Venous hum has recently changed...

[acedit]

Hello,

I am a 30 year old male and have pulsatile tinnitus for many years now. When I stand straight or sit and have my neck straight or slightly tilted forwards, I hear a continious humming sound that coïncides with the heartbeat.

I have gone to the GP with this and he diagnosed it as an innocent venous hum. When I check the description of a venous hum, it indeed sounds very plausible. When I put pressure on the right side of my neck, it alters the sound or it makes it stop. When I lie down or look towards the side, it stops.

So far so good. Until 2 days ago, I noticed that it has changed.
Sometimes I still hear the exact same sound as before, like a long continious hummmm hummmm, but often it sounds like my vein is vibrating shorter and more irregulary. It goes more like 'hum hum'. Then sometimes, all of a sudden, it changes back to the longer humms.

So it sounds like either it is getting better, or getting worse. It's almost as the blood cannot flow through the vibrating vein smoothly.

Now I did some heavy work they day before it started and I have used my neck intensively to look at a screen on the left of my face a lot. (I work as a cameraman)
Could this have something to do with it?

And what could brought on this change? Is it possible to hear a disrupted blood flow like I describe it? Or is it actually a good sign that the vein vibrates shorter than before?

I ask it here because I am not sure that a visit to the GP will solve anything. And if he doesn't know, I probably have to do all kinds of (invasive) tests to get to the bottom of this which might not be necesarry. The tinnitus is not very loud at all and I could easily live with it as long as I know that it is not going to kill me.

Any insight would be higly appreciated.
Thanks!

[tom_h]

Assuming you have a healthy circulatory system, I think I'd look at changes in your auditory pathway.
Reading this brought back memories of my experience with venous hum.  I had it for some years when I was an adolescent.  When I was laying in bed, if I positioned my neck in a certain position I could get a surprisingly loud and slurred whine-whine-whine-whine sound that followed the cadence of my heartbeat.  That was nearly 55 years ago though, and when I hit my teens I was never able to duplicate it again.