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Meniere’s disease

Marta Silva, Professional Services Manager and Hearing Aid Dispenser at The Hearing Care Partnership. Marta Silva  |  Published 07 April 2025  | Updated 29 April 2025  | 5 mins read

patientsupport@hearingappointments.co.uk

Meniere’s disease is a rare condition that affects the inner ear and leads to recurrent episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, balance problems, and even hearing loss. This disease can make daily life a struggle and may even cause permanent hearing loss over time. However, various treatment options are available to help manage the condition.

Here, we’ll explore the symptoms and causes of Meniere’s disease and how it is diagnosed and treated.

What is Meniere’s disease?

Meniere’s disease is a chronic disorder of the inner ear that occurs when fluid builds up and disrupts your body’s hearing and balance. It typically only affects one ear, although it can happen in both. This disease often comes on without warning, causing episodes of severe dizzy spells and muffled hearing that may go on for minutes or hours. These episodes can happen frequently over several days or more sporadically. Either way, it can take a major toll on your daily life.

While Meniere’s disease can develop at any time, it’s much rarer in children under 18 and most likely to occur in adults aged between 40-60. It is a lifetime condition without a cure, but treatments can help manage the symptoms. Additionally, some lifestyle changes can positively impact the symptoms of this disease. If left untreated over time, it can cause permanent hearing loss and balance issues.

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Meniere’s disease symptoms

Symptoms of Meniere’s disease come and go and often start suddenly, lasting between a few minutes and up to 24 hours. Common symptoms include:

  • Feeling like the person or everything around them is spinning (vertigo).
  • Hearing loss
  • Losing your balance
  • Sensation of being sick 
  • Ringing or buzzing sounds in 1 or both ears (tinnitus)
  • Feeling pressure, discomfort or pain inside your ear

What causes Meniere’s disease?

Currently, there is no single defined condition known to cause Meniere’s disease. But possible causes include:

  • Allergies 
  • Viral infections 
  • A head injury
  • Autoimmune disorders
  • Poor fluid drainage 
  • Migraine headaches
  • Genetics

 

Is Meniere’s disease hereditary?

Meniere’s disease does have a hereditary component, meaning you may have a higher chance of developing the condition if someone else in your family has it.

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What are the complications of Meniere’s disease?

Living with Meniere’s disease can be difficult with complications such as:

  • Serious falls: people with unexpected episodes of vertigo are more likely to suffer a serious fall. This makes everyday activities, such as walking alone on a road, climbing a ladder, driving, or carrying heavy items, dangerous.
  • Long-term hearing loss: if left untreated for several years, Meniere’s disease can leave you with permanent hearing loss.
  • Mental health: This disease can take a toll on your mental health, with some developing anxiety and depression due to the symptoms and not knowing when a future episode may occur.

How is Meniere’s disease diagnosed?

Several tests can be carried out by healthcare providers to diagnose Meniere’s disease. Your GP will ask about your health history, check inside your ears, and look at your head and neck. They may also ask you to perform some exercises to check your balance. Once other conditions have been ruled out, they will refer you to an ENT or an Audiologist.

A hearing assessment provided by an audiologist will look at how you can hear sounds at different pitches and volumes. Since people with the condition often have trouble hearing lower frequencies or combined high and low frequencies, this can be used as an indicator of the disease.

An audiologist may also perform a series of tests to check the reflex of your inner ear for balance. While your balance may be back to normal after a vertigo episode, there may be some lingering effects that tests can pick up.

Meniere’s disease treatment options

Unfortunately, there isn’t a cure for Meniere’s disease. However, there are various treatment options available to help manage the condition and ease symptoms.

  • Lifestyle changes: As salty foods make you retain fluid, following a low-salt diet may help to reduce the amount of episodes. Consuming less caffeine and alcohol, which may increase vertigo attacks, will also help. Make sure you also manage stress and get enough sleep.
  • Medications: Diuretics or Betahistine may be prescribed to help reduce the amount of fluid in your body and improve the blood flow and circulation in your inner ear. Motion sickness and anti-nausea medications can also help ease sickness from vertigo during an episode. If these medications don’t help, your healthcare provider may recommend other options, such as steroid injections.
  • Devices: If you suffer from hearing loss due to the disease, hearing aids can be worn to help amplify sound and clarify speech while reducing noisy backgrounds that may cause stress and discomfort.
  • Surgery: for severe cases of the disease, surgery to redirect or relieve pressure from the inner ear fluid may be recommended.

Meniere’s disease is a rare condition of the inner ear that causes vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss. If left untreated, hearing loss may become permanent. There is no singular cause of the disease, but adults between the ages of 40 and 60 are more likely to develop the condition, especially if it runs in the family. While there is no cure for Meniere’s disease, there are plenty of treatment options to manage the symptoms.

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