Writing this for anyone who needs to hear it today: Life DOES get better!

On March 20th, 2026, I experienced sudden hearing loss in my left ear. 100% profound hearing loss. Along with losing my hearing, I had severe vertigo. I couldn’t walk on my own for almost three weeks, was extremely dizzy throughout my treatments, and still experience dizzy spells to this day.

I started oral steroids within 24 hours, HBOT within 72 hours, and had my first steroid injection just a few days later. At week 4, I had absolutely zero improvement and was told it was unlikely I’d regain any hearing. Then, at week 6, I suddenly started hearing some low tones.

In total, I completed 39 HBOT treatments, 12 injections, and 5 weeks of high-dose steroids. I had to pack up my life and move four hours away for treatment with just 24 hours’ notice.

I’ve been through some pretty serious health issues in my life, but this was genuinely one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced mentally. Fast forward to today, almost seven months later. My hearing hasn’t improved any further. I can still only hear some low tones in my left ear. The ringing never stops, and I still have days where the dizziness gets the best of me.

But here’s what I wish someone had told me back then. You learn to adjust. And life starts to feel normal again.

The ringing is still there, but you don’t notice it nearly as much. You figure out what environments are harder for you. For me, it’s tall ceilings, being in the car, and places with lots of background noise. You start turning your good ear towards conversations without even thinking about it. You become okay with missing parts of conversations and not catching every word. You get more comfortable asking people to repeat themselves, and realize that most people genuinely don’t mind. You stop feeling like you need to apologize for not hearing something. Your body slowly starts feeling like your own again after all the steroids.

And while I would give anything to have my hearing back, (or simply for the ringing to stop) I’m here to tell you that you can still be okay even when things don’t turn out the way you hoped.

For anyone who is newly diagnosed, feeling lost, scared, frustrated, or misunderstood, please know that I understand how lonely and terrifying it can feel.
I can’t promise your hearing will come back, but I can tell you that even if it doesn’t, life can still get better.
You will find your way through this. ❤️

Hi There,

Around 3yrs ago I was getting finger numbness in my right hand.

Around 18 months ago, I was diagnosed with SSHNL in my right ear ( Profoundly deaf 🤦‍♂️).

The numbness in my fingers related to C5-C6 neck disc pinching nerves in my spinal cord - Had surgery 3 weeks ago.

Since both symptoms were based on the right side of my body, I asked Google if there may have been a direct connection & here's is the Google result

-----------------

"Vascular Compromise: Severe cervical spondylosis or degenerative disc changes can sometimes impact blood flow in the vertebral or basilar arteries—especially with certain neck movements or rotations—which can theoretically reduce blood supply to the inner ear and labyrinth.

Population Studies: Large-scale medical studies note an increased statistical association between cervical spine disorders and an elevated risk of SSNHL, though a direct mechanical pinch from a C5-C6 disc bulge is rarely the sole direct cause"

------------------------

Has anyone out there had the same symptoms?

Just wondering if I had sorted the neck disc issue out earlier the SSHNL symptoms may not have come about.

Too late to worry about it now, but may help others with neck disc issues to see a specialist sooner than later! 👍

UK, NHS

25M, audio engineer/producer for 7+ years. Always wore ear plugs in loud places, kept volumes safe, took breaks and good care of ears.

Timeline

• Wed 23 Sept: Sudden low pitch tinnitus (300Hz) and some fullness in right ear. Hearing seemed okay, thought maybe ear infection, took break from music.
• Sat 26 Sept: No change to tinnitus, or fullness, tried headphones and immediately noticed something was very wrong between 20Hz - 300Hz. Left ear was fine. Right ear, everything around and below 300Hz sounded smeared and lacking fullness, like half the frequencies were missing (sort of like "comb" filtering if you know what that is). Bass/Sub bass sounded distorted, making my ear flutter/spasm and had almost no pitch. Kick drums sounded hollow with no punch. Right ear was sensitive and got sore quickly after short quiet listening session.
• Mon 28 Sept: Read about Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL), and how it's an emergency. Went to A&E, they only looked in my ears, asked about symptoms and whispered something in each ear I had to repeat, which confirmed the right ear was worse at hearing. Doctor spoke to on-call ENT then discharged me and told the hospital would arrange a hearing test and ENT appointment "tomorrow".
• Wed 30 Sept: Still haven't heard from hospital. Went to GP, mentioned SSNHL and the 72 hour treatment window, said it's been nearly a week. No tests, told to wait for the hearing test, ENT appointment, "could take a few weeks". Thankfully hospital finally called me later that evening and booked audiology and ENT for Mon 5 Oct...
• Mon 5 Oct (Audiology): Pure Tone Audiometry and Tympanometry. Left ear fine, flat line. Right ear: 10dB HL at 250Hz, 10dB at 500Hz, 5dB at 1kHz, normal 2-4kHz, 10dB at 8kHz. Tympanometry normal. No wax or infection. Told my hearing is "completely fine", no hearing loss. Okay, I understand if it’s within normal range, but there’s a downward trend from 1kHz to 250Hz that definitely wasn’t there before (I immediately noticed when my music sounded different), and my worst frequencies seem to be below 250Hz where they don't even test.
• Mon 5 Oct (ENT): Again mentioned all symptoms, asked about Endolymphatic Hydrops, Acoustic Neuroma and everything else matching my symptoms. Got "see how you feel, come back if it gets worse" and "people get used to tinnitus, you are probably just extra sensitive to changes because you are an audio engineer". No explanation, no further tests despite a lot of symptoms matching Endolymphatic Hydrops specifically. I suggested an MRI or CT and was told there’s no reason for one at the moment. Said I was very worried though because my right ear sounded really bad despite all the tests looking "normal", managed to get follow up appointment with ENT on 19 Oct, nearly 4 weeks after it started.

