A woman in China has been diagnosed with a very form of hearing impairment that resulted in her being unable to hear male voices.
According to The Daily Mail newspaper, the woman known as Chen left doctors stunned when she complained that she could no longer hear her boyfriend.
The rather unusual story which has since become global news, came about when the woman complained to doctors about her unusual hearing loss.
It is reported that the woman became concerned for hearing after she woke up following a night’s sleep being unable to hear her boyfriend who was lying next to her.
Chen who told doctors that she complained of a ringing noise and a general feeling of being unwell before going to sleep was left worried when she couldn’t hear her boyfriend despite being able to hear him the previous night before.
However after studying her inner ears and conducting a number of tests, doctors soon uncovered that Chen was unable to hear low pitched frequencies, but remarkably she was able to hear all female voices of doctors working at the hospital.
The Daily Mail reports, that Chen was diagnosed with a condition known as reverse slope hearing loss which is known to affect 1 in 13,000 patients.
It is believed that ears, eyes and nose doctors at Qianpu Hospital, diagnosed Chen with the condition after she told them her symptoms.
Although Chen is expected to make a full recovery, doctors say the condition generally the result of genetics and is worsened by stress.