Symptoms

Symptoms of Ménière's disease are:

• Vertigo attacks that occur suddenly and last from several minutes to hours. The spinning sensation caused by vertigo is often bad enough to cause nausea and vomiting.
• A low-pitched roaring, ringing, or hissing sound in the ear (tinnitus).
• Hearing loss (often of low-frequency sounds) that may return to normal after the attack or that may be permanent.
• A feeling of pressure or fullness in the ear.

Vertigo is not the same as feeling dizzy. Dizziness is feeling unsteady or unstable. Vertigo is a sensation of whirling or spinning. Symptoms of dizziness and vertigo may be caused by many conditions other than Ménière's disease.

Sometimes you may sense that an attack is about to occur. The signal might be:

• An increasing feeling of pressure in the ear.
• Sounds seeming louder than normal.
• Nausea. A few people have nausea before an attack. But nausea can have many causes, so nausea does not always mean that an attack is about to occur.

What Happens

An attack of Ménière's disease causes symptoms of tinnitus (ringing in the ears), hearing loss, a feeling of pressure or fullness in the ear, and vertigo (spinning sensation).

The attacks are unpredictable and vary in frequency and severity. An attack can last from hours to days. Most people have repeated attacks over a period of years. Attacks usually increase in frequency during the first few years of the disease but then decrease in frequency.

Vertigo may be severe and result in nausea and vomiting. To reduce this feeling, try lying perfectly still until the attack subsides.

Sometimes each additional attack damages the inner ear. Over time the inner ear may become so badly damaged that it may no longer function properly. The attacks will then usually stop, but you may have:

• Poor balance.
• Permanent hearing loss.
• Residual roaring or hissing in the affected ear.

Ménière's disease normally occurs in only one ear at a time. In as many as half of the people affected, the disease eventually develops in the other ear.¹

A few people with Ménière's disease experience "drop attacks." A drop attack is a sudden fall while standing or walking. The falls occur without warning. And the attacks are described as suddenly being pushed to the ground. There is no loss of consciousness, and complete recovery occurs in seconds or minutes.