r/PulsatileTinnitus

PT is mild started 6 month ago improved a little but today I cant feel like i can cope with it please tell me i will habituate. I am tired and i cry alot and still can comprehend how this is my life. I already have T so pt is here to stay plus my pt doesn't stop or reduced with compression and no headaches.

its so hard to get used to because its not a pure tone my pt ranges between whooshing and hearbeart whooshing throbbing i can feel.

MRI head and neck came back clear ENt is ordering ct only mri i paid for ill pay for mrv and mra with contrast head and neck.

Today I feel i am going to go mad. Please tell me it gets better please tell me i wont always feel like this.

Hello, all! You're very lovely but I'm hoping to leave the ranks soon. Got the sigmoid sinus resurfacing done this past week and so far haven't heard my heartbeat return. But the sinus pressure is absolutely wrecking me; I constantly feel like my ear is about to pop, and everything is muffled. Doctor said it's normal to experience this post-surgery and recommended a hot compress, but does anyone have any additional remedies they'd like to share? Cheers!

Hi all. Reading some of the posts in this community has encouraged me to write my experience, and maybe someone can help/share similar experiences.

Last year, I experienced a buzzing sound in my ears (at the time, I thought it was both my ears). The sound would come and go, but it was not loud enough to bother me. I could play music or a show in the background, and it wouldn't really faze me. In December 2025, it started to get more frequent and louder. In February 2026, I saw an ENT specialist and was told it was tinnitus that I would just have to live with forever.

Since then, I have noticed my tinnitus becoming even MORE frequent (I would even experience full days of the buzzing sound) and it has become LOUDER than it was before. I have also noticed that the movement of my neck affected how the tinnitus would sound. Moving it side to side would either stop the buzzing, make the buzzing louder, or it would increase a low-pitched buzzing sound (and sometimes a very high-pitched buzzing sound). Moving it up or down would do the same; moving it down would make it 10x louder (also, I started to notice two different pitches of buzzing, and I believe it is only in my left ear).

One night, I decided to massage my neck before bed to see if it would change anything (because I wake up many times throughout the night over how loud the buzzing noise is). I started to press down on certain areas and noticed one area that I would hold down, and the buzzing sound would disappear instantly. It's like where you hold down on the left side of your neck to take your pulse. I really mean it when I say the buzzing sound went away the moment I pressed down on my neck (COMPLETELY gone, not even a faint buzzing sound). The moment I stopped holding on to that part of the neck, it came back immediately, then I held down again, GONE, stopped holding on, BACK. I also noticed that the rhythm of the buzzing sound follows the rhythm of my pulse. I have NO idea what this is, my doctors are just as confused as I am and have set me up to do some CT scans (which will be in 2 months since it's not an emergency). Has anyone experienced this? Has anyone heard of anything like this???? The noise has been so hard to handle; it's taking over my hearing in my left ear at this point. I'm a student, and I work part-time; it's insanely hard to go on like this. The only time when I can find some relief is when I press on that part of my neck.

Note: I also noticed that when I sleep on my right side its so loud, and when I sleep on my left side, it disappears completely or is quieter. I do think lying down/sleeping makes it worse as its pretty bad in the mornings too.

Last friday I had a ct with contrast to hopefully figure out what is causing my pt. The hospital said the results are ready but I haven't heard from the ent yet who gave the referral.

I'm very nervous. I know most of the time the cause is something treatable which gives me hope but it also doesn't stop the anxiety of worst case scenarios. I am not going to look at the results because though I am curious I also know myself and I'll just fall down the rabbit hole of googling and googling until I'm an anxious mess.

I will wait for the ent because I know it'll be better to hear it all from him

https://voca.ro/11ksTKLxq9e2

I have two types of tinnitus, the normal kind and pulsatile tinnitus like you guys. The latter is harder to explain to people but mine is objective and linked to my heart pulse. The normal therapy doesn't work for me, listening to whale song at night doesn't help. I captured this sound by simply putting my mobile phone near my ear and pressing record. Imagine how loud it sounds to me inside my ear when a phone can record it outside. Some days it is like I have a bass drum banging in my ears. I was told by the 'specialist' that I had to get used to it, millions of people have tinnitus and I needed to come to terms with it. I tried to explain that I had both types of tinnitus and I had come to terms with the other kind but this bass drum was not the same in any way, yet it was being treated as the same condition. I was basically told to man up and deal with it. It just went away overnight about a year ago after 2 years of hell. It came back a couple of months ago but it is a whisper of its former self, almost like listening to the audio clip now rather than having it inside my ear and only a few seconds at a time rather than permanent. Does anyone else have recordings of their own tinnitus?

About three hours ago, I started feeling a pulsating sensation in my right ear. It comes and goes, but it’s there most of the time. It feels like a heartbeat or like there’s water in my ear, and it matches my actual heartbeat.

Now I also have a throbbing headache on the right side of my head. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like this.

Has anyone had this before? Should I urgently go to the hospital, or can I wait and see if it goes away?

