I have been hesitating posting this because it’s so freaking weird. Not sure it goes here either.
My husband and I are prepearing to start trying for another child. This means I chucked my pills.
I am due to ovulate any day now and my ears are driving me nuts. They itch and seem to be producing copious amounts of goo. I clean them constantly and my q-tips are always disgusting. It’s becoming a big annoyance, q-tip orgasms nonwithstanding.
Here’s the rub: After my daughter was born and I was NOT on the pill (for a year) they did the same thing every month, right around the time I was due to ovulate. Itchy, goo-filled ears.
It went away when I was on the pill and I wondered if it would come back when I went off them, and sure enough…it has! ARGHHH!
My questions: Have any of you ever heard of this? Are there any women out there that have tracked their cycles and experienced the same thing?
I did a Google search and came up with absolutely nothing.
Eargasms are wonderful. I’ll take a Q-tip[sup]TM[/sup] and sneak away to rub my E-spot whenever I can.
On to the other point. Before you ovulate (about 3-5 days before) your body does some wacky hormonal stuff. For one thing, it produces more mucus around your cervix. This also gets a bit stringy and will change a bit in color, odor, and (gross) taste. (from what I’ve read) Now, your body doesn’t know to increase mucus production only “south of the border” so it does so everywhere. You may notice a bit of stuffiness or runny nose - or scratchy throat from post nasal drip (not losing a match of “strip darts” :D). Also, your body doesn’t know just to increase mucus production, so it increases all secretions - including earwax.
Okay. You’re right, putting in “earwax ovulation” is no help.
However, I did run across a couple of interesting things. One is the fact that as you get older, your earwax composition changes, becoming drier and crustier. It’s produced by specialized sweat glands in your ear canal, so it’s not unreasonable to suppose that the same hormonal shifts that produce ovulation hot flashes might change your earwax composition. http://www-surgery.ucsd.edu/ent/DAVIDSON/AGING/Aging.htm#Earwax
And the other thing is, right after the “Earwax” section above, there’s a section on “Itchy Ears”. That’s the problem, right? Your ears itch?
Once I went into the clinic for an ear infection and the doctor wasn’t in the best mood (maybe working in an HMO clinic in the Bronx wasn’t his dream-come-true, who knows.) Anyhoo, he barked at me about having “made myself worse” by trying to clean out the ear with cotton swabs (generically speaking). I was told in no uncertain terms never to clean out my ears, ever. If I was the type with a lot of wax I was to come in to the clinic (yay) to have the earwax sucked out with the sucking machine. Right.
It started with the occasional Q-tipping. You know, weekends, parties, with friends. I was a casual “tipper”; I always kept it in check. Then it just sort of grew. I was “tipping” during the week, before and after work. Once, I was late to an important meeting because I was in the bathroom with the “white wand”. I never really thought it was a problem. I figured I could quit whenever I wanted.
My “tipping” became more frequent. At my desk, at home when anyone left the room, I even “tipped” while driving down the freeway to work. It’s like I wanted to get caught.
My wife came home and found me naked on the bed in a pool of drool, wearing a dreamy smile and with a faraway look in my eyes. There were “happy sticks” all around the place. That’s when I knew I needed help.
Ha! I knewDDG would make an appearance in this thread. (too bad she couldn’t answer my question )
First, this problem doesn’t occur all the time, just monthly, so I don’t think it’s a result of over cleaning my ears. It’s definitely hormonally linked, I’m just wondering if I’m a freak.
Second, there is NO WAY IN HELL I would just let gunk leak out of my ears. I knew a kid like that in high school and he was repulsive.
:shudder:
spritle I pretty much figured that was the general idea, but I’ve never seen anything mentioning it anywhere. I was hoping to get some definitive answers, but if that’s as close as I get, so be it. Thanks though.
Um, just to reduce the “gross-out factor” of this thread slightly, I think that when they talk about the earwax draining out, they mean internally through the Eustachian tubes, not externally. Of course, then we’re talking about this stuff making its way to your throat and thence stomach, but at least it’s not visible.
Actually I, for one, was not grossed out at all, until you when and put that disgusting image in my head. The idea of wax and other ick trickling down into my stomach, ect… is just gross.
