Has anyone here experienced hearing problems caused by their MS? I’d really like to hear your experiences to help me try to work out if the problems I’m having might be MS, or some other thing.
I’ve been having a lot of trouble hearing for about 5 weeks now. Like I went to a Motorhead concert and stood next to the speaker all night, only much worse and it hasn’t gone off yet. Voices are distorted, and I have constant loud tinnitus. Oh, and my balance has been really rubbish at the same time. I struggle to walk on a narrow pavement without falling off the edges. I’ve had balance problems before, but never this bad. I need a torch in the dark or I can’t stand up.
I went to my GP and he thought it might be wax build up, so told me to drop olive oil in my ears for a couple of weeks, and if that didn’t work to have them syringed by the nurse. It’s 2 weeks now and the oil hasn’t worked, so I will have them syringed when I can get an appointment, but I really don’t believe that wax is the problem. This is why I’m asking you lot.
Have you had similar problems? Was yours due to MS? I tend to think it is, but I think that about every ailment I get these days.
I had what sounds very similar to your symptoms ( minus the motorhead ) a few years ago it started around this time of year as it was getting colder and it started to get better around the following april (was told it was probably a form of adult glue ear ) as it cleared up about 5 months later when the weather started to warm up , and touch wood havent had it since,as its a horrible feeling when you can hear people talking but you cant even make out which direction it is coming from . GP gave me alsorts but nothing seemed to work other than time and warmer weather
Wow! This is EXACTLY what I have been experiencing - probably for about 3 months and I am constantly having to ask people to repeat themselves. I had a GP visit today and she looked in my ears and told me I had a wax build up (one ear only) and that I should put a couple of drops of olive oil in for about 8 weeks. She told me that it was so impacted that they would not be able to syringe yet. This was the mother of all GP visits (may explain later in a separate post when I clam down). I asked if this could have something to do with my current lightheadedness and she said categorically not. My balance is a little off but not as off as just before my first episode. I’ve not started the olive oil but I have just bought some Earex Advance Ear Drops but am reluctant to use it as I am not convinced that I do not have some sort of middle ear infection as I believe I have had all the symptoms and I am too lightheaded at the moment to cope with this right now. Stunningly GP informed me that neither a wax build up nor a middle ear infection would having anything to do with lightheadedness. Thus began a pretty terrible GP visit as a whole bunch of other stuff/mistakes re bloods, dosages etc started to come out. When calm will post to assist others! Whether the MS has had anything to do with my ear issue - I just don’t know as I am so new to this disease but I do find it interesting that this was one of the first things I noticed before my first episode. Do let me know if the olive oil works and if indeed you end up being syringed. Also - when you started the olive oil - did it make you dizzy/lightheaded at all? All the best Rosey xx
MS can affect hearing. It is rare (as they told me when it happened to me) but not all that rare. I lost most of the hearing in one ear as part of a cascade of relapses. IV steroids sorted the hearing out in hours. Never have I had such a fast and complete response to steroids. I wish they worked as well for everything! But MS is still close to the bottom of the list of possibles when a person has hearing loss, and it is necessary to rule out the more common things first before even considering a neurological cause - that’s what I was told. I hope things improve for you soon. Alison x
Yes I do believe MS can affect hearing and my first consultant who was excellent confirmed this. Before my diagnosis I had an episode of complete hearing loss in my left ear. This was in Dec 2010 in Aug of that year I had been treated for bells palsy and my hearing was a bit tinny. Then on dec 19th I was woken by my 2 year old, my alarm had been going for 20 mins but I had been sleeping on my right side so heard nothing. I went to my GP to get my ears syringed but he told me there was nothing there and he contacted audiology at hospital. Anyway I ended up being admitted and they told me I either had a tumour, had a stroke or a virus. I was treated with carbagen gas given steriods, antivirals and vasodilaters. My hearing returned within 6 weeks however not to the same level and an MRI in march 2011 showed inflammatory charges. I now know these were relapses and as I said before the consultant who diagnosed me stated that hearing loss is not that common but isin my case definitely MS related.
i was in hospital two years back for tests and was having a relapse at the same time. lost my hearing in my left ear and the ear specialist did tests and said it was down to ms and very unlikely i would get my hearing back.
