How would you feel if you can hear only female voices? Strange is it! Well, here’s a real story of a woman in China who lost her hearing to male voices overnight due to a rare condition.
A woman known by her surname called Chen lives in Xiamen, China lost her hearing overnight. She experienced tinnitus or ringing in the ears and vomiting the night before hearing loss. After she woke up, she could feel that something is wrong and were unable to listen to her boyfriend’s voice. Likewise, the woman could hear only her voice in an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) clinic and not the sound of a male patient.
‘Reverse-Slope Hearing Loss is losing the ability to hear low-frequency sounds such as deep male voices, and certain environmental sounds.’
Chen is experiencing a low-frequency hearing loss called reverse-slope hearing loss (RSHL), named after the visualizations it creates during hearing tests, said Dr. Xiaoqing, an ENT specialist.
Chen’s hearing loss to low-frequency voices such as deep male voices could be due to stress from working late and having inadequate sleep. Chen could see a recovery if she gets adequate rest.
What is Reverse-Slope Hearing Loss (RSHL)?
Ordinary hearing loss is associated with loss of hearing higher-frequency sounds. Contradicting, low-frequency sounds are affected in RSHL and linked with the conditions such as Wolfram Syndrome and Mondini dysplasia.
The condition is difficult to recognize, diagnose, and treat and people who were born with RSHL do not even perceive it as different from others’ hearing ability.
Symptoms of RSHL include exhibiting difficulty in the understanding speech over the phone, difficulty in hearing men’s voice and some low-frequency environmental sounds such as the whirring of a refrigerator. People with RSHL have no problems in hearing voices of women and children.