Thumping in right ear, only triggered by sound

Hi @joshk72 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Because you posted about thumping in your right ear, I have moved your post to this discussion:
Thumping in right ear, only triggered by sound: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/thumping-in-right-ear-only-triggered-by-sound/

I did this so you could meet people like @unknownearthump, @willows, @nickles, @xoiexoie and more.

Have you had anything like ear washings or wax removal? Have you had your magnesium level checked?

Hello, I’m new to this forum. I’m dealing with TTTS right now. I have constant headaches, flutters, thumping, earaches, body spams and jolts, etc etc symptoms go on and on this has caused me so much anxiety and depression. It all started 6 months ago. Now sure why but may have been my child screaming in my ear or the covid vaccine. I have two toddlers and it’s so difficult for me to function on a daily basis and be okay for them. Feeling like a horrible mother right because I’m not okay. I’ve been to 4 specialists and they do nothing. “You have to get used to it” they say. Reading that people have been dealing with this for years makes me even more depressed as makes me think I may never be the same again. Please help!!!! I want it I go away. I cry myself to sleep every single day. if anyone recovered please please share. I need some hope right now

Please share if you healed? I’m 6 months in and it’s been a horrible experience for me leading to depression and severe anxiety. Any words of hope would be greatly appreciated. 😔

It’s Middle Ear Myoclonus- Tensor Timpani Syndrome, a rare form of Tinitus. I’m
Dealing with this now and it’s horrible for me. How are you doing now?

I came across this years-old thread while Googling this weird symptom! I wonder if maybe we're all suffering from something that does not yet have a name. Or maybe it's exceedingly rare and hard to find information about it. From the descriptions I've read, it's definitely NOT pulsatile tinnitus, and it's NOT Tensor Tympani Syndrome. And the problem with Googling this weird symptom is that almost all the results send me to a page about pulsatile tinnitus, which this is definitely NOT!

I experience this in a way similar to what a few other people have mentioned - it only occurs when hearing certain sounds. For me, it is a very low-frequency sound.

In fact, there is one trigger that ALWAYS causes this, and it's very interesting. We have window air conditioners in our home, and when I'm working in my office and the compressor of the air conditioner in the room NEXT to the one I'm in goes on, I get that thumping in my left ear. It is not rhythmic, it doesn't match my heartbeat. As you probably know, walls can muffle a lot of sound, but the very low frequencies can pass right through without much attenuation. So I am sure that that air conditioner has a very low frequency - maybe even inaudible - sound that is just the right frequency range to trigger this thumping in my left ear. It is so strange. I can barely hear that air conditioner, but I can hear it enough to know when it turns on and off.

I also have noticed this thump when hearing low-frequency musical content on headphones. But that is a little unpredictable and doesn't happen often. But it is 100% reproducible with that air conditioner in the next room.

The thumping is kind of unpleasant. It's not really a sound - more like a pulse pushing against my eardrum. There is no "whoosh". The thumps repeat maybe 4-6 times per second, but they are not at equal intervals. I suspect the thumping pattern might be in the source sound, but the source sound is too low frequency for me to hear.

Based on what I'm reading from some of you, I also suspect that when these low frequencies are heard with other high-frequency content, the high frequencies mask this effect, and prevents it from happening or being perceived. It's only when the low frequencies are isolated that you experience this. For example, if a sound source is on your left side, your right ear will hear the sound after it has passed through your head (unless it bounces off nearby walls). Your head does filter out a lot of high-frequency content. So your right ear will get only low frequencies, and maybe this is when you get the feeling in your right ear despite the sound source being on your left.

I'm guessing that it is probably not anything serious. Just an annoyance. I'm sorry to read from others that your version of it seems to be something much harder to live with!

I am so happy that I found this thread. Because when I was trying to search for something like this previously, I was not successful as it is not easy to describe what you are experiencing. I only found one guy on reddit with partly same issue. So it's really relieving to know there are more people who have such issue.
But it's really sad at the same time because nobody have shared any cure to it yet.

My situation:
My right eardrum pulsates/thumps/twitches whatever you call it. It started about 3 years ago.
Mostly it happens when men speak, despite whether through remote audio call through speakers/headphones or in reality when they are somewhere near me. A few times it happened with women voices as well. But to sum up - my ear reacts to low frequency voices.

Right eardrum stops pulsating when I cover the left ear completely with something (e.g. with a hand).

When I watch news on television where men speak I need to lower the sound of the tv to the absolute minimum to get rid of that annoying pulsation/flickering/tingling. I consulted with a few otorhinolaryngologists already, some tests were made, nothing was found. I was said just to live with it.

And I cannot. I am starting to hate those people from whom I get the annoying pulsation to have around me.
It would be really nice to find an answer and the cure to it.
The MRT scan of the head was done a year ago, not because of the ear, but I guess if something would look unusual - they would have noticed it..

Hello! Just wondering if you found anything that helped your situation? I’m 8 months in with this same issue plus many other symptoms and have not found anything to help. Same exact thing happens to me with frequencies and thumping. I also get flutters and all sorts of other stuff. I hope you found relief.

Hello, just wondering if you ever found anything that helped relief your symptoms. I’ve been dealing with this for the past 8 months now and have not found anything that helps, depression and anxiety are getting really bad over all this. Please share if anything has helped you.

Hi there OP, I have the exact same problem you have. Same ear. Same thudding. Stops when I cover my left. Twitches to sound, only I do have noticeable ringing in my right ear and some in my left. Also the ringing in my left is directly connected to my neck. I press my neck back the ringing stops in my left only. The right ear flickers at syllables like yours. Did you ever find a cure or figure out what this is. I’ve also been deadlift with it for 2 years but it’s just gotten worse. I have tmj too but intuitively feel something off with my ears. Please respond 🙂

Welcome @thegoob95, I think your question was directed to @mdrake2020 who started this discussion. Unfortunately the member last posted over a year ago and has not found an answer. Here is their last post earlier in the discussion - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/652922/

Have you seen a specialist to see if they may have a solution?