Pulsatile tinnitus is tinnitus that pulses in time with your heartbeat. You can usually tell within seconds: if it whooshes or thumps rhythmically with your pulse rather than being a steady tone, that is pulsatile.
It is different from ordinary tinnitus because it has a vascular source. Somewhere near the ear, blood flow has become more turbulent — through a narrowed artery, an unusual venous loop, raised pressure, a vascular tumour, or, occasionally, an aneurysm. Most causes are benign, but the proportion of cases with an identifiable, sometimes treatable cause is much higher than for ordinary tinnitus.
That is why all new pulsatile tinnitus deserves a proper medical workup. Your GP should be your first stop, and from there it is usually an ENT and an MRA or CT angiogram to map the vessels around the ear. Imaging is not always urgent but it is rarely optional.
If yours is genuinely steady and non-pulsing, this is not the cause and the standard tinnitus pathway applies.