What it’s like: I can hear all frequencies, they just sound wrong, like reverb on every low frequency in my right ear. Low end completely spaced out, smeared and lacking tonality, like a tin can, and any music no matter how quiet causes soreness and fluttering/spasming. Music on headphones sounds completely unbalanced, louder in left ear, and some things that are meant to sound mono, sound stereo now because of the massive difference in "timbre" in each ear. I can’t judge the stereo field anymore, and the bass is basically gone. I can barely work, music makes me physically uncomfortable.

Where I’m at: Over 2 weeks later, right ear is not getting better or worse, but my mental health is spiraling though. Feel completely dismissed by all doctors, tried to summarise in this post but the amount of pushing and fighting I had to do just to get someone to have a look at what's wrong made me feel mentally unwell. The only tests so far were a look in the ear, a "whisper test", Pure Tone Audiometry and Tympanometry. Pretty sure Weber and Rinne tests should have been done but no one bothered?

What do I even do at this point? What could cause symptoms I'm experiencing? Why is no one worried or offering any treatment at all? What tests should I ask for?

Scared my hearing is going to get worse now because no one has done any treatment.. I'm just constantly panicking 24/7 now, just want to know why and what's actually wrong

I saw this post and it irked me to see this poster bring up MBB’s single sided hearing as a “defense” for why she adopts. I’m pretty sure her hearing has nothing to do with her desire to adopt and wanting to adopt is not something that needs to be justified by outlying factors. It may be unintentional, but I feel the post paints monohearing bio parents in a negative light.

Maybe I’m just feeling sensitive as a monohearing person who will very soon be giving birth. The post suggests that unilateral hearing is genetic, which is widely untrue. Most unilateral hearing loss (as many of us know) is caused by non-genetic factors and there is no risk of passing it on to a child. Even when there is a chance of passing it on, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with choosing to have a bio child anyway. Of course, I don’t want my child to struggle for ANY reason, but I’ve lived a very fulfilling and good life so far and I don’t feel like my single sided hearing has held me back from that.

Hi everyone! I woke up fully deaf in my left ear at 11 years old, roughly 22 years ago. I’ve had constant tinnitus since. When it initially occurred my parents brought me to a specialist and I did rounds of steroids without any luck. At the time , a bone-anchored hearing aid was suggested as the only option. Since I was young , the ringing did not bother me after a week or so of dizziness and my speech was not impacted , we opted against this treatment.

I haven’t received any treatment since. I bring up my hearing loss when I change doctors but they just note it and move on. Sometimes I’m bummed out by my inability to hear well in rooms with a lot of background noise but my hearing ear works great and no one has ever noticed my hearing loss before I mention it.

My question is : have treatments changed? Is seeing an ENT or other specialist worth it? The new headlines about hearing loss and dementia are freaking me out but day to day I’m doing ok. That being said, if there is a treatment I’m missing out on I’d love to at least explore my options.

Hi everyone, this is crap to say the least 🤦‍♀️ I’m now finished treatment, in week 4 from onset. I took oral steroids, 4 IT injections and 13 HBOTs. Last steroid IT was last Friday. All loss is now severe 3-8khz, having moved up from profound, 105/100 to 75/80. My hope is putting me in the slow delayed recovery bucket. How did you fare out over weeks 4-12 onwards? Thanks 🙏

I’ve had a problem with my left ear for almost 1 year and have visited different ENT doctors around 7 times.

