Deafness

March 21, 2025 8:03 AM

I'm writing a story in which a woman (about 30 years old), having thus had normal hearing, goes deaf over a period of a few years. What pathology (-ies) could cause this?

- No trauma
- Not life-threatening
- No serious symptoms (other than the deafness)

posted by falsedmitri to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

The mother of one of my friends growing up was an artist, didn't give any hecks about having kids over to her home filled with paintings of naked ladies, owned a gallery downtown, lived in AN APARTMENT when everyone else I knew languished in suburban hell... real cool woman. She was going progressively deaf over the 5-6 years her daughter and I were buddies.

Every time her deafness came up, she'd wave her hand and say "too many Janis Joplin concerts when I was young, you girls make sure to wear earplugs."

I loved her.
posted by phunniemee at 8:17 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Any of the speculated causes of Beethoven's hearing loss could line up with the time frame you're after.
posted by potrzebie at 8:18 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Otosclerosis! My grandmother had this and gradually became completely deaf. I believe in her case, this was over the course of more like a decade but that's just one instance.
posted by deep thought sunstar at 8:25 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

My father went deaf over a period of years due to Meniere's Disease. However, the average age of onset is a bit later than the age of your character so I'm not sure if it can begin younger. My father was in his 50s when the hearing loss really became profound and life altering, although he'd had the vertigo symptoms for years.
posted by fennario at 8:26 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]

Oh, another comment - I had a benign tumor in my ear called a cholesteatoma. While I had it in one ear, it can occur in both ears especially at different times, which would align with a period of years. The cholesteatoma itself can cause permanent or temporary deafness, and the surgery to remove it can damage the bones in the inner ear resulting in permanent deafness.

(For me, the complicated cranial surgery restored most of my hearing in the affected ear but it was a serious risk going in that I may have ended up deaf in that ear if it was impossible to remove the cholesteatoma without damaging those inner ear structures.)
posted by fennario at 8:29 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Covid?
posted by shadygrove at 8:32 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

I have an issue with my sinuses and I wound up mostly deaf in one ear. After a surgery to remove growth from the sinuses my hearing came back to about 75%– it's a bit muffled, but nothing like it used to be. The ENT who did the surgery said that just the pressure pushing from inside can damage things and there isn't a way to specifically fix it other than reduce that pressure.
posted by robotmachine at 8:48 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Rush Limbaugh lost his hearing due to Vicodin addiction. Allegedly
posted by funkaspuck at 9:36 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

sudden sensorineural hearing loss
posted by bangles at 9:51 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Can confirm personally SSHL will do it. You can of course get total deafness in one stroke, but in my case I just have a series of small incidents that chip away at my hearing.
posted by toodleydoodley at 10:12 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

I would start with occupation. Runway operations, pilot, concert technician, construction, race cars, are some of the exposure to loud consistent noises above the recommended decibel levels.
posted by brent at 10:15 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

I was going to say Meniere's as well. It can indeed begin yonuger.

My girlfriend in college (who was 19) had onset of Meniere's and lost 85% of her hearing on one side within half a year.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:34 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Tinnitus can get worse over time, leading to effective hearing loss.
posted by amtho at 11:22 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Vestibular Schwannoma typically only affects the hearing on one side but affects some people bilaterally. Also can affect balance.
posted by baseballpajamas at 12:30 PM on March 21 [4 favorites]

Autoimmune inner ear disease? Progressive, usually occurs between 20-50 years of age.
posted by aecorwin at 12:46 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Came here to say vestibular schwannoma, which affected a close relative—it’s also called acoustic neuroma.
posted by epj at 12:55 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Meniere's tends to cause really terrible vertigo as well as hearing loss, which might not meet your "no serious symptoms" criteria.
posted by Birds, snakes, and aeroplanes at 1:56 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]

I came in to say vestibular schwannoma/acoustic neuroma as well. But: In all 3 people I know who have had this, the hearing loss has come on rather suddenly - over a couple days or a week maybe, but nothing like several years. And it pretty is always only on one side. The bilateral form has a fundamentally different cause and comes with a lot of other related and pretty serious health problems.

So you could use vestibular schwannoma but it would be a somewhat fictionalized version of the disease.

I think what you really want, though, is simple otosclerosis. This strikes people relatively randomly age 20-50, causes progressive hearing loss typically over several years, generally has no other serious symptoms or side effects, and has no known cure other than hearing aids. (Well, recently there are some surgical approaches that can help.)

Total hearing loss is rare but not completely unheard of. It would be believable, though, to have the person end up with any degree of hearing loss you might need for story purposes. Just be aware than actual complete hearing loss is pretty rare, so if that is what you need, you're not talking about someone with the most typical course of the disease at all.

But still, this would be a believable outcome in otosclerosis, whereas I think with vestibular schwannoma having bilateral hearing loss with very gradual onset over some years is well into unbelievable territory.

Another possibility, if you wanted to use it, would be a series of botched surgeries for the otosclerosis ending in complete deafness. Apparently this happens in maybe 1% of cases - so, again, rare but not completely unbelievable. Here is a first-person experience along these lines.
posted by flug at 7:32 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Meniere's disease started around 20 years old, for me. I'm mostly deaf in one ear because of it, and the remaining hearing on that side is extremely limited due to having tinnitus in that ear as well.
posted by cp311 at 3:10 PM on March 24