Thank you for the response, Joy. No, I haven't taken birth control in 10+ years and haven't been on any kind of supplements or medication outside of a few antibiotics here and there throughout the years. I will ask the ENT I'm visiting with this afternoon about a referral to a neurologist. My initial ENT mentioned that we'd discuss the potential for scheduling an MRI in a few weeks so I'm assuming that would be after visiting with a neurologist?

Note about sudden hearing loss, prompted by Megan Marshall's intro above:

Over a year ago, May 24, 2019, the Meniere's Disease that had ruined hearing and balance function in my right ear over 30 years ago suddenly, dramatically went bilateral. My "good" left ear had age-related hearing loss, and I had started wearing an aid a couple of years earlier, so I didn't have good hearing before going bilateral. I knew that the disease had moved into my left ear when Nancy Pelosi stopped speaking in mid-sentence that evening! For months, I had severely reduced hearing plus serious distortion and recrutiment, both "features" of MD. Christmas Day, I had the first full-blown vertigo/vomiting crisis. As time went on, I had more frequent problems with vertigo, so saw my primary doc in late Feb. She reluctantly prescribed 90 days of some HRT (hormone replacement therapy) but warned me that she wouldn't prescribe any more, as she fears cancer in older people taking HRT. I continued to get worse, with ever more frequent crises, so scheduled an appt. with an OB/Gyn in early May. By that time, I was afraid to drive on the highway lest I be forced to spend several hours parked on the side, vomiting daintily (!!!) into a trash bag. Almost every day I was forced by the vertigo to lie flat, eyes closed, not moving, for hours. Bending over or looking up or moving my head at all were all difficult. The OB/Gyn admitted to knowing zip about MD and almost nothing about HRT, but she prescribed a moderate increase in the HRT. Even so, I continued to get worse, so temporarily almost doubled the dosage for a week. I was pleased to find that the vertigo and vomiting stopped--and, as an unexpected bonus, my hearing was far, far better and continued to improve until it's about what it was over a year ago! By the time I sought help from the OB/Gyn, I was in such hell due to the constant vertigo that lack of hearing wasn't even on my radar. Now, not only am I totally back to being more active than most people my age, but every day I hear things I haven't heard for over a year!

All this makes me wonder if some of the episodes of sudden hearing loss might not actually be MD! I should add that the day my hearing went away, screaming tinnitus moved into my "good" left ear. It gradually became less annoying but is still a completely different noise than the constant whooshing in my right ear, often in time to my heartbeat. The left ear sounds so much like cars driving on gravel that I can't tell when a car's approaching as I walk along our one-lane gravel road. I now can hear birds sing, planes go overhead, the washer or dishwasher running, even water running in the sink from 10' away. It's an entirely new, wonderful world, and I'm thankful every day!