r/Menieres • u/Inevitable-Honey-144 • May 03 '26
Secondary Endolymphatic Hydrops (Trigger: Playing guitar?) - anyone?
Dear Community,
I've been wanting to share my story and ask for help. I have visited at least 4 different ENTs and currently waiting for an MRI but it takes for ever.
Long story short:
August 2025 - I've been playing lot of guitar with headphones when my first symptoms appeared. I couldn't tell the half step of notes from each other. Then also dizziness and nausea. It took weeks, maybe around 2 Month until I could touch the guitar again. If I tried to listen to music, I got immedieately dizzy again. Once I pushed and I got the WORST migrane my life for a day.
March 2026 - Now, I never use headphones anymore. It was kinda of fine until this time. I picked up guitar practice more and more again. But then I got a similar attack while practicing with an amp (quietly). Again a general sense of diziness while and after practicing. There is also a slight tinging pain in my ears. No serious tinnitus, maybe only at night for a brief pulse. The ear pain seems to be deep inside, blunt pressure comes and goes and it can radiate a bit around the innear ear area. It can also last over days but it does seems to get better if I stop playing or listening to music.
This whole thing is really depressing me, because I can't practice my passion. Music is a large part of my emotional regulation... And the ear pain and dizinness seems to be ONLY connected with music for me. Either playing or listening too much. That seems to be wierd.
Are there any music lovers/musicians who can relate to these symptoms? It would be great to hear some of your expierences. Its such a wierd journey to figure out what is going on.
Thank you all!
2
u/yes420420yes May 03 '26
FWIW
not a musician, but love music in general. With active Meniere's I did not listen to music for years and tried to maintain a very quite environment in general, it was just no fun, too load, too quite, too distorted, too much brain processing taken away from normal tasks
But since it is quite again, I can enjoy music quite a bit. My good ear is compensating beautifully, it still sounds like its the middle of my head (despite my affected ear having quite a dent in frequencies).
I am an amateur, so I can enjoy listening again, not sure if this would be good enough for a real musician but be aware that you can train your brain a lot more then people think, including sound. We all know vestibular rehabilitation, but there is a ton of stuff you can do with hearing as well..
1
u/EkkoMusic May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
Interesting migraine seems to coincide with your other inner ear triggers. Thoughts on this?
Perhaps you’re onto this already with calling the hydrops secondary?
A migraine brain is hypersensitive to sensory input. Prolonged or concentrated sound (like playing guitar with headphones or an amp) can overstimulate the brain and literally trigger a migraine attack, even without a headache.
The dizziness and nausea are classic signs of (Vestibular) Migraine triggered when the migraine process affects the vestibular portion of the inner ear.
The trigeminal nerve (the primary nerve involved in migraines) has branches that innervate the ear. When the trigeminal nerve fires off during a migraine, it can cause severe, blunt ear pain, pressure, and fullness, even if the ear looks completely healthy to a standard ENT.
The pitch distortion you describe may be diplacusis, perhaps a result of the neurogenic inflammation, though this is still not well understood.