Effects of hormonal changes on the quality of voice, vestibular and listening skills: an experimental study on young hearing-impaired women with cochlear implant.
The female hormones fluctuations in woman’s life play a dominant role in homeostasis of the body and can influence the psycho-neurological processes in different body systems. In particular, in the auditory system seems that hormonal alterations during the menstrual cycle can compromise the homeostasis of the labyrinthine fluids altering balance and/or hearing.
Our study aims to verify if hormonal changes during different menstrual phases may have an influence, in females with cochlear implants, on the trend of auditory, vestibular and phoniatric performances.
An audiological, vestibular and phoniatric evaluation, according to standard protocols, was performed in the follicular and luteal phases, on a group of eight women who are at a fertile age, affected by profound sensorineural form of hearing loss and carrying a mono-lateral cochlear implant.
Audio-vestibular and phoniatric alterations, as well as, an increase of impedance electrodes are reported in the luteal phase only.
Our work suggests that audio-vestibular and phoniatric alterations are related to the different phases of the menstrual cycle with consequent variation also of the performances of the implant. It is very important to keep in mind this aspect to avoid negative results during rehabilitation
