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My audiogram dropped from 45 dB to 55 dB at 2000 Hz in 6 months

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Hearing more difficult so I did a trial on my own from open to and it helped a lot Went back to audi and while my curve is the same it dropped a whole 10 lower on the chart Not exposed to anything Just wearing hearing aids Is this typical with age related loss in mid 60’s

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I have found over the years that my hearing test will fluctuate 10db from test to test. I have even had it show 10 down at one test and the next to be back up to where is was before the last test. I believe it is due to my tinnitus and my allergies

If the shape of your is the same, but the whole thing is shifted down by 10dB in six months, I would be a lot more suspicious of the calibration of the test than an actual change in your hearing.

My bad. Actually it isn’t exactly totally shifted down 250, 500 and 1K almost the same. Checked date and test was a exactly 12 months ago not 6 Just hearing aids working fine when I was last at audi 6 months ago and not now
It drops at 1.5 and on And I can’t hear well with the open dome anymore
The drop alarmed me as I only have that ear to go by and if age related loss in a year looks like this afraid of what will be in 10 years

@Tmrsuz said:

12 months ago… what will be in 10 years

I lost 45dB @ 4KHz over 8 years. Roughly your age.

Audiogram-Me-Anon
Note that I had already lost 40-50dB in the other ear, much of that by 2003 when I realized I could not balance stereo mixes confidently.
tests are not taken better than 5dB precision, and accuracy is few- in some cases (especially in the highs). I would not take a 10dB change too literally. However it is something I’ve pondered. (Also I know my Dad’s HL and I see I am going his way. Yet face-to-face with aids he converses well.)

Edited

In reply to @PRR

Paul, yours looks like mine. I’m 46 and I was fine at 36. I was a musician and used to be good at mixing sound. It’s kinda sad. I hear my losses increase substantially on some mornings compared to the previous evening! I don’t want to lose any more than I already have. I think the med establishment has no idea how to identify the causes of these losses and tinnitus (nor do they care, as long as they’re selling solutions), but I suspect there are a few things they DO NOT want to admit could be strong causes: bad diet, bad sleep, prescription/illicit drug use or misuse.

Loud noise and loud music. For me it was military service working with loud equipment, jet engines and flying in cargo bays

In reply to @gruuvinrob

Bad genes and rock’n’roll.

(Before your time) There was a time I was walking toward the Hot Tuna concert, ear ringing deadly from the night before, and stopped 300 feet away from the venue and the racket. Do I really need more of this? I suspect by that time I had already scrambled some nerves, they just take time to fade-out. (I doubt you were “fine” at 36, it just hadn’t caught-up yet.)

My father was never into r’n’r, not a loud life, and he has my curve 24 years more advanced.

And yes the effects of drugs on eyes and ears is rarely mentioned. I was given Prednisone for severe back trouble, cataracts went from ‘none’ to BAD that year. Do you know how much aspirin I’ve taken over the years?? And some of my antibiotics, childhood and old-man, are ototoxic… nobody tells you. (And there may be little alternative.)

Lots of possibilities. First I think the typical test is poor. So many human variables, especially if the patient has tinnitus. Unless you run the test multiple times in one sitting I wouldn’t trust a one-off test. Just my opinion and its true for many other medical tests too. Also, ear wax, health issues? Finally medications can have a huge impact.

In reply to @PRR

Speaking of medications . . . I was on high doses of NSAIDS for 8 years, the maximum allowed, 550 mg of Naproxen morning and night, for knee pain. I qualified for total knee replacements, but was so young that the second time around I still wasn’t going to be on Medicare. So the surgeon said he wouldn’t do it for 8 years, use the meds and do the best I could. Finally got the 2 knees replaced (4 months apart) and one hip a few months after that. As PaulReid said, no one tells you the side effects. Side effect of that much naproxen over that amount of time? Otic nerve damage. Guess I should have just had the knees done, worry about paying for the second time around when that arrived. My hearing still declines on an irregular basis (wake up and surprise! I can’t hear as well as last night), says it is still due to those years on naproxen. I haven’t used it in 4 years.

In reply to @grantb5

I have really loud tinnitus. I think my done by the Costco employee was nothing like my audiograms look like when I do my own. She was raising the gain until I pushed the button, but she wasn’t lowering the gain until I stopped pushing the button. She was also all over the place, as if she was trying to be tricky. I don’t think that is necessary.

That’s quite a drop in six months, but then who really knows how quickly any individual will lose their hearing.

I don’t know whether your is typical but there appears to be a difference between your hearing in your right ear to that in your left.

Have you thought about asking your audiologist that question you’ve posed here?

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