Hello, Sue I unfortunately have to wear hearing aids. I am not old so I have a whole lot of years left with the damn things. My ears itched with the hearing aids and not even Q-tip reaming would help. The doctor prescribed some ear drops that are hydrocortisone and antibiotic and they took care of the problem for the most part. Maybe your doctor can prescribe some ear drops for you. Good luck!!
Um, no, sorry, Chronos, your outer ear passage is completely blocked off by your eardrum. If you DID have earwax trickling down your eustachian tubes, into your throat, you would be speaking to us now from the Ear, Eye, Nose and Throat specialist’s waiting room, because it would mean that you had a really huge hole in your eardrum, and the earwax would be going through your middle ear and messing up your hearing in a major way, and you’d probably be written up in the New England Journal of Medicine or something.
Why is it all the Google hits under ear stuff seem to be about elderly hearing loss? Is Somebody trying to tell me something?
The websites were talking about earwax draining out through your delicately shell-pink outer ear. I dunno why they use the verb “draining”, which seems to imply a rather faster speed. Myself, I’d use “creeping”, or “sludging”. “Oozing”?
The stuff that drains out your eustachian tubes and down your throat when you have a middle ear infection is, um, mucus. Please God don’t let this turn into another “snot” thread…
Sue, I did rummage around for a while, but as far as I can tell, you are the first person on the history of the planet to experience this. So congratulations! Maybe you can get a government grant to study yourself.
I think I may have experienced the same sort of thing. Before I was on the pill, I produced a lot more ear wax. I seem to recall that the amount of ear wax varied on a medium term time scale. I can’t remember if that time scale was monthly, or if it corresponded with ovulation.
Personally, I like Spritle’s theory as to why it happens.
Can’t remember what things were like before pill (wasn’t paying attention), but I have noticed that since going on the pill I’ve have little to no ear-wax-- It’s creepy, and I believe I have had others note the same thing (about their own ear-wax, of course). I think there is a GQ somewhere in archives about that (which was why I first realized that I hadn’t q-tipped with any meaningingful results in some time).
Oh, good. I’m not the only one who craves tactile stimulation of the ear canal. Although it does seem to be a vicious circle. I want Q-tips when my ears feel a certain way, but then they only make my ears want them more.
(imagine a pouty-face icon here)
Sue, just thought I’d jump in here and relieve your fears because I experience the exact same thing. It never happened when I was on the Pill but it does happen now, every month, like clockwork. Of course, I had bad problems with earwax as a child. I would have to visit the doctor periodically to have my ears cleaned out. I can only assume the increase bodily lubrication is the culprit but you are not the only one!
Ummm… Eargasms? This is a common thing? With just women, or men as well?
The only thing cleaning my ears causes is a fit of coughing for me. (I have no idea why cleaning my ear out makes me cough, but it definitely does)
And for getting ear wax out, my favorite method is a hot shower, turn my head into the stream and hot water does wonder for the ear wax and it’s then easy to clean out with a q-tip afterwards, Otherwise, mine’s too waxy and does not flow easily out of my ear.
In fact, the first time I read about the earwax-Pill connection was on this board. Perhaps it was something that you posted quite a while back? I don’t remember.
Anyhow, I never had earwax problems–until I got off the Pill. Once after my daughter was born and once after my son was born I had to actually go to the doctor to get that stuff removed, because it clogged up & I couldn’t hear. The normal over-the-counter stuff didn’t work, either.
While I was on the Pill, it was never a problem. And now that I’m permanently off the Pill, I’ve noticed more earwax. I haven’t paid much attention to whether or not it increases during ovulation, though. Maybe I’ll start charting it.
I’ve never heard of this. During ovulation, as said, there isa thickening of the cervical mucus. The ear glands are essentially modified sweat glands which produce ear wax (cerumen) on the outside of the ear only. Doctors tell people not “to stick anything larger than an elbow in your ear” :rolleyes: since only the outer third of the ear canal has cilia; little hairs that push ear wax out – if you pack it in inside the inner third, no cilia are there to help unpack it.
I’m doing my obstetrics/gyne rotation as we speak. I’ll ask around.
He said he had never heard of this but it wouldn’t surprise him. The changes in cervical mucus are caused by estrogen. Before they could measure the LH surge, doctors apparently could use a little thermometer device which could predict ovulation. This was done by the change in electrical resistance caused by having a different concentration of electrolytes in saliva when ovulating. This is a lot weirder than an ear wax change, to my mind.
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