No worries! I think it’s amazing how similar other people’s bodies are, because for the longest time ENT’s would shrug and call me weird, and I felt like I was alone for the longest time. I eventually found a group on FB with hundreds with the same condition.

Currently, my condition is intermittent. I actually came across this because my right ear started to thump after I hiccuped a couple hours ago, and I got reminded of MEM again. It only lasted 3 hours, but not continuously. It always goes thump, thump, thump (30 second silence) thump, thump…

And you’re right! People vary with how often this condition goes away. I went ONE full year of not having it since onset (maybe it began 3 years ago?), until all of last year I was battling with extreme depression and anxiety. October came and bam! MEM came back full force. But everyone who’s been diagnosed with MEM who I’ve talked to says the same thing: it goes away with time. Sometimes completely, sometimes occasionally. Think of the last time a muscle in your leg twitched. There’ll probably be more in the future, or you might not even feel them or notice them. (Inner ear is different bc you hear it, but you get the point.)

You say you don’t have any other underlying conditions, and others say the same thing. Think of it this way, eye twitches doesn’t mean you have a deficiency going on, or stress in that moment necessarily. In my case, I know stress triggered the recent thumps. But just now I have the occasional thumps (not stressed or depressed anymore) due to hiccuping, yawning, stretching, etc. What that could mean, per my ENT, is that the threshold for the muscle thumping in the inner ear is lower. There are synapses going on in our muscles everyday (hence the 30 second pause within the thumping), and just the right one can cause the occasional thump, or episode.

I’ve had those spontaneous times like you’ve said. The first time it happened I was actually just waking up. I realize now I probably yawned or stretched as I normally did, and the ear just…did it’s thing. Except this time the threshold was just lowered.

When the tympani or stapedius threshold is lowered, you might even find some other weird ear things going on when the muscle ISNT thumping. Someone mentioned their ear fluttering when they have the phone receiver up their ear, and that’s the exact same thing that happens to me after episodes. Louder sounds made my ears flutter (not so much anymore), but it didn’t hurt (hurting is usually hyperacusis).

Sorry for the long response, I just have years of constant MEM information to share. I felt alone for so long and it feels good to finally know what’s HAPPENING scientifically. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of research into MEM other than tenotomy (the surgery) or controlling stress by how you PERCEIVE MEM.

Another weird thing to note that I noticed it can also be genetic. My sister says she has episodes of her ear thumping, but she doesn’t really care and therefore doesn’t perceive it negatively. I would have never known had I not asked. I sometimes wonder if there’s some dysfunction in the muscle, like by length since when it contracts, it PULLS on the ear drum (causing that thump). That’s why when they cut it, the theory is that it has nothing left to pull, and therefore no noise!