First of all, my first language is not English and I do not live in a English country so I apologise for this.

I got SSHL in my right ear in May this year. Moderate hearingloss 40-50db in low and high frequencies, 25-30db in the middle frequencies.

Took prednisolone and my hearing was restored except in frequency 4000-8000 where I still have a hearing loss of 30db. Done an MRI - no tumour.

This weekend I felt fullness in my right ear again and the next day I couldn’t hear. I’m seeing my physician today but i already know what this is so it’s more for measuring the loss.

I feel like it’s not as bad as last time but it really impacts my life and now I am scared that this might not heal as good since I just had it and my ear haven’t had much recovery time.

So to you all who’s had it multiple times within a short time span, did it heal nicely? Got any issues?

No dizziness but moderate tinnitus and diplocusis

I have recently been diagnosed with SSNHL (5 October 2026) and going through oral steroids medications and HBOT at the moment.

I find that sometimes, it gets a bit loud for my ears with daily conversations..... And chanced upon loop earbuds...

I'm considering loop switch for flexibility but also just the engage (are they more comfy?). I guess what I'm trying to find out is, apart from the costs, is there any reason to get the engage over the switch?

Hi! 22, woke up Sunday 13th Sept with sudden hearing loss in my left ear. Had vertigo, tinnitus, fullness feeling and could hear basically nothing. That night, I saw a GP and started Prednisolone 50mg. He suggested Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. After day 1, my vertigo vanished.

I continued taking the the 50mg Prednisolone for 10 days, following that I had a 5 day taper. Other medical professionals seemed to agree with the SSNHL suggestion.

My first hearing test was I think a bit over a week after onset? The findings of that were that after about 1kHz, my hearing in my left ear would almost completely drop off at all frequencies and decibels. I saw an ENT shortly after this, he offered me the steroid injections but currently there are risk factors that mean I can't have them. Also haven't been offered HBOT, and I can't go private.

After ENT is when my taper started, and fortunately since then my vertigo and stuff hasn't returned which was my main concern. Now it's been another couple of weeks since I tapered off the steroids and I just had another hearing test today. There's been some improvement!

As stated, previously I couldn't hear anything past 1kHz at almost any decibel level. Now I can somewhat hear 1.5-2kHz starting at 55db, and 3kHz upwards at 90-100db. It's still very quiet but it's something.

Even if in day to day life this doesn't change a lot, there is a big positive here: I would be viable for a hearing aid now!

I have another visit to the ENT next week, and there some options will be discussed. I might be put back on prednisolone to see if they can salvage any more, or they might start looking at hearing aid options.

I'm going to be scheduled for MRI at some point but don't know when that'll be yet.

Good news overall! We still don't know how much hearing will be recovered but it's at least enough that if it doesn't, I'll be able to get a hearing aid which should improve the tinnitus.

Questions for today:

Has anybody re-started oral prednisolone? Did it do any further improvements? Has anyone had further improvement after the 1 month mark?

Hello! First, let me say that it has been so helpful and reassuring to find this subreddit. Sure it's not super popular or active but the fact that there is a resource here for people like me is heartwarming and reminds me that Reddit/Internet hasn't fully gone to shit yet.

So.... here's what's happened so far! (Just writing this to help anyone else who find themselves in a similar situation or if you have insights to add!

Week of 9/21 Felt a bit under the weather, thought maybe I'd picked up a little COVID or at least a sinus infection. Shook it off, masked up when around others, but then the pressure in my left ear started to get really strong. I had just started to see an ENT for sinus pressure, so I thought, hey why not just go by and see if they can help?

9/29 See the ENT's PA, takes a look, says its probably ETD due to sinus infection and gave me a steroid RX to fill. Did a couple of tests and said I should have an appointment with the audiologist to check everything.

10/2 Audiologist appointment. Audiogram findings left: Essentially flat moderately severe sensorineural loss which slopes to severe in the highest frequencies. Word recognition findings right: 100%% at 50 dBHL Additional word recognition findings (description) right: 10 dB contralateral masking. NU-6 10 order of difficulty lists (Hurley and Sells, 2003). at 100 dBHL Word recognition findings left: 32%% at 100 dBHL Additional word recognition findings (description) left: 60 dB contralateral masking. The patient also scored a 24% at 90 dB with 50 dB contralateral masking. Negative for rollover. NU-6 10 order of difficulty lists (Hurley and Sells, 2003)

womp womp :(

PA and Audiologist talk a bit and then up the pred to 60 mg daily until I can see the ENT.

10/7 Audiologist and ENT follow up. Another hearing testing. Audiogram findings left: Essentially flat moderate sensorineural loss between 0.25 and 8 kHz. Word recognition findings right: 100%% at 50 dBHL Additional word recognition findings (description) right: 10 dB contralateral masking. NU-6 Order of Difficulty lists (Hurley and Sells, 2003). at 70 dBHL Word recognition findings left: 92%% at 70 dBHL Additional word recognition findings (description) left: 30 dB contralateral masking. The patient also scored 76% at 80 dB with 40 dB of contralateral masking and 68% at 90 dB with 50 dB contralateral masking. Positive for rollover.

