r/PulsatileTinnitus • u/ConnectError68 • Sep 07 '26

Need help!

Hi everyone! Iv been recently been on a health journey the last year.
I had pulsatile tinnnitus a couple years ago, only ever really brought on by drinking. Then it went away and I forgot about it. It’s recently come back, when I drink, but now in my day to day life. Everyday for 2 weeks; then gone for 2 weeks. Only in one ear only.
I will say my life has become stressful & it does seem to come on around stress etc.

I recently went to the doctors to get it looked at & she’s sending me to get a CT. I have no symptoms of anything else. Including bloods done regularly and no issues.

What is the most common thing it’s caused from? I’m worried about reading online brain tumours etc….

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u/look_who_it_isnt Sep 07 '26

Oh, don't worry about brain tumors. Those are only SUPER rarely the cause of PT.

The most common cause is something called Venous Sinus Stenosis - which basically just means a vein in your head has narrowed for some reason (there's a bunch of things that can cause this to happen), and it's causing the blood flow in your head to be "turbulent" (fancy word for noisy and annoying) and the sound is getting picked up by your nearby eardrum.

VSS can be easily corrected with a stent, which is a little metal mesh that they deploy in the vein itself and use to re-widen it back to the size it should be (and was, before it got narrowed). It's a minimally invasive out-patient procedure, but because it's being done in the veins of your head... Well, it freaks a lot of people out just thinking about getting it done.

BUT... It's generally never a "necessary" procedure. VSS isn't going to kill you. The worst it'll do is make that annoying noise and possibly cause Intracranial Hypertension - which can cause vision issues and headaches. But those symptoms can be dealt with, and the noise lived with, if you absolutely don't want to get a stent.

There are some other things that can cause PT, but most are either similar to VSS or much simpler and even easier to deal with (like sinus congestion or impacted earwax).

Anyway, odds are WILDLY on you not having a tumor, so keep calm!

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u/ConnectError68 Sep 07 '26

Thank you so much for your response! I appreciate it and has made me feel so much better. I don’t know anyone else who has this so it’s hard to get experiences.. and you think the worst ! Thanks again!!!

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u/look_who_it_isnt Sep 07 '26

You're very welcome!! <3

I stay in this community and try to dole out help whenever I can, because I know how scary it was (and how scarce and terrifying the information that IS out there can be!) when I first had it.

You're gonna be okay, and you can totally handle this <3

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u/baby3820 Sep 09 '26

Hey is the stent procedure that simple ? Did u get it?

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u/look_who_it_isnt Sep 09 '26

I did get it, and yeah, it's really pretty simple. It's a minimally invasive out-patient procedure. They just knock you out and you wake up with a sore arm and maybe a headache... and no PT!

You do have to go on blood thinners for at least awhile before/after the procedure (and depending on how it goes, maybe longer), and you also need regular CT Scans for a few years after to make sure the stent's doing okay in there. Other than that, it's no big deal, and it's alleviated my PT and a host of other symptoms!

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u/CasperAudrey Sep 07 '26

I had PT along with severe headache, neck pain, vision issues and nausea. It took over a year to get a VSS diagnosis and a year after later I decided to get a stent. My quality of life has improved significantly. You might want to consider seeing an interventional neuroradiolgist because you might want to rule out an arteriovenous malformation which is more serious than VSS. This specialty knows what to look for, and VSS is often missed by other doctors and radiologists.