Thumping/drumming in one ear

@tigerpride Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, a place to give and get support.

You are experiencing "thumping" an eardrum and despite seeing a specialist you have not found a cause or resolution.

Members like @melissac13 @variegata @mackmoving @scottybach @morninglory @redhead63 @mikemcewen have expereicne discussing this topic and may be able to help answer questions and/or offer support.

Listed below are three previous discussions that you might find of interest. You may want to scroll through the posts to find information and suggestions.
– rapid thumping sound in left ear: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/rapid-thumping-sound-in-left-ear/
– Thumping in right ear, only triggered by sound https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/thumping-in-right-ear-only-triggered-by-sound/
– Pulsatile tinnitus https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pulsatile-tinnitus-1/

May I ask if your provider offered any follow-up testing or suggestions and if not, have you considered getting a second opinion?

@ethanmcconkey yes the sound goes away when I plug my right ear.

Hello @omcclellan, Welcome to Connect, an online community where patients and caregivers share their experiences, find support and exchange information with others. Listed below are three previous discussions that you might find of interest. You may want to scroll through the posts to find information and suggestions.
– rapid thumping sound in left ear: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/rapid-thumping-sound-in-left-ear/
– Thumping in right ear, only triggered by sound https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/thumping-in-right-ear-only-triggered-by-sound/
– Pulsatile tinnitus https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pulsatile-tinnitus-1/

Have you discussed your symptoms with your doctor or an ENT specialist?

I get an irregular pulsating sound in my right ear, which does not match my heart rate at all. It does vanish if I put a finger or the palm of my hand over the ear, but difficult to do that for very long. It starts gently but seems to get gradually quicker. I've noticed that it comes on after starting to drink a glass of wine. A glass of beer does not have any effect. Very strange.

Not able to offer solutions but can offer quite a bit of sympathy! I have had pulsating noise in right ear for a few years now and saw Ent Dr. with no solutions. There is a web site I have found helpful in the past, Woosh. either com or org. not sure which. I never know when the pulsing will start or end. Trying to learn to ignore it. Not an easy feat.
Good Luck with you situation I hope you can find a way to end the problem.

“tying to learn to ignore it” is a Sisyphean task: too hard to do and will only create frustration.
I’ve had pulsatile tinnitus for many years. It’s a whooshing sound synchronous with one’s heart. Whooshers.com helped rule out medical and/or fixable problems.…also used CBT and even found a use for pulsatile tinnitus:
to monitor heart rate when exercising….didn’t think I could live with it; now it’s like breathing - something I barely notice most of the time.

Your problem really sounds like my tinnitus. Tinnitus can have various types of sounds interchangeably. I have drumming, cricket sounds, blocked ear feeling, roaring, bees, achy ear feeling, and it can change from one to the other during a day or night. Mine gets worse if I work with a bent over posture and there is only so much I can do in a day without it getting worse. Exercise can exacerbate it as well. Does any of this sound similar to your problem? If so you should join the American Tinnitus Association for really up to date Information on this condition. I like to use nature sounds like rain, stream, wind to mask some of the tinnitus and it helps.

have tested it several times and it does not match my heartbeat. When it eventually slows as crazy as it sounds, if I turn on one particular vacuum cleaner, the wooshing stops!!!!!!!! Go figure!! It must have something to do with sound frequency range. Whatever works.

Thanks for reply and sympathy, morninglory. Fortunately, it's not a big problem for me at the moment. The tapping in my right ear happens only occasionally. I've never had it while trying to sleep. It started up again over Christmas while staying with family, after months with no problem, when I was drinking a glass of wine before a meal. It must have lasted an hour or two, getting gradually quicker. It sounded like the irregular rhythm of a rapidly typed Morse code, with starts and stops and quicker and slower bits; nothing like my heart rate. A few days later, after returning home, I began drinking a glass of wine before a meal and it started up again, lasting about an hour. The last two evenings I've had no wine and no tapping in my ear! I have had a glass or two of beer with no problem. Since the wine (12%) is 3x stronger than the beer (4%), it could be that the alcohol absorbed into the blood is expanding the capillaries in my ear, causing a change in blood flow. I'll keep observing what brings it on. Probably better not to drink before a meal. Many thanks for your interest and hoping your problem resolves itself soon.

Hello,

For the past few years I've been having very rapid (approx 3-4 thumps per second) thumping in my left ear. This only happens when I'm standing over the sink washing dishes with the water running. The closer I put my head to the water, the stronger the thumps get. It feel like a vacuum effect being created by the water? I have asked 2 doctors about this and neither of them had any experience with anything like this.

Thanks for the help!