Woman Can Only Hear Female Voices And Not Males — Including Her Boyfriend

Hearing is an essential part of how we communicate with others and how we become aware of sounds that happen in our immediate environment. But what if the sounds that we hear are limited?

Just take this one Chinese woman, for example. She was diagnosed with a rare condition which enables her to hear just voices of women and not men. As bizarre as it sounds, it is a real diagnosis.

The woman from Xiamen, on China’s east coast, knew something was wrong when she woke up and couldn’t hear her boyfriend’s voice. The night before, the patient, who is only identified by her last name Chen, heard ringing in her ears and vomited.

She immediately sought medical help and that’s when doctors diagnosed her with reverse-slope hearing loss, in which she could only hear high frequencies.

For most people who have hearing loss, they experience what is referred to as high-frequency hearing loss. That means they have trouble hearing high-pitched voices and sounds.

Reverse-slope hearing loss (RSHL) is also known as low-frequency hearing loss, which Chen has, is the difficulty of hearing sounds on the lower register, like deep male voices. It is often not as noticeable and is also much less common than high-frequency hearing loss.

Dr. Lin Xiaoqing, who treated Chen, said the woman could hear everything that she was saying.

“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.”

Doctors believe the condition was caused by stress, as Ms. Chen had worked late and was not sleeping enough before her hearing deteriorated.

Chen is expected to make a full recovery as the doctors are looking at treating the symptoms at the earliest stage.

According to the World Health Organization, some 466 million people across the world are affected by some form of disabling hearing loss. By 2050, that figure is expected to hit over 900 million.