The menstrual cycle may affect tinnitus, but the evidence is limited: two cross-sectional studies, one of 4,633 Korean women and one of 558 women, found tinnitus more common with irregular or heavy periods. The article on tinnitus and menopause covers the better-known hormonal transition; this one looks at the regular menstrual cycle itself, in premenopausal women.
What a nationwide population study found
A 2019 study used the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010–2012), which samples the general population, and included 4,633 premenopausal women. Of them, 21.6% had tinnitus. After adjusting for confounding factors, women with irregular menstrual cycles had higher odds of tinnitus than women with regular cycles, and the odds rose with how long the irregularity had lasted: an odds ratio of 1.37 (95% CI 1.06–1.78) for irregularity of up to 3 months, and 1.71 (1.03–2.85) for longer than 3 months.
Two further findings matter for reading it. Women with tinnitus, or with irregular cycles, had significantly higher rates of stress, depressive mood and suicidal ideation than women without. And the authors are careful about the limits of their design: it relies on retrospective self-report, which carries a risk of recall bias, and a cross-sectional study cannot establish which came first or prove a causal relationship. They note that it is consistent with earlier, smaller studies linking hormonal changes across the cycle to tinnitus, hyperacusis and changes in hearing thresholds.
What a focused study of 558 women found
A 2025 cross-sectional study surveyed 558 premenopausal women about tinnitus alongside their menstrual history. A third of participants (33%) reported tinnitus — higher than general population estimates covered in the article on global tinnitus prevalence. Dysmenorrhoea (painful periods) was reported by 74.4% of the group, and the most common abnormal bleeding pattern was menorrhagia (heavy bleeding), at 20%, followed by hypomenorrhoea (unusually light bleeding) at 11.11%.
Tinnitus was significantly more common in women with secondary dysmenorrhoea — period pain that points to an underlying condition such as endometriosis, adenomyosis or fibroids — and in women with menorrhagia. Adjusting for age, income and psychological health problems did not remove either association. The authors suggest that hormonal imbalances and stress, often driven by conditions like endometriosis and uterine fibroids, may contribute to the gynaecological symptoms and the tinnitus simultaneously, rather than one directly causing the other.
What is not known about timing
The 2025 study's authors note that women's experiences differ: some may notice tinnitus increase in the premenstrual phase, others around ovulation or during menstruation. Neither study was designed to test that. Both took a single snapshot, and what would answer the question is longitudinal research following the same women across several cycles — the gap the 2025 authors name as worth filling.
Why the cycle might connect to tinnitus
The honest answer is that the mechanism has not been identified, and the Korean authors say so. Their suggestion is that mental health may be the bridge: stress and depressive mood were more common in women with either tinnitus or irregular cycles, and stress is a recognised amplifier of tinnitus (see tinnitus and anxiety). The 2025 authors point instead to hormonal imbalance and stress arising from underlying conditions. The Korean team also cite earlier work finding tinnitus more common in pregnancy, which is covered in tinnitus in pregnancy. None of these explanations is established.
Practical points
If you notice your tinnitus seems to track a particular phase of your cycle, or you have both tinnitus and menstrual problems such as painful or heavy periods, it is worth mentioning them together at a medical evaluation rather than treating them as unrelated. Not because the connection is proven — it is not — but because an underlying condition such as endometriosis or fibroids deserves attention in its own right, and because two studies in different countries found the same direction of association. A cycle-by-cycle note of when your tinnitus is louder is the kind of record neither study had, and it gives a clinician something concrete to work with.