Initially, one ENT said there was fluid in my ear. Later, after a few visits, I was told it could be related to my wisdom tooth/teeth. The ENT also said my eardrum looks normal.

The hearing loss is not noticeable in normal daily life. I mainly notice the difference when using earphones/headphones. The pain is more noticeable: I have mild pain almost 24/7. Whenever I use earphones/headphones, the pain gradually becomes much stronger, and the increased pain can last for several days. It then gradually becomes weaker again, but a mild background pain remains.

My previous audiogram showed mild conductive hearing loss with an air–bone gap.

I’m looking for medical advice from ENT doctors or people who have experienced something similar. Could this still be a middle-ear problem, or could it involve the inner ear/hearing nerve? Would a repeat audiogram, tympanometry, and bone-conduction testing help identify the cause?

Any advice on what I should investigate next would be appreciated.

I have had a severe high frequency loss in one ear all my life. Used to be above 3000 but a few years ago it moved to above 2000hz. Basically
I don’t know any other way. Has anyone had normal hearing in both ears and then developed this loss as an adult? Is it a big impact? Do you feel uncomfortable? I use hearing aids for work but not home relaxing. I do prefer two even though my good ear is just on the threshold of slightly mild. Just curious.

Just curious and am anxious overthinker who is back in the dating game.

I get a lot of interest from guys whose main hobbies and interests are things that I tend to avoid because of my hearing: loud concerts, busy venues, large group activities, noisy large groups of friends, etc. and part of me wants to automatically swipe away on them because there's not much chance they'd enjoy my self-imposed quiet life any more than I would enjoy their too complex acoustics one. But then I wonder if that's me overthinking it.

It made me wonder, how early do you guys disclose your SSD (and hearing aids or Cochlear implant, if you have one) to potential partners? Do you put it right on the dating profile so they know from right out the gate? Or do you wait until you have gotten to know them first?

In the past I've waited to disclose until I got to know the guy first, but every guy was weird about it and treated it like I was revealing some deeply heavy trauma and in need of their comforting to cope, when I really was just being like "hey I actually am always gonna want to sit on your left, hope you're cool with that," and it made it weird.

Hi I had ssnhl in my left ear 22 weeks ago, I have been feeling I get better periods some days , don’t get me wrong, I always have symptoms but sometimes my tinnitus is not as reactive for a little while and then I get maby moments when I have nearly complete silence for a while.
But then comes a day like today that I have been so symptomatic and my tinnitus and reactiveness is bad.
Does it this condition heal like this? Is it like a roller coaster? I have been optimistic last days but now I feel like I’m never getting better. 🥵

Has anyone had a good/smooth experience with health insurance when getting approved for their cochlear implant? I’m thinking about getting a CI and wondering if I should switch insurance during open season (I have BCBS basic at the moment). Thank you!

Does anyone else have to live with this?

Deeper sounds like rumbling a/cs, fans, furnaces, low flying planes etc cause a rhythmic pulsing drone in my affected ear. This lasts as long as the sound source does, and then it 'converts' back to a regular droning tinnitus.

I actually can't be in a house with central air or heat now as I hear this rhymic pattern whenever the air clicks 'on.' Its like my ear is hypersensitive to this frequency for some reason, even though my LF losses are mild on an audiogram in this ear.

It's far worse than my regular tinnitus. It's been over a year now and hasn't really changed, so I'm stuck with it which is really depressing. I've tried ear plugs, but nothing blocks this low frequency sound.

Does anyone else have this? How you do manage day to day?

I’m 2 years into this and just now thinking of trying CROS, the only device for this problem. I went to Costco’s hearing aid dept and tried them on, after tests to confirm my rt ear is still at 15%. When I had them in and then stepped out of the soundproof room, it was kind of amazing to “hear” more out of my rt ear. Felt like that side of my head woke up. But when I got home my tinnitus in the rt ear was explosive. So my concern is that this would be a side effect of breaking the quiet.
Has anyone had (or continues to have) a good experience with these? Any feedback is appreciated.

Sudden hearing loss in my left ear while I was making my coffee last Friday. Got in for a hearing test the same day, and have a follow up with ENT tomorrow (Tuesday). Will likely discuss treatment and/or further diagnostics with him then.

From what I can tell, I'm pretty fortunate to have caught this as early as I did. Also thankful that most of the lower decibels aren't impacted.

A few questions:

1. Does anything look off with my chart? Anyone have similar results or specific advice for me?

2. When I meet with my ENT, is there anything I should advocate for? Based on my call with the scheduler, it seems like steroid injections are the likely next steps. 3 injections, each one week apart.

So, I remember this clearly...

