Tinnitus and covid vaccine

I've had the full set of vax doses despite never having covid. The initial dose brought on tinnitus that wasn't obvious until the first dose in April 2021. Prednisone helped after waiting 2 weeks before taking. However, no increase in tinnitus between 2nd and next to last dose. The last bivalent dose in Sep. 2022 brought it back at the same level as the initial dose. In defense of the vax, I already had moderate hearing loss starting 2-3 years before the outbreak of the pandemic. But the tinnitus, unfortunately, seems permanent.

Did you have Moderna or Pfizer?
Thanks

My sister used to have mild tinnitus but after her second Moderna shot it worsened a lot and has not gotten better. She also developed Hyperacussis. It has effected every part of her life. Had to quit CC skiing, piano playing, socializing, etc. Driving or riding in a car makes it worse. She had not gotten any of the boosters until recently when the Novavax became available. It did not worsen her T and H. I hope you’re doing better.

Tinnitus is so variable from day to day I find it almost impossible to actually say that a given thing makes it better or worse. It’s annoying because you feel anxious about any medication that you have to take. Re hyperacusis, I have found that unlike tinnitus it can improve over time with gradual exposure to noise at first just what is tolerable then slightly louder etc. Mind you I would not feel comfortable with noise above 85 decibels and wouldn’t expose myself much beyond that.

I have had progressive hearing loss for over 40 yrs. I track my annual audiograms and they have been relatively steady.

I had the Pfizer shots last Jan/April. No booster. In January I tested positive for COVID and had a very mild case (no fever, just a couple of days of aches). By the summer I began to notice a change in the quality of sound. Voices periodically sounded distorted. I had another audiogram in Aug and there was no noticeable change in pure tone response from past ones. But I could tell a difference.

By October I began to notice very detectable tinnitus and reflected sound has become noticeably very loud (Hyperacusis?) Voices now are constantly distorted. My ENT (without any added testing) said, it's just natural hearing loss progression and that I should consider a cochlear implant.

This sounds like SSNHL that may have been brought on by COVID. I plan to get another opinion. I understand that steroids are often used to treat. Anyone have similar experience?

Had moderate hearing loss for about 5 years starting in my 60s. Although I had the original Pfizer vaccine and follow up boosters, the first vaccine triggered left ear tinnitus within 18 hours, possibly related to the side-effect of a persistent low level headache that continued for a few days. After 2 weeks went on prednisone for 7 days. This reduced the tinnitus somewhat but not completely. One month later, the 2nd round of the vax didn't add or subtract to my condition (I took tylenol first sign of headache). But the most recent bivalent Pfizer revived my tinnitus even worse than the original. Repeated prednisone after 2 weeks over 14 days with no difference in outcome. However, 3 months later it started to improve on its own. I never had covid but the vaccine apparently might aggravate pre-existing hearing loss. So far as I know, ongoing research such as Frequency Theraputics FX-322 is still several years away from possible FDA approval.

I got tinnitus in my right ear within 48hours of my first Astazeneca Vaccine in June 2021 . Was in bed for three days with a sore back and a general inflammatory reaction, however there was negligible reaction to my second Astrazeneca vaccine.
The tinnitus is White Noise centred on 4600hz and still present in January 2023.
An MRI cranial scan came up negative.
I have bi-annual hearing tests for my aviation license and have never had any hearing issues in the past.
I have since spoken to a half dozen doctors and specialists but no one is interested in looking at it.

Steroids are used for sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Most research shows that only helps when given within a few days on the onset of the SSHL. If anyone has a different experience, please share it.

Adult onset hearing loss is very common. Not sure that Covid would have anything to do with it. We don't know much about that yet, but the research I've seen doesn't seem to indicate that Covid is the culprit.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope others will as well.

@nevan 's comment about tinnitus at 4600 hz is very interesting. Until I experienced this recent change, I never noticed tinnitus other than broad background noise.

Now I detect a very distinct tone that sounds frequency specific. I will have to check this.

I also don't notice it at night but it becomes very noticeable when I awake in the morning.

I plan to get another audio gram to see if there is a debatable change from past ones, but I clearly notice a difference as sound is now more distorted.

Hi. I thought that Dr Poland still had it.

Hope I’m wrong, as I wouldn’t wish tinnitus on anyone.