*After a trip to the hospital, she was diagnosed with reverse-slope hearing loss, a rare condition that affects only about 3,000 people in the U.S. and Canada combined, according to Thigpen Hearing Center.
*Reverse-slope hearing loss occurs when a person can't hear low pitch noises, Patricia Johnson, a doctor of audiology, told INSIDER.
After a woman woke up unable to hear her boyfriend's voice, she was diagnosed with a rare condition called reverse-slope hearing loss, according to The Daily Mail.
The woman who was identified as Ms. Chen felt nauseous and heard ringing noises in her ears, so she decided to go to bed. The next morning, Chen woke up to find out she couldn't hear her boyfriend, or any men, for that matter.
After a trip to the hospital, she was diagnosed with reverse-slope hearing loss, a rare condition that affects only about 3,000 people in the U.S. and Canada combined, according to Thigpen Hearing Center.
Here's everything you should know about the uncommon condition that prevents you from hearing men's voices.
If you have reverse-slope hearing loss, you can't hear low-frequency sounds
Reverse-slope hearing loss occurs when a person can't hear low pitch noises, Patricia Johnson, a doctor of audiology, told INSIDER. This explains why Chen couldn't hear her boyfriend, as men's voices tend to be lower pitched than women's.
This condition also affects how well a person can hear vowels. "Vowels sounds tend to have more low pitch energy compared to consonants and contribute more to our sense of loudness, while high pitched consonants contribute more to speech clarity and distinguishing between one word and another," Johnson explained.
A number of factors can cause the condition
According to Johnson, there are three potential causes for reverse-slope hearing loss.
First, "a particular gene might cause certain hair cells to never develop in utero," Johnson said. The hairs she referred to play an important role in how a person perceives different pitches and if they are damaged, hearing will be compromised.
Reverse-slope hearing loss may also be the result of another ear condition, like Mineire's Disease, which affects the fluid surrounding the hair cells, Johnson told INSIDER.
Lastly, a person can develop the disorder suddenly, like Chen did. A sudden development could have to do with a viral infection, but sometimes the cause remains unknown, according to Johnson.