Thumping in right ear, only triggered by sound

Hi @mdrake2020, welcome to Connect. The thumping sound you're experiencing does sound challenging to describe. It might be related to pulsatile tinnitus – a type of rhythmic thumping or whooshing, like a heartbeat, that only you can hear. Here’s some more information from Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symptoms-causes/syc-2035015

Fellow members, like @kittyrushing @daniloc @lizm2 @shieldandguide and others have discussed similar sensations and offer possible causes in this discussion on Connect.
- rapid thumping sound in left ear https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/rapid-thumping-sound-in-left-ear/

Has the sensation changed over the 2 years? Did the thumping start gradually or suddenly?

@kittyrushing. I still have the pulsatile tinnitus, my heartbeat pounding away. I take 50 mg Losartan and 50 mg Metropolol daily and it is not as loud as it was in the beginning. I have had the MRA,etc., but no one seems to know what is causing the pounding, which makes it difficult to sleep. It began when I quit taking the .81 aspirin daily, after 30 years.

Hi Colleen,

I did come across "pulsatile tinnitus" before I made this post but I believe I read that it happens along with your pulse. That's definitely not what happens in my case. The description of the "thump" does sound the same as mine but again, mine only happens along with sound. It happens the most with every slight spike in sound and the easiest way to describe it is that any syllable from a sentence triggers the thump.

It did suddenly begin 2 years ago, and the only change since then is it's a little bit more sensitive now.

Hi, @mdrake2020 - a couple of other members may have some thoughts to add to this discussion on certain midrange frequencies causing your right ear to thump along with the sound, usually only when they're pretty loud. Please meet @lioness and @imallears.

Is going to your general practitioner or a less expensive express care service to get this checked out a possibility for you, if an ENT visit might be too costly at this time? Have you considered talking to the doctor who prescribed the ranitidine, if you think the ear thumping may be a side effect?

@mdrake2020 Thanks for inviting me to this conversation Lisa . I dont have any thumbling but tinnitus in my ears. Altho I will say when I had lost my hearing aids before I got new ones about 2 weeks I did have thumbing in my left ear but since I have new hearing aids I have,nt had any problems in fact my tinnitus is down to a hum

I came across your post when I did a google search of my symptoms. I have been having exactly the same symptoms in my right ear for almost a year now. The thumping only comes with noise and is on cue with the syllables of words or the frequency of the noise. Have you had any success getting answers?

My thumping is my heart beat in my left ear. If I walk faster or pedal my bicycle faster. the thumping in my ear gets faster. Drives me crazy. It never stops, which I guess is a good thing!!!! Must be a problem with a blood vessel somewhere.

@mdrake2020- Hi. I have your exact same issue. I can only speak from what I have experienced and what I have been told. Which makes sense to me, given my history...
I started experiencing, what I call a “flutter” in my right ear.
It happens exactly how you explain it. If it is completely quiet and a high pitch sound comes in like a phone ring,
Violin or any pitch higher in music tone and my ear will flutter to the exact beat. One of my ear drums is thinner/kind of retracted, than the other so it does not absorb/vibrate the sound the way the other one is. Picture a woofer of a speaker, how it vibrates the sound. If one is broken or smaller, it is not going to ricochet the sound as good. That’s how it was explained to me. This could have happened from anything from when you were growing up, ear infections, high fever or just a weaker development and then one day you start to notice it. Don’t put too much worry into it, or you will make it appear worse. There is nothing wrong with you. Your ear drum is actually
working, since can hear it, ya know? Although it might “feel” annoying, there is not something wrong. Hope that helps a little.

I also stumbled across this when i was researching my symptoms. The first I noticed the thumping was about 7 or 8 years ago when I was working in a private clinic where the boss made me very anxious. I would only get it when he would speak during our patient care meetings. Not when anyone else spoke. So, I associated that with him making my blood pressure spike. I only ever had it in my right ear and since then I have noticed it with certain television hosts speaking or my new boyfriend. It is not rhythmic but almost seems like what Morse code sounds like. When I mute the television, it stops; I turn the the sound back on, the thumping returns. I am so confused

@kwinckel -Hi. This is called Tonic Tensor Tempani “syndrome” TTTS. I put the “syndrome” in quotes as to not worry you. Western medicine puts a syndrome to everything and make people more worried than they need to. This is an inner ear muscular response that you created a tension from at one point from a hypersensitive sound specifically to you. Once you tensed this muscle, like from the first time your bosses voice irritated you or made you nervous, it kind of stays the time in the back ground in anticipation to similar or loud sounds to block them out for next time. On that same side you might also experience jaw tightness as a reflexive response to it. There is nothing wrong with you. It’s just an involuntary muscle response to sound.