Otosclerosis progression - Hearing Disorders Message Board

Moses86 · 08-14-2008, 10:00 PM

I know many of you have been suffering from this disease for a long time. My question to you is how did the disease present itself at first. Was it a subtle hearing loss or unmistakable? Was hearing loss bilateral/unilateral ? The loss was gradual, but over how many years?

Were there periods of near-complete remission and periods of relapse in one or both ears, or is that impossible with this disease?

Thanks in advance!

Monicas667 · 08-15-2008, 05:15 AM

Hi Moses,

My hearing lost from Otosclerosis was gradual, which I believe is the norm. For me, it was just my right ear. I was probably losing my hearing slowly over 3 years before I really noticed it - I switched the phone to my other 'good' ear one day and it shocked me. I always thought the phone was defective!

From that point, I had a full hearing test every year. My hearing in that ear went from about 50db to 90db (pretty much no hearing) before they diagnosed me with oto. That was probably over another 4 years. I then opted for surgery to fix.

It's common for the condition to present in both ears eventually. I was told my 'good' ear is starting to show signs of otosclerosis, but it's still within normal range.

I've never heard of it going into a sort of remission and based on what I know of the condition, I'm not sure that's possible. The middle ear bones pretty much harden in place over a period of time and it's not a tumor growth that can recede. If you're getting intermittent hearing loss, then it may not be otosclerosis.

Hope that helps.

Monica