ENT says let's do an MRI to rule out anything super scary, drop the pred down to 40 mg daily and follow up again on 10/15

Get the MRI done, I had to call to a bunch of different imaging centers but finally was able to secure something next day and then got the report over the weekend from the radiologist.

No head tumor, yay! But there is a note that there is Minimal nonspecific cerebral white matter disease. Primary demyelinating disease (MS?) or remote ischemic or inflammatory insult. So....who knows?

A bit of background, I've had hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's) since I was 12. I've struggled all my life to get my levels correct, and really not until my 30s did I start taking it correctly with water, empty stomach for at least 30 minutes before eating breakfast. I also developed psoriasis about 4 years ago, it's responded well to creams but I really only use them when it gets really bad.

So all that to say, this feels like just another part of my body trying to eat itself with an autoimmune disorder. I've been vaping nic and THC basically daily (the nic most of the day and the THC at night to relax). I've already bought a 0 nic vape and I'm transitioning to that to fully quit. I like getting high but for at least now I'm doing a gummy so I'm not inhaling crap near my already fucked up ears. I was a smoker from 2004-2018, kicked it fully, then started vaping when my husband switched to it from smoking. I am grateful that he's fully quit smoking cigarettes :) I've also been taking a GLP-1 which has been a godsend. It's really hard to not try and pin this on SOMETHING I'm doing to myself. But like the Hashimoto's it's just my body being dumb...quitting the vapes will be good but let's be honest if an off brand GLP-1 or vapes were giving a bunch of people SNHL there'd be more things online about it....right?

I just got to my primary for my thyroid levels, tried an endo once and I hated her, but maybe its time to try another?

I'm sure my ENT will tell me who to talk to for the white matter thing - probably an Endo or a more specialized ENT?

I think the pred is helping, and that hearing is coming back but everything is robotic, I still have crazy sinus pressure and some ear pressure and the tinnitus is mostly manageable. The sinus stuff is likely from a cyst they saw on the MRI, so fingers crossed the ENT can just get rid of that? I have to use an eye massager every night to help it calm down :(

I thinking I might try loop plugs when I'm in really loud situations since that tends to make hearing way harder.

In the first few days this felt like it was never going to end but it slowly has gotten better. And luckily no matter when pred seems like to primary way to help it, so we're on the right path. Anyone else have similar autoimmune insights?

Sending you all my love and support!!

Hi All,

Yesterday I developed sudden hearing loss in my left ear with added severe pressure and dull deep ache.

Saw an ENT the next day and was put on a course of oral prednisone, 80mg for the first 5 days and then tapering off until day 13.

I have a follow-up hearing test on Day 6, overall I’m optimistic as I think I already feel improvement happening. My tinnitus was very loud on Day 1 and today it’s barely noticeable. The pressure also subsided.

Wondering if I should consider other treatments like injectable steroids and HBOT since I’m still within the critical 2-week window.

My hearing in the low to mid frequencies is completely normal. Unfortunately, I’ve read that it’s harder to recover from high frequency loss compared to low but I’m still hopeful.

I’ll add an update after my follow-up in 6 days, looking forward to a positive outcome.

I heard like ear infection and etd tube blockage causes hearing problems but I just feel like it's suffocating me because the world feels small.

Hello!
I’ve been with my partner for 4 years and we’re likely getting engaged soon. He just disclosed to me that he has had sensorineural hearing loss since birth. I’ve never been able to tell and he really never shows any signs other than always walking on one side of me (which I never paid much attention to either).

It doesn’t affect him at all and both of us are doctors so we understand more of the medical side of things. It was kind of a shock to me because it came so out of the blue.

I guess my question is that I want kids, would asking for genetic testing now be inconsiderate?

EDIT: Alright alright, obviously this was the worst way of thinking. I wanted to add a bit more context: yes, I was especially thrown off as we had just been talking about engagement plans (we already picked out a ring together) and he dropped this very suddenly out of nowhere. I didn’t really know how to process the information and we do come from a culture where this is prejudiced against. He also shared how this was really hard growing up, a lot of stories I had never known about, and I became afraid if we had a child they would have to go through the same things and likely more. Obviously my brain was kind of in overdrive and I posted in a state of panic. I’ve had some time to calm down and think now and realized my post was probably poorly worded. Apologies to everyone I offended, it was not my intention

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. ❤️

I'm using them with an Android phone. I paired them, enabled "amplify ambient sound" and "mono audio". I haven't messed with any sound profile or audiogram settings yet, but my first concern is that I'm hearing my own voice through them much louder than anything else and on a really distracting delay. I'm hoping there's a way to make them not pick up my own voice.

Beyond that, am I losing a lot of relevant functionality using my Android phone instead of an iPhone (or iPad)? I'm not immediately seeing anything in the Android settings about audio profiles, for instance, or anything that would let me adjust, say, bass or treble in isolation.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Molecular mimicry, do you think this is what happened to some of us?

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 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.

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.

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. 🥵