Is Fluid Behind My Eardrum Causing My Tinnitus?

[Matthew231]

Hey all, so I posted in May of last year about how my tinnitus started after an ear irrigation at my on-campus doctor's office at my university. Anyways, it's now been 9 months and this hasn't been letting up.

Initially I suspected that my tinnitus was due to the ear irrigation maybe flushing earwax into my ear canal and blocking my eardrum but during my most recent visit to my ENT in mid January, he removed some wax, however the tinnitus is still there.

I'm now going back to a theory I developed over the summer that my tinnitus is caused by ETD which has led to fluid accumulation in my left ear (according to my ENT) and/or a retracted eardrum (according to another ENT I visited back in 2020 or 2021).

The thing is that my tinnitus is very weird. It doesn't seem that bad in specific situations, like it was fine over the Winter Break at my house and generally speaking it's not too bad when it's quiet but for some reason it goes absolutely nuts whenever I'm in specific rooms (recently it's been the classroom for both of my History courses at university and at restaurants). I also can't mask it because if I try to play like rainfall, shower sounds, or waterfall sounds, my tinnitus seems to be louder than the volume of the white noise. This also frequently happens when I go out.

I'm suspecting the fluid is the culprit and that the ear irrigation must have triggered something because I can't wrap my head around why I have tinnitus like this.

I'm considering getting an ear tube done to drain the fluid but I'm scared because 1) I don't know if the fluid is really the cause of my tinnitus and 2) I really hate getting ear tubes because the past couple times I've gotten them, I keep getting whooshing sounds in specific situations that persist until the tubes fall out.

Does anyone here have any suggestions?

 

[Muggumbo]

It definitely sounds plausible. Getting the fluid drained would be the first step I'd try. I would avoid irrigations in the future as well.

 

[Matthew231]

It definitely sounds plausible. Getting the fluid drained would be the first step I'd try. I would avoid irrigations in the future as well.

I had already had a bad experience with an ear irrigation before that. I have no idea why I was so stupid to think something like that wouldn't do anything.

I'm thinking it's the fluid as well but I feel like my Eustachian tube is shut off (I can't pop my left ear at all).

 

[MiaVIL]

Have you gotten a CT scan done? What makes you think you have fluid behind your eardrum?

I had a CT scan done. I have conductive hearing loss, and it showed middle ear effusions and mastoid effusions. I had tubes put in, and I am still struggling horribly with whooshing tinnitus. I want these tubes out. The fluid drained out last month. For months after the tube insertion, I had giant globes of mucous coming out of my ears. I hope things settle down after the tubes are out. I wouldn't recommend tubes unless you absolutely have to.

 

[momus]

I occasionally have my tinnitus spike, and it's often been due to earwax buildup. I think people w/ tinnitus may be more prone to this happening. When that happens, I can't pop my ears either, although truthfully, doing that is not something I'm inclined to do anyway. Just doing that has caused my tinnitus to spike in the past.

Long story short, after trying all sorts of things to get some relief from my latest tinnitus spike, I broke out the hydrogen peroxide. Cleaning the ears up had no effect, so I did it again a few days later. That loosened the wax up and I was able to get it out, or at least some of it.

It has definitely made a difference! Previous to this I was having to mask the tinnitus even during the day, getting to sleep was very difficult. Now, for the last couple of weeks I haven't even noticed it until I lie down to sleep, and a fan on low speed masks it. I don't know why I didn't do the earwax cleaning in the first place? Tinnitus is a terrible and constant distraction when it spikes, and my brain doesn't work as well due to that distraction.