Hello, fellow wooshers. Long time lurker, first time poster. I’m feeling extremely discouraged and wanted to reach out for some comfort.

I’ve had right ear PT for 3-4 years. Back in 2025, it became concerning enough to visit an ENT. I’d had several episodes of left side numbness, worsening headaches/migraines, and dizziness. When I press on the right side of my neck or turn my head to the right, the PT is quieted, however, not silenced. Based on all the reading I’ve done from everyone here, everything seemed to be pointing to venous sinus stenosis.

(For my health background, I’m 40F, have type 2 diabetes, and depression. East coast United States.)

Shortly after my first visit to the ENT in August of 2025, I lost my health insurance and was unable to proceed with any tests. Over the past four months of 2026, the PT has gotten so loud that I can barely hear out of my right ear. It is interfering with my daily living, so I decided to go ahead and proceed with the tests since my insurance has reactivated. So far I’ve had an unremarkable carotid ultrasound, an unremarkable CT scan, an unremarkable MRI with and without contrast, an unremarkable MRA with “Scattered nonspecific foci of increased T2 signal in the cerebral white matter, greater than expected for age,” (which essentially means unremarkable), a hearing test with “Pure tone audiometry of the right ear reveals moderately severe mixed hearing loss rising to normal hearing sensitivity,” and now an unremarkable MRV which just states that my left transverse sinus is “quite small but patent.”

My ENT is a nice fellow but he didn’t even know to order an MRV at first; I had to suggest it because of what I’ve read here. He’d essentially said that he didn’t really know what else to do. I started to cry because I was so frustrated with the noise, at which point he said if the MRV came back unremarkable that he could put in a referral to a neurotologist at a big hospital several hours from here. I just received the MRV results through MyChart (a healthcare portal where you can review test results, email your providers, etc.), and just emailed the ENT to ask if he could go ahead and submit the referral. (My ENT is almost 45 minutes away one way, and it’s $75 for the copay, so I figured, what’s the point of driving all that way and paying all that if all he’s able to do is put in a referral.)

I’m so incredibly discouraged right now. Between my unhappiness at my current job and being unable to find another, and then being so sure that my PT was due to venous sinus stenosis and that I was so close to a possible fix, and now essentially being told I’m fine is really tearing me down. I know I shouldn’t be ‘wishing’ something is wrong, but to have done $3k worth of testing and still not having a solution is a bit more than I can stand right now.

Thank you for listening, wooshies. I’m sorry to be Debbie Downer here. I wish you all the very best in your journeys and set myself in agreement with your healings.

Previous post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PulsatileTinnitus/s/dCrORPr6k6

Recap:

For most of my life I've dealt with unexplained chronic health issues - constant nausea, dizziness, migraines, vision problems, brain fog, etc. About a decade ago I developed a whooshing sound in my ear that was dismissed as a sinus/Eustachian tube issue, but surgery for that didn't help, and I bounced between various specialists trying to find the source of my symptoms for years.

After doing some digging online, I learned about pulsatile tinnitus and became convinced it could be related to venous sinus stenosis. I finally convinced my neurologist to order an MRV, hoping I'd finally have an explanation for years of symptoms.

Update:

As unfortunately expected, my neurologist and several others at his practice (DENT Neurology in Buffalo NY) concluded my MRV was normal and sent me on my way.

Man. I could see the stenosis myself on the scans.

I had already filled out patient forms for Dr Patsalides by this point, and with a copy of my MRV immediately scheduled a consult with him, which I had a few days ago.

And... I was right.

Bilateral venous sinus stenosis; right dominant with post stenotic venous aneurysm.

He recommended stenting surgery right off the bat. Didn't mention trying medications first (to be fair, I'm already on Topiramate). Didn't tell me to lose weight (the go-to solution given by every doctor ever). Didn't make me feel like an idiot.

I have seen countless doctors over the years. Dozens. Specialists across every spectrum. Never before had I felt like a doctor actually listened to me. Validated my experience. I'm genuinely still reeling from it.

Unfortunately, he doesn't think the stenosis could be causing my nausea problems - but I kind of expected that. Honestly, even if we can just fix the constant noise, I'll be able to handle the rest of my symptoms so much easier.

So... Hopefully sometime next week his scheduler will call me, and get me a date for surgery. Me and my husband will make the drive out to NYC, grab a slice of pizza, maybe a bagel or two, and I'll have some minor brain surgery.

And then... Maybe I can start feeling human again.

MRI of head and neck show no abnormaitlis. Mine started 6 months ago after a cold its improved and still a few bad days here and there. I try not to be too hopeful. I booked this MRI privalty I was hoping they find fluid in the inner ear but font think they checked this as there was no mention of ears.

I am left confused saw an ENT in March who said there is not fluid then in june saw a nurse practitioner who said my ears were still retracted. I am left ver confused.

My next step is to go for bloods.

