Tinnitus After COVID-19 Booster / Cold — Got Worse After COVID-19 Infection — ETD Related?

Hi there, I've been lurking a while and thought I'd introduce myself and ask for some advice/opinions too.

I've recently turned 40 and had my 3rd baby in November. I have zero history of noise trauma. My story began on 23rd of December when I went to have my COVID-19 booster. A day or 2 before I developed a terrible cold which resulted in me losing my sense of taste which always happens when I have a bad cold. This was definitely not COVID-19, I might add. Anyway, my taste was back by Christmas day and whilst lying in bed that night, I started to become aware of an intermittent (occurring every 5 to 10 seconds) ping noise in my left ear, could also be described as a chime or a beep I guess. As expected I initially thought it was in the room but the next night I heard it again whilst staying at my parents house. This has been continuous ever since. It caused me a bit of anxiety but I only heard it in silence and it didn't disturb my sleep. I attended my GP on January 5th and she stated I had fluid behind my ear and she gave me some steroid nasal spray and another decongestants to use and told me to come back if It hadn't cleared in a week. It didn't clear but I left it 4 weeks to go back at which point she asked me to have an audiogram which was normal but the pressure was slightly low on my right (good) ear. My GP checked my ears again, fluid now gone and referred me to ENT.

Fast forward to March 2nd, all was still the same until I developed COVID-19 and all hell broke loose. I started to hear hissing which sounded worse over TV or other noise, this developed to full scale ringing at night and during the day like a distant fire alarm or sirens. I had intensely irritated ears during COVID-19 with pain and itchiness and fullness. It now appears in the right ear too and I've had a whistling sound which I can block by pressing my ears slightly. I've suffered a great deal of anxiety and can't even begin to describe the ups and downs this has caused. My biggest fear was that it would become worse. I strongly believe the booster caused my beep/ping. I ended up paying to see a private ENT who was useless and told me rather this was probably all caused by hormonal changes and he fully expected it to go away eventually.

I now wonder if the congestion from COVID-19 has caused inflammation or partial blockage of my Eustachian tubes. My ears crackle and pop at times and I was unable to do the Valsalva on my left ear for a long time. I never fully do the Valsalva if that makes sense, as I don't want to cause any further damage, but my ears squelch a bit when blowing air through them. They feel a bit plugged too.

This last week or 2 I had a break through in that I've had more good days than bad. This came after 4 nights of zero sleep and on the 3rd night when I lay down all the noises disappeared until later on the next day when they returned quite mildly. The good days have been minimal noise with only hissing when plugging ears and barely being able to hear the beep or whistling. In fact yesterday I was convinced things were finally back on track. I'd done a partial Valsalva a few times the night before with the decongestants and feel it really helped with the noise. Not being satisfied with the massive improvement I did a lot of partial Valsalva manoeuvres to trying and unclog my ears further and all the ringing/sirens and whistling came back and I feel like I'm right back to where I started.

Sorry for rambling. I'm just so fed up and want my life back to concentrate on my kids and husband. I just wondered if anyone else believes this may be due to ETD or inflammation and may go away? The fact that the noises are up and down and I've had so many good days surely indicate that something is going on.

The noises at night weren't covered by the en suite fan running so it's been pretty loud at its worst.

I'm very aware that I'm better off than a lot of people, so please don't judge my anxiety. I wish you all well and appreciate any thoughts.

 

Given we don't have an objective measurement of tinnitus, it's impossible to know how "loud" everyone's tinnitus really is. And you can draw a distinction between loudness and distress, where some people with not very "loud" tinnitus might be inordinately distressed by it, where others with jet engine tinnitus can be ambivalent about it.

All that is to say, don't apologize. I too suspect the COVID-19 booster contributed to my onset, but I also probably already had hearing loss which made me a primed pump for tinnitus.

We both got our tinnitus around the same time. I think mine is getting better but I still have ups and downs like you. I have no idea what that means. But you should keep in mind that we are still very early on in this, and people typically do report improvement with time.

 

@blamingeverything, thank you for your reply. You are so right about not being able to measure the loudness.

Can I ask what your tinnitus sounds like? Mine was barely there until I got COVID-19 and it's been a nightmare since. I'm hopeful at times that this will fade eventually and then sometimes I see it never going away. I can't actually believe this has happened at times.

I'll hope for both of us that we get some relief eventually.

 

Stop doing the Valsalva, I gave myself a barotrauma doing it excessively, and not hard. It gave me tinnitus in my good ear. Try to prevent too much pressure going up into your ears if you can.

 

How does ETD cause tinnitus? Is it a pressure problem or a nerve problem?

 

Very high frequency electrical sound. It's inhumane and I agree, I am often left in disbelief that this is a thing. I do believe it gets better, mine has gotten better, it's just going to take time.

 

Getoutofmyear,

I also got tinnitus after getting a COVID-19 infection in 2021. I'm still confused because mine started at the end of May 2021 and I recovered from COVID-19 around March, 2021. By that time I was taking benzodiazepines and I had the brilliant idea of cold turkeying the medication and then hell broke loose. So, to this point, I'm not sure if it was COVID-19 or the benzowithdrawal.

However, your case sounds pretty similar to mine. Mine started with an electric buzz in the middle of the night, loud as hell. Then it changed to several tones: hissing, frying bacon, or just a low sprinkle.

It has gradually been improving (having good days, more than bad days), until recently where I've got COVID-19 again (huzzah!). I'm still tapering of my medication, so I know if it's because of the effects of withdrawal or COVID-19 hitting me again.

At present, I'm scared, devastated... I have like a frying bacon sound in my left ear. If no sound enrichment is present, it gets louder and louder. I didn't realize how much progress I've made until now, that I feel in square 1.

It can become really piercing, other times. This spike has lasted several days, and I'm terrified of what could happen. I'd like to believe that it will get better (more manageable). Has your tinnitus improved ever since?

Anyways, that's my input/experience.