Are you experiencing ringing ears during your pregnancy months? Where before, when you were not pregnant, you had never heard a ringing or buzzing sound in your ears? The ringing sound in your ears is called tinnitus, more commonly seen as a symptom of noise-induced hearing impairment. Yet, for the past few years, the medical and scientific communities have recognized that pregnancy can trigger tinnitus. Your ringing ears during pregnancy or tinnitus is actually induced by hormonal changes in your body.

It was back in 1993 when the connection between tinnitus and pregnancy was recognized, when a group of doctors in the Royal United Hospital in Bath, UK, did a comparative survey study of two groups, made up of ante-natal women and non-pregnant women. The survey shows that the prevalence of tinnitus was greater for the ante-natal women than the other group. Likewise, there are several health forums in the internet where people have posted their tinnitus experience during pregnancy and post-partum weeks. Ringing ears during pregnancy is usually characterized by pulsating sounds, meaning the pulsating tinnitus type.

This ringing ears during pregnancy experience usually comes up during late pregnancy and stays a few weeks postpartum. And for those who already have tinnitus before pregnancy, the ringing may be more noticeable or louder than usual. Ringing ears during pregnancy is caused by hormonal changes and usually grows louder during late pregnancy weeks and the first few weeks after birth. The good news about this particular condition is that it is usually temporary.

There are also other special cases of women experiencing tinnitus, like those who are in hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) during menopausal stages. Fluid retention, headaches, or raised blood pressure usually worsens tinnitus. The ringing sound in the ears might also grow louder. Yet, as for pregnancy-triggered tinnitus, there are several reports of the ringing sound disappearing after stopping the HRT treatment.

With all these cases of course, ringing ears can be very stressful. The pulsating buzz in your ear can keep you awake at night, and we all understand that stress and lack of sleep are both not good during pregnancy. Worse at post-partum, it can cause annoyance and anxiety when you are taking care of your child and the previous ringing ears during pregnancy surfaces again. There are several therapies and methods developed that might help alleviate the stress from ringing ears during pregnancy. Full support from family and doctor usually helps in looking for a method that works, because not all therapies work effectively for everyone. One must inform their doctor on the onset of pregnancy-triggered tinnitus and discuss what can be done to reduce the stress brought on from the ringing sound, so as not to affect the baby.