Heart beat in ear

[EnjoyItAll]

I’m 21w pregnant and have noticed when the room is quite I can hear a heart beat in my ear. I imagine it’s mor blood pumping through arteries but heart beat in the ear is probably best description! I know your blood volume increases during pregnancy but as it’s my first I just wanted to check if this is normal? It seems to come and go. I checked the nhs website and it talks about a health condition but doesn’t mention pregnancy and I don’t have any other symptoms

Start of an ear infection? Pregnancy might be a red herring.

It is called pulsating tinnitus and you do need to mention it to your GP. Your blood pressure needs to be checked ASAP, and you could possibly have a malformation of blood vessels in that ear. It doesn’t constitute a medical emergency, but it is important.

Stupid autocorrect *PULSATILE TINNITUS

Thank you. I had my blood pressure taken Friday and it was normal but will mention it when I have my vaccine on Monday at the GPs

It is important to discuss it. One other cause is an increase in cranial pressure. Have you been getting a lot more headaches or blurred vision?

No headaches or blurred vision but I only noticed it started after a cold so wonder if it’s linked in some way

I had this in pg. it was to do with the 50% (I think) extra blood coursing through my veins. Stopped once baby appeared. Was told it was perfectly normal, my bp was normal throughout the pg.

Me too, still have it now at 29 weeks, same as @bitchfromhell its the extra blood circulation and slightly increased blood pressure due to baby. Your blood vessels will widen soon so it gets a little better but doesn’t go till baby is born. Nothing to worry about but mention to gp or midwife if you’re concerned.

I get this mainly when lying on my side. In my case, I can actually feel and hear the artery near my ear throbbing (temporal artery, I think it's called). It's most uncomfortable. I put it down to all the extra blood flow. I'm now 21w and I haven't had it for a while. It was much worse a few weeks ago.

I’ve had this, ringing in my ears and headaches. Midwife wasn’t worried when I mentioned it as I’m only 18 weeks, and my blood pressure is fine !
After reading this maybe I should book an appointment to see GP.

Yes I had this round about the 20wk mark. Spoke to pharmacist who reckoned it sounded like possible ear infection and suggested using warm oil in the ear to help. For various reasons I never got round to doing that, the problem would come and go and never got any other infection symptoms. Tbh I think was more likely explained by the extra blood flow you mentioned, had not heard of it being a pregnancy thing but seems there's a few of us that have had it. I think by 3rd trimester it had gone completely, or the general other discomforts of 3rd trimester made me forget about it at any rate, no further issues with it and now 6wk post birth.

And yes my bp was always v low when checked through pregnancy so not that.

EnjoyItAll I have this and it started before I got pregnant. It happened when I got a cold and GP said some cold viruses can cause this and it can take a month or few to clear up. when I called in and said to receptionst the noise in my ear first thing she asked was if I had a cold recently.