I see the useless ENT again who told me to live with it to order a CT scan. Once I have the CT scan it will come back clear very likely he said. I will then book privately to see an ENT who is Honorary Professor of Otolaryngology with the hopes he knows what he is doing. If he doesn't then I will get my gp to book MRV/MRA head and neck with/without contract. How I am going to persuade them to do i dont know.

The Mri came back clear and its left me feeling hopeless.

It's so weird, a few months ago I had consistent PT in my right ear. I would also, about once a day, get a sort of dizziness spell for about 30 seconds, which would then turn into this static-type sound in my right ear until it would go away. The PT was all the time though. However, a few days ago, it all just stopped? If the PT there it is so faint in absolute silence that I can't discern it from normal tinnitus, and I don't get the obvious dizzy spells anymore. I was really surprised this happened.

I still have an ENT appointment, and I might as well do the CT+contrast scans because I want to rule out any extreme dangers (basically just aneurysms), but I can't lie that I am still suffering from it. Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe because I've been working on my muscle knots in my shoulder/neck. That's the only thing I can think of.

Hey guys, Im having this pulse noise in my ear after someone accidentally shouted veeery loudly in my ear. I heard my tympanums vibrate in the moment and started hearing the pulse when I went to sleep. No pulse before that. It is also not painful at all, everything is normal except for the pulse. Is that normal? Its been about 2-3 weeks already

I recently had an evaluation at a pulsatile tinnitus clinic, and after reviewing my imaging they told me there was no dangerous vascular cause (no mass, hemorrhage, stroke, arterial abnormality, or middle ear mass).

Their impression was that my pulsatile tinnitus is most likely venous, specifically from narrowed jugular veins with increased flow through the condylar veins.

The next step would be seeing a neurointerventional radiologist for a catheter venogram with venous manometry and possibly a balloon test occlusion. If the condylar veins are confirmed as the source, they said coil embolization could be an option.

36F. I’ve had PT everyday in my right ear since Jan 2025. I finally got scared enough to bypass my PCP who was blowing off my symptoms and saw an ENT this month. She ordered a CTa and showed “right carotid artery 50% stenosis” I have an endovascular appt set for next month w an ultrasound before I see the doctor.

My biggest symptoms is the whooshing noise and brain fog. I’ve had brain fog since I had my second kiddo in 2019. It’s like my brain processing my eyesight is off by the slightest amount. I can see fine. My eyesight is okay. It’s like the brain processing power is slightly slow. Any other experienced this kind of symptom? Dr Google is telling me it’s normal too w any kind of blood flow disturbance to the brain. But I wanted to ask the group. Thank you for your time <33

Hello everyone. I have had tinnitus and reactive tinnitus to sounds, for 9 months now. It has worsened significantly over the last few months, so I decided to go to an osteopath because I had really tight neck muscles. He moved my head all the way to the right and left a few times, and it had become more flexible, and he massaged my neck muscles. After the treatment, I had some muscle pain, which I still have a little bit. When I went to bed in the evening, I heard my own blood flow loudly and sometimes felt my own hartbeat in my ears, but I thought it would go away. Two days later, it is still there. Is this something to worry about, or is this just due to overstimulated muscles because of the treatment and will it subside?

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PulsatileTinnitus/s/wBYpVImGhf

Hey guys, so i visited a private GP who was happy to go down the investigative pathway/workup and she recommended that I go for a ENT appointment, this is what he said:

1. He doesn't think there is anything wrong with my ears pressure (he used some machine to test ear pressure and both came back fine)

2. He says that the blood tests may reveal the cause, e.g low haemoglobin, iron ect.

3. The failed lumbar punctures may have caused a CSF leak which may be causing increased inter cranial hypertension, he then followed up saying the MRI scans showed no evidence of this (I know this can be indicated on an MRI but isn't a Lumbar puncture the only way to measure CSF pressure?)

4. Said that it can be caused by stress and anxiety and lack of sleep and over time my brain will get used/adapt from the pulsing.

5. Encouraged me to go for a CT Venography as that is the only scan (apart from a MRV and MVA) that I have not had done.

6. Said there is no medication for this if no underlying cause is found.

One thing i left out of my previous post is I've been have micro headaches at various points in my head, nothing painful but just pressure or electric feeling, this increases when I get into a position where the PT stops or is not very noticeable.

I found it all quite confusing/discouraging as he listed many reasons but kind of contradicted himself a bit saying "most of the time its ..." to follow up with another "most of the time its.."

I have blood tests Saturday to measure Iron, Lipids, Thyroid and some more things. I am going to book in for the CTV but I am tempted to book in for MRV and MRA. I will wait for the blood tests to come back before making a decision.

What do you think should be my next step?

I’ve been having short pulsatile tinnitus episodes that last for 10-15 seconds only on my left ear. It is not often; but it does happen and it’s always on my left ear.

I started with PT after a sinus infection and ear ache. I have tmj and chronically tight neck, head and jaw muscles. I had a doctor suggest my muscles are just really tight. I see my neurologist soon. I am wondering if anyone also found that beta blockers or muscle relaxers have helped PT any?