Tinnitus Over Time — Doing Much Better Now, However Scared It Might Get Worse

Hello all

My one year anniversary with tinnitus just passed. I personally feel like it has improved a lot and I have habituated quite a bit. I used to have terrible hyperacusis (like speaking volume would hurt my ears. Literally anything hurt them). But now, that is completely gone. I feel like the sound has gotten more bearable too.

But, everywhere I look, people who are long time sufferers of tinnitus keep saying it get WORSE over time and this scares me.

Also, I am scared of having children. Some women have said pregnancy made their tinnitus A LOT worse.

Can you please share your experiences with tinnitus over time?

Also, if you have been pregnant with tinnitus can you share that experience here as well?

Thanks guys, hang in there!!

 

From what I've researched, Progesterone levels (induced throughout pregnancy) can (though that's not always the case) spike your Tinnitus, this is because Progesterone typically acts as a Glutamate inhibitor (It attaches to GABA receptors, GABA being Glutamate's antagonistic transmitter), this means within early pregnancy your tinnitus would typically get lower, the issue however is that the chemistry gets imbalanced and the brain starts deregulating GABA receptors and increasing glutamate productions to counter the effects of Progesterone (in a similar fashion it would for chronic Benzodiazepine users, this is why the use of Benzodiazepine is ill adviced), this has usually no pronounced effects until week 36 when Progesterone levels start going down to reach back to normal levels, this is when the Tinnitus would normally start to spike as you would feel Progesterone/GABA withdrawal effects, if that's the case however, do not panic of feel alarmed as this would be a temporary state which would resolve shortly after pregnancy as progesterone levels get back to normal and withdrawal symptoms would be much shorter and less pronounced than the ones experienced by most other GABA stimulants.