My hearing loss is intermittent, I found this old thread which didn’t spark much interest so I guess it’s not common:
https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/intermittent-hearing-loss/23835
I am 83 yrs now. By May 2017 (my hearing had been deteriorating (though I could converse, hear phone/tv etc Ok) and I had some tinnitus and had attacks of (quite extreme) vertigo over the preceding months/year.
A hearing aid (BTE+ear mould) was prescribed for my left ear and I had an MRI scan and balance investigation. The vertigo was declared not to be BPPV or similar but due to some unknown brain problem, nothing showed on MRI.
Mid November I started a new chemo (I’ve had CLL, chronic lymphatic leukaemia, for 25yr & a lot of chemo :)), Ibrutinib which is 1 pill daily forever and Lamivudine for a lurking remnant of hepatic B which might get excited by the chemo. There is no known association of either of these with hearing/tinnitus/balance.
Mid December I suddenly lost all hearing in my right ear, ie my good one. Audiologist later prescribed a BTE+ear mould for right ear.
Early March 2018 (before hearing aid received hearing in my right ear returned to normal (and left ear was possibly better) and tinnitus had disappeared!
Late March 2018 hearing re-tested & right ear pronounced OK, so not my imagination!
Early 2019 hearing in both ears has deteriorated again and now so bad I cannot use a phone or hold a conversation, hear tv etc — can hear the sounds but not make sense of them unless the subject is known.
Mid 2019 new hearing aids for both ears (BTE + thin tube), work OK, not perfect of course :(.
Tinnitus has got much worse, almost “deafening” at times but I think it comes and goes and I think it is somewhat “positional”, ie better lying down, worse standing up.
So, I am writing this today (May 24, 2020) because my hearing in my left ear (the original bad one!) has retuned, to the extent I am not using the aid and can hear tv on the iPad. I should mention that throughout this time I have found the sound from my iPad to be vastly more intelligible than the regular tv to the extent that I haven’t used the regular tv for months — this may help someone.
I don’t expect there will be a sudden rush of responses to this but I’ve written at length as it may find someone with a similar experience or help in some way.