Woman's rare condition renders her unable to hear male voices — only those of females

A Chinese woman's rare health condition has reportedly rendered her unable to hear the voices of males — including her own boyfriend.

The woman, only publically identified as Ms. Chen, first noticed an issue with her hearing when she woke up one morning and was no longer able to understand her boyfriend's voice, the DailyMail Online reports.

The patient, who lives in the city of Xiamen in southeastern China, had also experienced ringing in her ears and vomiting the night before the incident.

Dr. Lin Xiaoqing, a specialist at Qianpu Hospital, diagnosed Ms. Chen with a rare form of low-frequency hearing damage known as reverse-slope hearing loss.

The extremely unusual condition, which reportedly affects only about 3,000 people in the USA and Canada, causes patients to lose their ability to hear low-frequency sounds, including average male voices.

The most common type of hearing loss, on the other hand, is characterized by loss of sounds at higher frequencies and is referred to as high-frequency hearing loss, according to the Thigpen Hearing Center. This condition renders patients unable to hear higher-pitched voices, like those of women and children.

While Ms. Chen was able to hear every word a female ENT said during her appointment, she was unable to pick up on the voice of a young male patient at the hospital, Dr. Xiaoqing said.

Although there are a number of causes of reverse-slope hearing losses, the most common causes are genetic abnormalities, Wolfram syndrome and Mondini dysplasia.

Doctors believe that Ms. Chen's particular condition may have been brought on by stress and a severe lack of sleep.

Luckily, with treatment, Ms. Chen is expected to make a full recovery, according to the DailyMail Online.