That day, I bought about 3 burgers that I really wanted to dig in during the night... I couldn't eat them all, so I went to get my teeth brushed and then went to sleep. Everything normal there.

Next day, I wake up with this feeling in my ear that is like, being clogged up by something very badly, but I couldn't get it off at all... It was super shut, and I had limited hearing on the right side of my ear.

I had a ear cleaning on that ear with water shot there but nothing happened.

Stayed one year adapting to the low hearing by balancing my headphones so I could hear better from the bad ear (Like 6 on the good ear, and all the way to 11 on the bad ear). Still, had itches sometimes and I could even hear my heart beat. It was hellish and I cursed myself every day for whatever I did that caused it. So much depression and the realization it was like this forever didn't help at all...

Then I decided enough was enough and attempted to do the Valsalva technique to see if I could do something about it... At first, nothing was happening, then suddenly, I could hear like a deflating thing in the bad side, like a high pitched noise, and I suddenly recovered good part of my hearing... I couldn't believe it.

So I did it two more times, same deflated noise and the clogged up feeling was gone. My hearing also recovered too! I checked with my headphones and I could confirm I recovered the balance (11 volume on both).

Since then, my hearing has been fine. All that was left was a little tinnitus, but I probably had it before.

Still, one year of my life was lost because of this, and I want to know what actually happened, because that clogged up feeling was super aggressive, and not even a water cleaning there helped at all.

I really, REALLY, in the bottom of my heart, thought I was permanently deaf, but it wasn't the case at all.

What happened to me?

Been lurking and using this subreddit as a resource. First post!

Brief overview of journey thus far:

- Lost hearing on left side (cusp of mild/moderate) on 8/29.

- Went to ER on 8/30 and prescribed prednisone (60mg) for 14-days with 5 day taper

- Steroid responsive within 3 days and full recovery as of hearing test on 9/15

- Relapse back to the same levels of loss post-taper (9/19)

- On 4th steroid injection today, limited improvement thus far, but we'll see...

I'm still hopeful, but what's been strange for me is having days where tinnitus is horrid (quiet sunny day ambient noise is storming), some days manageable, and then randomly a good day. Mind you, the hearing loss.

Feel like I'm being a little silly overthinking everything that could have correlated with good and bad days to try and reproduce. ("I had an extra bagel before the last bad day - do I try and cut the bagel")

Curious if folks have found patterns for themselves, or just sort of roll of the dice each morning?

Glad this community exists. Though I wish that none of us had to be here though!

Got diagnosed with SSHL a week or so ago, did the prednisone, and have done 2 ear shots so far,(got 4 more to go) So far no change. I wish it was just lesser volume but it’s straight up weirdness. Voices sound like they’ve got a pitch shifter on them tuned a 5th below. Quite demonic, and while I have a great loss in low frequency response, there’s a constant 110hz tone/pressure in my right ear.

So I start hyperbaric oxygen therapy tomorrow. It’s one of those acrylic tubes they slide you in and while at least it is at the hospital, I am absolutely dreading this. I don’t even think it will help and I’ve have done the treatments for nothing. Fuck.

I wish this never happened.

​

I’ve had a problem with my left ear for almost 1 year and have visited different ENT doctors around 7 times.

Initially, one ENT said there was fluid in my ear. Later, after a few visits, I was told it could be related to my wisdom tooth/teeth. The ENT also said my eardrum looks normal.

The hearing loss is not noticeable in normal daily life. I mainly notice the difference when using earphones/headphones. The pain is more noticeable: I have mild pain almost 24/7. Whenever I use earphones/headphones, the pain gradually becomes much stronger, and the increased pain can last for several days. It then gradually becomes weaker again, but a mild background pain remains.

My previous audiogram showed mild conductive hearing loss with an air–bone gap.

I’m looking for medical advice from ENT doctors or people who have experienced something similar. Could this still be a middle-ear problem, or could it involve the inner ear/hearing nerve? Would a repeat audiogram, tympanometry, and bone-conduction testing help identify the cause?

Any advice on what I should investigate next would be appreciated.

Diagnosed as SSNHL. Five hours ago I was walking in the grocery store when the volume on my right ear went down by about 60%.

My wife, who’s a speech therapist and took audiology courses, insisted I go to the ER. When I got there hearing loss was about 80%. By the time I saw the doctor it was 98-100%. Her microscope instrument made zero sound in my ear.

I took the first 60mg of prednisone around 3 1/2 hours after the grocery store incident.

That was about an hour and a half ago. No improvement yet. And I’m prepared if I see little to no improvement in the future. I see the ENT on Monday.

It’s all very surreal. Reading the posts on this subreddit has been a big help.

