Ear Pressure, “Ear Barotrauma”

[Yann04]

You know that feeling in planes where your ear feels pressure and sometimes if pops. I’ve started getting this during PEM. Very weird and annoying to be honest. Am I the only one?

 

[poetinsf]

I get that all the time. I have Eustachian tube dysfunction and the ear pressure, along with pops and crackles, gets substantially more noticeable when coming down with PEM. That's why I started talking Sudafed. I talked about this several times before.

 

[jnmaciuch]

I got pops/crackles in my ears with PEM only on a stimulant, where the main PEM symptom was muscle pain and stiffness. The ear issues tended to be part and parcel with neck stiffness for me

 

[MrMagoo]

You know that feeling in planes where your ear feels pressure and sometimes if pops. I’ve started getting this during PEM. Very weird and annoying to be honest. Am I the only one?

Nope, if I do a “lunch out with friends” thing we will reach a point where I have to leave “because I’m tired and deaf in one ear” it gets blocked like you say, my hearing is fine afterwards.
I get it as immediate fatigue and it can happen in PEM too.

 

[Alinda]

My ears do pop occasionally, but no idea if it is a "normal" amount. I did have a bunch of ear infections as a child and im pretty sure they have always done some popping..

 

[MeSci]

I get this, but I think it's only during the pollen season. I have to try to resist picking at my ears as they end up deaf!

 

[ScoutB]

Interesting, I get this too. Between this and sore throats, I often wish we had research looking more closely at the nose/throat/eustachian tube in MECFS.

 

[DHagen]

I suffer from both the altitude/pressure sensation you report, as well as something that feels a bit like my eustachian tubes are being squeezed in a fist. Sometimes they occur at the same time, others not - often, the squeezing seems connected to an increase in the intensity of my always intense tinnitus, but not always.
All of this can happen both in and out of obviously identifiable PEM for me.

 

[Snow Leopard]

I get this all the time, due to allergies/histamine issues. A new symptom is a pop, then tinnitus (and ear feels like it's blocked) until I can pop it again, after which the tinnitus goes away.

 

[JemPD]

You know that feeling in planes where your ear feels pressure and sometimes if pops. I’ve started getting this during PEM. Very weird and annoying to be honest. Am I the only one?

Absolutely yes same. It also hurts intermittently with the pain one feels when an aeroplane is coming in to land.

It was actually one of the first things I noticed when mild - that I kept getting ear pain- thinking it an ear infection but ear looked healthy on exam.

When I was a child I used to scream in pain when coming in to land on flights and I remember once as an adult being quite concerned at the level of pain.

But yes the pressure & popping a part of PEM for me for sure

Eustachian tube dysfunction

What is that?

The ear issues tended to be part and parcel with neck stiffness for me

Yes sometimes I do find that stretching & massaging that muscle that runs from the ear to the clavicle well help. Along with massaging the scalp & jaw in the vacinity of the ear

 

[poetinsf]

What is that?

Eustachian tube is the passage between the middle ear and nose. The narrow passage amplifies the ear pressure during PEM and make the problem much more noticeable in my case.

 

[JemPD]

Sorry @poetinsf I wasn’t clear I know what the Eustachian tube is, I meant what is ‘Eustachian tube dysfunction’. I wondered if it was some kind of recognised condition where it doesn’t work properly. Not sure what it’s meant to ‘do’ anyway? Not implying anything negative I was just curious. Do t waste energy responding I was just intrigued

 

[poetinsf]

I meant what is ‘Eustachian tube dysfunction’. I wondered if it was some kind of recognised condition where it doesn’t work properly.

It's a formal diagnosis as far as I know. I got it when I complained of popping and crackling. The tube got narrowed after an infection and it no longer equalizes the pressure efficiently.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

It's a formal diagnosis as far as I know.

I suspect it is a bullshit term for "blocked".

 

[Kitty]

I get it during PEM too. I'm one of those who gets really swollen neck glands and sore throat, though, so it's never seemed surprising I have other symptoms associated with cold bugs.

For the first day or two I sneeze, I have a dull headache, my eyes water, my ears hurt, and sometimes I have chest tightness like the onset of a cough. It's fairly short lived, though, and the symptoms never develop as they would with a cold (which is the only way I can tell the difference).

 

[DHagen]

I suspect it is a bullshit term for "blocked".

It can also manifest in a patulous form, from which I suffered for years, and was occasionally quite hellish, having a serious impact upon my ability to function (oddly, the open form hasn't been as much of an issue since my ME/CFS deterioration).

Not sure why a simple term indicating that something isn't functioning correctly is "bullshit."

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

It can also manifest in a patulous form,

Not sure what that means?

If something is blocked why call it 'dysfunction' - I don't say I have dysfunction in my sink waste pipe. Words like dysfunction are invented so that physicians can sell their pet clinical problems mostly. Some things are complicated. Tubes aren't. They are open or closed.

 

[DHagen]

Not sure what that means?

Essentially the opposite of the more common "blocked" feeling in which the middle ear experiences higher pressure from without - with a patulous eustachian tube, the tube feels as though it is "stuck open," resulting in physical discomfort, autophony, and all kinds of fun distortions in aural perception.

Edited to add: not "open" in the sense of normal function, but "blown open," something like when performing a Valsalva maneouvre.
In my understanding, Eustachian Tube Dysfunction is not a physical blockage, but a pressure imbalance.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

higher pressure from without - with a patulous eustachian tube, the tube feels as though it is "stuck open," resulting in physical discomfort, autophony, and all kinds of fun distortions in aural perception.

Well that would be stuck open then. I don't see the advantage in using 'dysfunction' to imply some source of two completely different problems. As a physician I have lived with this sort of flowery language all my life and I am glad to be done with it in retirement!!

 

[DHagen]

I am sure this won't change your mind (no doubt it will confirm it), but I am linking just In case it is of use to anyone:

Eustachian tube dysfunction: consensus statement on definition, types, clinical presentation and diagnosis​

Schilder et al (2015)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4600223/

Introduction​

A recent systematic review of treatments of Eustachian tube dysfunction commissioned by the UK NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme revealed that an important limitation with the available evidence is a lack of consensus on the definition and diagnosis of this disorder.1 The HTA report recommended that key to advancing research in this field is achieving consensus on diagnostic criteria for Eustachian tube dysfunction (to identify eligible patients for future trials) and on important clinical outcomes.


To address this need, an international forum of scientists and physicians with expertise in the field of Eustachian tube disorders met at a workshop in Amsterdam on 21 June 2014 and was tasked to come to an agreement on the definition, clinical presentation and diagnosis of Eustachian tube dysfunction, and areas for future research. This study summarises the outcomes of that meeting.

...

"We agreed that there are three subtypes of Eustachian tube dysfunction:

1. dilatory Eustachian tube dysfunction,
2. baro-challenge-induced Eustachian tube dysfunction,
3. patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction."