Did Effexor Cause My Meniere's Disease?

Now there's a juicy title, no?  My posts have been few and far between owing largely to the merciful fact that my Meniere's has not changed for me in years.  But I know that this is not the case for many others.  I have decided to post to the blog when I have something of substance to offer beyond the occasional symptom, or lack thereof, update.

When my symptoms started I was taking the drug Effexor for anxiety.  It is one of several SSRIs that I took for anxiety for about two years when I was in my mid 30s.  I no longer take these drugs and wish I never had, but that's another story.  I feel they are beneficial to people with clinical depression for whom no other remedies help, but for those who have generalized anxiety there are far more optimal and less dangerous treatments.  At any rate, during one of my recent, twice yearly visits to my family in the Midwest I noticed that a close family member was having trouble hearing me.  She is younger than me.  She was aware of the problem but hadn't seen a doctor.  At our last visit she told me that she finally had seen a doctor and that she has been diagnosed with a degenerative disease of the middle ear and that accounts for her hearing loss, which is significantly worse than mine.  She said that the doctor said that there is little that can be done until the hearing loss gets to a certain point and then surgery might be an option.

This family member is also taking Effexor and has been for several years, also for anxiety.  It occurred to me that it is probably not coincidental that both of us suffered significant diseases of hearing and significant hearing loss while taking Effexor.  It's possible but doesn't seem likely.  She does not have Meniere's and I know of no other family member with comparable diseases of hearing.  I don't think genetics alone explain our problems.

There are two conversations to be had here, one concerns when it is appropriate to prescribe a powerful, brain-altering medication such as an SSRI and whether it might be reckless for a health professional to do so in patients whose problems may be better addressed without dangerous drugs.  The second is whether or not Effexor is an ototoxin.  The second is the only appropriate conversation to be had here.  My days of SSRIs are far behind me, thankfully, and I would certainly counsel anyone to strongly consider their options if they have been prescribed them.  But as for the second question....

These days I resist the urge to web search, or "Google", anything medical.  It just gives me too much stress and anxiety.  I haven't looked for or even thought about anything Meniere's-related on the internet in ages.  It's painful and horrifying.  Probably also misleading.  So I won't pummel you with web results on "effexor and hearing loss" beyond the tantalizing tidbit that I guarantee that there is plenty of information out there on the subject, largely from sufferers posting to discussion forums.  I leave it to you to look into it if you are interested, and to strongly consider your own decisions about the medications you are willing to take.  For my own part, I don't want to leave this here.  I do want to pursue it, but I'm not sure how.  I will probably start by broaching the subject with my doctor (not my ENT!), who is one-of-a-kind in that she resists prescribing medication if possible and is quite wary of Big Pharma.

Any suggestions on where else to take this information?  Anybody else had a similar experience?