's just that I was found to have a hypoplastic thyroid gland and need to check on that regularly.

It's easy to get paranoid with trying to look into every single possible cause for tinnitus in order to possibly find a treatment!

 

Hello @Lukee,

I am always reminded that hyperthyroidism runs in our family with my sister having her thyroid removed.

My last 3 test results were 1.4, .4, and 1.1 over a 5 year period.

Your post makes me wonder if I should pursue this. I have a cousin who was told over the years he didn't have an issue, but went to a thyroid specialist, and had one.

Thanks.

 

If there is a family history and you have multiple clinical symptoms I would definitely investigate.

It’s possible to have hyperthyroidism at those numbers but it will depend on other factors like your T3 and T4 as well as other markers and general symptoms (weight loss, agitation, hair loss, etc).

Unfortunately the only treatment for hyperthyroidism is removal but definitely worth investigating.

 

Hi, sorry for the delay. Looking at my old blood tests (back to 2013/2014), my maximum dosage was 3,040 mUI/L (according to the tests, limits are 0,270 min and 4,200 max).

 

@Frédéric, no problem man, and thank you for the info. Another tinnitus cause crossed off for me then haha. Good you got that under control though!

 

I don't even bother telling my doctor about tinnitus, as I know he can't help. But I am on Levothyroxine and it hasn't helped my tinnitus at all.

 

Hi @JimR -- When I discovered I was severely hypothyroid, I initially tried a synthetic prescription to treat it. Turned out to be a disaster, and a single dose caused a neurological reaction in my body that took me a week to recover from. I then went on a thyroid extract (prescription Armour Thyroid), and did very well with that. If you're noticing Levothyroxine is affecting your tinnitus, you may want to consider a thyroid extract. -- Best...

 

Did your hypothyroidism get better and you stopped the Armour Thyroid? Or are you still on it? Is it still good?

 

Hi @2noist -- I' m still taking Armour Thyroid, and it's going good, keeping my TSH in a normal range. I anticipate I'll take it for the rest of my life. -- Just to mention, I took Nature-Throid for several years with equally good results, but the FDA has suspended their distribution because the strength was only about 90% of what they were supposed to be. I'll be getting back on it as soon as it's available, as it's about 1/10 the price of Armour, which runs around $600/year. Most insurance won't cover the extracts.