After Chen went to a specialist ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT) she was diagnosed with a condition called "reverse-slope hearing loss".
Woman Can't Hear Her Boyfriend's Voice Because Of A Rare Condition.
The woman, who's since been identified as Ms. Chen, had gone to bed with ringing in her ears, only to wake up to her silent boyfriend. After Dr. Lin Xiaoqing checked out her symptoms, she was able to identify that she could not hear deeper voices due to their lower frequencies. However, in Ms. Chen's case, Dr. Xiaoqing thinks that stress may have caused the sudden loss of hearing.
The extremely unusual condition, which reportedly affects only about 3,000 people in the US and Canada, causes patients to lose their ability to hear low-frequency sounds, including average male voices. This condition renders patients unable to hear higher-pitched voices, like those of women and children.
The female doctor who treated Chen said that she was able to hear her without any problem but she was unable to hear aything which was said by a young male patient.
Reverse-sloping hearing loss is a form of sensorineural hearing loss. Because of the way it is shaped on an audiogram - a diagonal slope from the top left-hand corner to the bottom right-hand corner - it gets its name, ski-slope. It can affect one in almost 13,000 patients with hearing problems.
As well as struggling to hear low-frequency voices, those with the condition can find it hard to hear voices on the phone properly, as well as low noises like the hum of the fridge or thunder. The good news is, just like Gibson and Henson, she is expected to make a full recovery.
Genetic condition including Mondini dysplasia-where the cochlea is incomplete-can cause reverse-sloping hearing loss, as well as diseases which affect the hair cells in the inner ear, like Ménière's.
According to the World Health Organization, some 466 million people across the world are affected by some form of disabling hearing loss.