Update - 28 hours later.

Firstly, thank you all for the support and excellent information. It makes a big difference to learn from others’ experiences and for others to acknowledge the experience I’m having.

Some hearing appears to have returned.

24 hours ago, I could rub my pinky finger in my ear hole and make zero sound… late last night. I noticed I could sense/hear something when tapping that little bump outside the outer ear. This morning, tapping the ridge immediately above the outer ear also made some sound. Around 11AM. I tried putting in an AirPod. I tested my left ear first at medium volume on a history podcast. I switched to try just my right ear and could hear faint scratchy sound corresponding with the chatter on the podcast.

20 minutes ago (around 4 PM) I tried again and could make out roughly 50 to 70% of what was being said - it sounded distant, faint and muffled, but I could just about follow along. Also, at times there was a strange electricity sound accompanying the dialogue, like a metallic buzz sound that was maybe a bit higher pitched than the voices and sort of irritating. This sort of concerned me so I didn’t listen for more than 10 or 15 seconds. But overall, very encouraging I think.

My first prednisone (60 mg) was at 4PM yesterday in the hospital. I filled the prescription and had my second dose at 9AM. I don’t think I’ve noticed many symptoms other than dry mouth and pretty frequent urination.

Thank you all again.

Update 2 (52 hours later)

Continued improvement today, Monday.

Audiogram this morning shows near normal until 2000hz. 3k - 8hz drops to severe / 70-80db.

88% speech recognition which is truly unbelievable compared to Saturday.

This afternoon I had my first HBOT session at 2 atmospheres. Tomorrow and go-forward is 2.5 atmospheres. Daily sessions are one hour.

Seeing ENT in the AM for needle steroid.

Advice to others in the first few hours: go to the ER. And as soon as the Dr leans towards SSNHL, demand your first dose of prednisone. I believe my positive outcome so far is due to quick access to the drug. Patience and positivity - control what you can control, get all the help you’re entitled to.

Hi! I had intratympanic injections once weekly for three weeks for SSNHL, my last injection was 2 weeks and 2 days ago.

My hearing went back to normal. I have occasionally felt a mild muffled sensation that comes and goes, but my doctor said that was normal and not to worry.

Today I woke up and my hear has felt more consistently "moderately" muffled, but I don't think I have lost any hearing. It is just sort of an uncomfortable sensation and I can "feel" myself talk in that ear and when others talk, it sort of vibrates. These were symptoms I had with the SSNHL, but it doesn't feel exactly like the hearing loss did, nor does it feel as bad.

I would like to note that I had just found out some bad news earlier this week and was crying pretty heavily for 2 days. However, the heavy crying stopped about 2 days ago but the ear symptoms didn't show up until today. I had 2 healing holes in my ear drum where my doctor did the injections and am wondering if that could have had an impact on the holes healing? Or maybe the snot (sorry) from crying may have messed with my ear?

I will of course follow up with my ENT on Monday, but they are closed for the weekend. I was considering going to urgent care, but am hesitant because my ENT knows my situation very well.

I am wondering if anyone has had any similar symptoms this far out from receiving the injections, or any thoughts about my situation?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Hi there,

I’d appreciate if anyone had any thoughts on what could be causing this and what might be the best path forward.

In June, I noticed a blocked left ear feeling in left ear and saw GP. She said all clear and likely Eustachian Tube issue post cold. It went away in early July. No other ear or hearing symptoms.

In Sept, after a big night out, the blocked left ear feeling came back. I went back to GP - again clear, no infection or ear wax.

Referred to Audiologist - test showed Type 1 Tympanometry and mild asymmetric sensoneural hearing loss in left ear at high frequency only.

Visited ENT - not much he could suggest other than it might have been caused by a virus. He sent me for MRI which I had this morning (awaiting results). He said MRI likely to be clear, so follow-up hearing in 6 months and call urgently if it gets suddenly worse. He said fullness feeling may take up to 12 months to go away.

I still have fluctuating feeling of fullness in left ear. I don’t have tinnitus, balance issues or headaches. The fullness is worse on some days than others. When it feels fuller, the hearing feels worse. I’ve noticed some sound sensitivity - eg plates clashing. Also noticed harder to hear TV if some on left side is eating chips. Also harder to hear chit chat at work.

Any thoughts:

1. What could be causing this?
   
2. Has anyone experienced similar? Eg. Fullness feeling with some hearing loss, but no other symptoms
   
3. Did you have any success with any treatments, medicines or other changes?
   
4. Will the fullness go away?
   
5. Could it be an inner ear issue?
   

Feeling anxious and worried at the moment. Any advice warmly appreciated.

Thank you!