I've had tinnitus for about nine months, combined with lots of right hand side ear blocking/popping feeling. Eventually an ENT said the whole set of symptoms was probably being caused by temporomandibular jaw disfunction. Since that diagnosis I have modified my diet to a softer one and focused on reducing my night-time clenching habit by wearing a splint that my dentist had made for me. For the most part, all this has helped a lot, although it has been gradual, taking about 5 months since the TMJ diagnosis. I really noticed that, when my ear was unblocked on a regular basis, the Tinnitus was much reduced and I was able to live with the level it was at.

Anyway, I am now 30 weeks pregnant and have recently been discharged from a 24 stay in hospital for possible pre-term labour. As a precaution they wanted to give me 2 lots of the steroid betamethasone to mature the baby's lungs in case it came early. Since I had the injections, my tinnitus has been much worse and I'm feeling very confused and low about it. It has suddenly become a much more intrusive, very high-pitched constant noise - I have had this on occasion in the past, on waking, but it has usually disappeared quickly. But this time it isn't going away and it has been there for 3 days. I just wanted to get some feedback from others as to whether they think this could be an effect of the steroid injections? I'm trying not to panic but am starting to wonder if this is temporary or the new level I will have to get used to.

Any advice appreciated - many thanks.

The best person to ask would be Dr Nagler at the following website as he is a medic with tinnitus and knows about this side of things:

www.sptinnitus.com

Bear in mind that his Forum is closing due to family illness at the end of this week (December 5th).

Hi Helen

I can't answer your question from a personal perspective but I typed Betamethasone and Tinnitus into Google and didn't find anything sinister.

The stress of the hospital visit might have increased your T sounds rather than the injection. Give it some more time try to relax and not worry.

Can anyone else help Helen with this?

It most likely needs time to get out of your system. My prozac induced T spike took several weeks to subside after I'd stopped taking it.