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Is meniere's hearing loss degenerative?

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by crawfish, Aug 4, 2022.

  1. crawfish

    crawfish New Member

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    Feb 10, 2022
    Hey y'all! Relatively new to the forums but going on 8 years since symptom onset. I was wondering if anyone might know about the nature of Meniere's hearing loss - specifically, I know that it generally fluctuates over time, but is it degenerative? My experience so far is this: I woke up with tinnitus and low-tone deafness in my right ear after no prior hearing issues, and over the past 7 years (at least according to my hearing tests) it has stayed at relatively the same level, only dipping more recently/after I started having vertigo episodes within the last year. The tinnitus changes all the time, sometimes multiple times per day but usually the ringing fades as I adjust to the new tone.

    Recently, however, I've started getting a cotton-ball-shoved-in-your-ear sensation when tinnitus changes in my good/left ear, followed by a pretty noticeable drop in my good ear's hearing. This has happened in the past, but unfortunately never at the same time as a hearing test so I have no idea if my good ear is actually losing hearing or not. In particular, a couple days ago I had a pretty severe drop in hearing after two tinnitus fluctuations (one in each ear) that made it hard to hear people talking to me in a quiet room. I wanted to know if these episodes and the increasing frequency of them is indicative of more permanent hearing damage, so as to be prepared in case I lose more hearing. I'm only 20 so I want to make sure that if this is progressive, I can start adapting myself to living with less hearing. Thanks for any help.
     
  2. twodogs

    twodogs Member

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    Jul 26, 2018
    Yes it is but the degree varies. My first hearing test 30+ years ago indicated a minor loss and I bought aids which helped so much. Now loss in one ear is profound (one step from deafness) and severe in the other.Without aides I can not hear. You are wise to be proactive now. I feel sad that you were cursed with MM at such a young age.
     
  3. crawfish

    crawfish New Member

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    Feb 10, 2022
    Gotcha -- are infections always the cause of Meniere's? I know herpes is often cited in the forums but I've never had it, though I did have pretty bad chronic ear infections as a kid. There's a long line of people with migraines in my family so I always assumed that my Meniere's was related to that.

    Ah ok, thanks for sharing your experience. I've been looking into getting hearing aids since I first lost my hearing, but my old ENT never thought it necessary. then again, that ENT just told me to "drink more water" when I started having vertigo episodes...
     
  4. twodogs

    twodogs Member

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    Jul 26, 2018
    Your old ENT did you a disservice by thinking hearing aids to be unnecessary. "drink more water" - ugh. Okay, regarding hearing aids. Say you have a 20% loss of hearing. Perhaps some distorted sound is there as well. So this means you are missing a substantial part of what you are attempting to hear. Some of what you hear is not what is being said. Sally sounds like silly or mention sounds like mansion. Your brain is working too hard trying to make it all work. Any doctor who would diss that is not a good physician. Please avail your good self of hearing aids. Your world will become larger and more substantial.
     

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