When I sit in a certain position in my chair at home, if it is quiet enough, I can hear my heart beat. Or at least I can hear a sound that lines up with my pulse. Sort of sounds like a pop or a drip. You know that sound you make when you close your lips, apply slight negative pressure, then open your lips. Sounds a lot like that.
Is this common enough to ignore or should I see someone?
The other thing is I don’t like going to a doctor with weird sounding symptoms and being treated like an insane person. Happened to me before. My testicle was vibrating. This is a real thing, look it up. I was told I probably have my phone in my pocket.
I don’t know, but will be finding out in a week or two. I have a similar issue, but it’s a whooshing sound with each heartbeat. It started immediately following getting stents, and has continued for almost 3 years. It’s very noticeable in a quiet room, but I can’t hear it in a car or with the TV on.
I asked the cardiologist(s) about it and have no reply yet. They did send me for a Carotid Doppler Ultrasound though. I will see them in a week or two to discuss the results. Sorry no immediate answer, but they aren’t alarmed over it at this point.
Since this involves a real-world medical issue, let’s move this to IMHO (from FQ).
It could be a type of tinnitus.
There is more info including a list of possible causes here:
Some of them are fairly serious (high blood pressure, ear tumor, hyperthyroidism, etc).
You should see someone.
You should definitely see someone if you’re experiencing pulsatile tinnitus.
I noticed it myself a few years ago, and my PCP thought it was probably just an ear infection. When it didn’t go away, I went to an ENT, who said “you probably just went to too many loud rock and roll concerts. I doubt it’s anything to worry about. But let’s not take any chances.” She sent me to get an MRI.
Turned out that I had a glomus tumor, a paraganglioma, in my jugular fossa. It was benign, but very large, and growing. And if it continued to grow, the outcome was going to be facial paralysis at best, and at worst (and more likely) a stroke.
So that sent me down a long journey of talking to head and neck surgeons (my first response was 'GET IT OUT!") but I couldn’t find a surgeon wiling to take the chance (one of them told me, “I could do a perfect surgery, do everything absolutely right, and with the size of this thing and the way it’s positioned in there, you would still have a good chance of waking up without ever being able to swallow anything again.”)
I ended up with 5 weeks of radiation. Killed the tumor (and killed my hearing in that ear, completely). Still have tinnitus, but it’s not pulsatile anymore, just a constant high-pitched tone, but the tumor won’t grow any more and won’t kill me or my face.
Don’t fool around with things that might be growing in your head, is my moral of the story. If a doctor treats you like you’re crazy, find another one.
I had a one-time occurrence of pulsatile tinnitus shortly after my COVID experience. I woke up hearing a “woosh woosh” sound. After a few seconds I realized it sounded like a machine spinning out of balance, and I assumed it was the air conditioner. I got out of bed, and the sound stopped. It took me a few minutes to figure out it was my pulse.
I mentioned it to my doctor at my next check-up, and she wasn’t concerned. I’ll see my ENT in a few months and will mention it to him just to be thorough.
Good advice. Regarding this from the OP …
No doctor should ever respond to a patient complaint with sarcastic snark. If this is an accurate account of what happened, I’d consider finding a new doctor.
I have not much to offer beyond that except to say that I’ve experienced hearing my heartbeat, too, when lying in bed, but it’s rare and hasn’t occurred in a long time. In my case, I tend to have high blood pressure and am taking medication for it, and I suspect it may have been somehow related either to high blood pressure or to some weird interaction with the medication. I’m personally not inclined to worry about it unless it starts coming back, but if it happens to you fairly often I would definitely get it checked out.
I had a cardio workup this year, and mentioned a very similar symptom. When I’m sitting upright, in a very quiet room, sometimes I will hear a faint “tick”, exactly in time with my heartbeat.
When I described that to the cardiologist, she added a carotid doppler to my tests. It found nothing.
In my case, I’m pretty sure the sound is being transmitted inside my head - though we didn’t identify the source, they don’t think it’s anything scary since the carotid doppler didn’t find anything. Likely it’s as another poster described, some form of pulsatile tinnitus.