A woman has been diagnosed with a bizarre medical condition which she claims leaves her deaf to the voices of men.
The patient, who has only been named as Chen, said she felt sick and could hear ringing in her ears the night before and thought going to sleep might help.
But when she woke up she panicked when she realised she was unable to hear her boyfriend talking to her.
She took herself to Qianpu Hospital, in the city of Xiamen, East China, and quickly realised she could hear her female doctor’s voice perfectly.
Ear, nose and throat specialist Lin Xiaoqing said: ‘She was able to hear me when I spoke to her, but when a young male patient walked in, she couldn’t hear him at all.’
Dr Lin diagnosed her with a condition known as ‘low-frequency hearing loss’, after Chen said she had been working late recently, putting her body under stress and not getting enough sleep.
Doctor Lin believes fatigue and the added stress of long days may have contributed to the condition, which caused a loss of sensitivity to deeper sounds, and which only allowed her to hear sharper, higher-frequency sounds – such as the voices of women.
The ENT specialist revealed it is important to treat such symptoms quickly, adding that she expects Chen to make a full recovery.
