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Tracking audiogram changes over time

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When I get a new hearing test, I’m always interested in how my hearing has changed over time. The standard report does not show this. I can find a copy of my previous audiogram and compare the two pieces of paper, but it is hard to really see what has changed, especially when the right and left ears are shown on the same graph.

So I’ve taken to entering the results in a spreadsheet and creating graphs of the changes over time. I have separate graphs for the left and right ear. Here are the results of my two most recent hearing tests:

Audiogram Compare - 2 most recent

Questions for the forum: Do others find this kind of thing useful? Do you know of existing online tools for this? Would it be useful for me to share a copy of my Excel spreadsheet for others to modify?

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I don’t think it’s useful unless you like to do It. Your hearing loss has gradually worsened over 8 years which is not unexpected. Note: Your graphs are a little confusing in that red often means right ear and blue means left ear but you’re using it to mean different times.

What I would like to know is did you do anything to protect your hearing after the first test, and did you have any bouts with a disease between the first test and the second test that would cause your hearing to get worse?

In reply to @MDB

Thanks for the feedback! I admit that I am a data nerd!

I was concerned about breaking the red=right, blue=left convention. Sorry for the confusion.

In reply to @user990

User990 - there is more to the story. I’ve been wearing for over 24 years. My hearing loss has very gradually worsened over that time, but most notably with the last hearing test:

Audiogram Compare - all

I’ve been careful to protect my hearing during this period and there have been no disease episodes that might have contributed. My audiologist thinks it is normal aging (I’m 74).

Thanks for asking!

It’s possible it’s an error. I recently had an that was notably worse and when repeated was back to my recent baseline.

When I worked petrochemical we were given annual physicals. A hearing test was part of it… if we had a shift of 10 DB at any frequency we were sent out to an for better testing to try and figure out why hearing had gotten worse. I went often.
This company felt it was important to trend hearing loss. Not exactly sure why. Maybe a liability thing?

In reply to @Raudrive

I worked in industry…they tested my hearing. The admission…increase in hearing claims would become the future “bad back” expense as employees aged.
I often worked in areas with 110

I have had a workman’s compensation claim for almost 20 years. Canada/Ontario

I am 100% a data nerd too. In fact, I just transcribed 12 from the last 20 years to do exactly this thing! I found this post when I was searching how to get the standard audiogram markers in the graph :joy:

I just had an ear infection which completely occluded the eardrum on my good ear with “gunk” that I go back to the for a second cleaning for and wanted to show my wife how much that occlusion has screwed my hearing for last two weeks.

I looked at mine for the past few years. On my left ear I have developed a notch at 2000, which wasn’t there before. So yes, it’s good to compare. I wondered why when in bed with the tv on I hear a lot of garble if I am on my right side.

Is average the best approach versus median or discarding outliers and then average/median? I realize the difference will likely be small but there’s still probably a preferable approach.

Oh, if you want to get into it yet I would discard outliers but then average not median–testing is done in steps of five but hearing is presumably not lost in steps of five.

Having everything in one place definitely makes it easier to spot what’s actually changing at each frequency—way better than flipping between . If you end up sharing it, curious whether you’d include notes on what was going on at each test or just stick to numbers.

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