Laryngitis symptoms include a hoarse voice, throat pain, and difficulty talking. A person with the condition may also feel the need to clear his or her throat constantly. Other symptoms, such as a fever, cough, and general feeling of illness, are usually caused by an accompanying virus or flu rather than laryngitis itself. In most cases, laryngitis symptoms will subside naturally after several days, although they can persist for up to a week. If chronic laryngitis occurs, the symptoms can last for much longer, sometimes for several months.
The most common symptom of laryngitis is a hoarse voice. This is almost always accompanied by throat pain. When a person has laryngitis, the parts of the throat associated with speech — i.e., the voice box or larynx — become inflamed. This affects the vocal cords, which is why those with the condition find it hard to talk normally.
Other common symptoms include problems with speaking, a cough, and a feeling of a blocked throat. In some cases, all of these laryngitis symptoms may be present; in other instances, only one or two symptoms occur. The severity of the symptoms can also vary, depending on how inflamed parts of the throat have become.
There are a number of laryngitis symptoms which are indirectly associated with the condition. Laryngitis sometimes strikes at the same time as another condition, such as a cold or flu. For this reason, the patient may also have common cold symptoms and feel generally unwell for the duration of the illness. Sometimes laryngitis happens at the same time as tonsillitis, which is a condition causing swelling and pain of the tonsils.
If a person is suffering from acute laryngitis, which starts suddenly rather than developing over a long period of time, symptoms will usually last several days. The patient’s voice will typically deteriorate throughout the first day. In many cases, the hoarse voice will last longer than other symptoms, sometimes for up to a week.
Chronic laryngitis symptoms are similar to what happens in acute laryngitis but last much longer. Unlike acute laryngitis, the chronic condition starts over the course of several days rather than suddenly, and the symptoms may get progressively worse during this time. After the initial period, chronic laryngitis symptoms can persist for up to several months in the worst cases. Even though chronic laryngitis can affect anyone, those who use their voices a lot, such as singers, are much more likely to suffer from the condition.