Woman Cannot Hear Male Voices

One woman in China has made headlines after she woke up one morning and noticed that she was suddenly unable to hear male voices including her boyfriend's voice. The night before her hearing loss set in, she experienced symptoms like a ringing sound in her ears as well as nausea.


Chen saw a doctor who explained that her bizarre symptoms was due to a rare condition known as reverse-slope hearing loss (RSHL). People who are affected by this typically have no problem hearing high-frequency sounds such as the voices of women and children.

But they find it difficult to hear lower frequencies — like male voices which tend to be deep more often than not. They may also struggle to hear the sounds of vehicles, thunder, voices over the phone, the humming of refrigerators, etc. Genetics may play a role in causing RSHL because it could be inherited through a dominant gene.

Chen is now receiving treatment and is expected to make a full recovery.