Hi. I had hearing problems in one ear some years ago which I thought was like glue ear. Was sent to ENT and they said I needed a hearing aid. A few weeks later,my hearing came back. Rang the hospital and said I didn’t need an aid, but they insisted I went back for a re-test. Sure enough the hearing was OK. Downside was,they said it was duie to my MS, which had been diagnosed way back in 1994. It happenedanother time so I saw an ENT chap again, as the Neurologist had been sceptical about it being the MS, but the tests had showed that the hearing loss was due to nerve damage, and shouldn’t get better. …but of course that fits in with the MS. Hearing came back again …yippee…but the MS has kicked in in other ways.
Hope your hearing sorts out - it feels very lonely when you’re struggling to hear.
I don’t know whether your hearing problem is ms related but I do know that balance is all to do with the eyes and especially the ears so if your balance is like mine, rubbish to start off with, then any problem with your ears even if they just need syringing will exacerbate your balance symptoms.
Like you say, its easy to blame everything on ms, time to worry I think is when you’ve had them syringed and the problem is still there?
I saw a film at the cinema 2 weeks ago - I thought the volume was excruciatingly loud and my ear hurt very badly , no one else thought it was particularly loud.
It still has not stopped " ringing " or " vibrating ".
I take Betahistine for balance - this is usually prescribed for Meniere’s disease [ or syndrome ? ] which causes tinnitus due to an alteration of pressure in the ear . I find that vey helpful and it is one of the few medicines that does not have unpleasant side effects .I find I can alter the dosage depending on how my ears are affected . My sensitivity to sound is definitely a symptom of having MS .
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that MS-induced loss of hearing coincides with tinnitus and loss of balance because I think each of these is caused by lesions in different places. And you would have to be unbelievably unlucky to get lesions in three different places that just happen to be related to the hearing system all at the same time and, if you are having problems in both ears, you’d actually have to have at least 5 lesions (one for each ear’s weird hearing, one for each ear’s tinnitus and at least one for poor balance).
My money would be on wax, an ear infection or both. Whatever you’re left with after that may be MS though!
I know this is a really old post but just wondered what happened to you people that had lost their hearing?? I am going through the same thing. Lost my hearing in my left ear 8 months ago! Get lots of clicking and everyone sounds robotic if I put the phone to my ear, it even feels a bit numb. I also have bad dizziness and balance probelms. Had a MRI and shows 5 lesions but they wont diagnosis MS as apparently it not a sympton of MS?
So wondering how you all got on? Was it MS or did it go??
I know this is a really old post but just wondered what happened to you people that had lost their hearing?? I am going through the same thing. Lost my hearing in my left ear 8 months ago! Get lots of clicking and everyone sounds robotic if I put the phone to my ear, it even feels a bit numb. I also have bad dizziness and balance probelms. Had a MRI and shows 5 lesions but they wont diagnosis MS as apparently it not a sympton of MS?
So wondering how you all got on? Was it MS or did it go??
[/quote] Sorry that you are having these troubles. My hearing returned more or less to normal after the steroids. I had a brain MRI around that time, because there was so much MS relapse stuff going on that they wondered whether there was something else going on as well (there wasn’t), and one of the lesions was apparently just where they would expect it to be for MS hearing loss in that ear (rare as they stoutly insisted this was!). MS certainly seemed to be the culprit in the case of my temporary hearing loss. It remains the case that MS is one or the rarer causes of hearing loss, and my neurologist was at pains to remind me how rare it was. But it seems that it does happen. Alison
I had bad vertigo with severe sickness for 2 weeks in April 2011 and had hearing loss in one ear in July 2011, started with tinnitus in both ears. One neurologist advised it wouldn’t be my MS as it was so rare! I also developed other symptoms, mobility very poor and kept falling over. I saw my neurologist who advised I was having a brain stem relapse and that hearing loss is very rare. My hearing returned after about 7 weeks and other symptoms went after 9 weeks. I hope your hearing comes back to normal soon Lou as I know it can be frightening Anne Marie xx