I'm leaning toward a genetic connection. My brother suffered through MD as a kid (he was probably 11 or so when my parents first started taking him to doctors to figure out why he had bad balance and hearing). He was never formally diagnosed (in fact one doc said that it was "all in his head"*) until he went into the Navy, by which time the damage was done; total hearing loss in his right ear but at least the vertigo stopped. Flash forward 40+ years to a couple of years ago, my right ear started to feel like it was packed with cotton. Since I've always have struggled with wax build up, I figured it was just that, but my normal routine of irrigation did nothing but give me swimmer's ear. Two nights later I had the first vertigo attack. 0/10 do not recommend. I made an appointment to see my doc (I'd recently moved to where I live now and hadn't established a new primary care), and when I described why I wanted to see the doc, they got me an appointment with the PC in a few weeks and an immediate referral to an ENT the next week. I went into the ENT and when I told her that I suspected it was MD, he asked me why and I told her about my brother. I recognized the symptoms. One audiology test, one MRI, and a few other ruling out tests and I had my very own MD diagnosis. Yay me. *My response was "no kidding it's all in his head; he had a problem with his ears! His ears are in his head."