My wife's Hearing test

She is probably getting by without hearing aids, but she is starting to miss some things unless folks raise their voices.

There is a lot of the spoken speech is in the frequency range shown in her audiogram.

Download a frequency analyzer app on your smart phone, and you will see how much spoken speech is in that frequency range. I use Spectroid.

Thank you for the replies, the hearing was free, as we live in the UK. A further detailed hearing test was booked, however, my wife informed me that she has cancelled the follow up detailed hearing test, due next week. She refuses to accept that she has significant hearing loss. I have to speak to her in a raised voice, during any conversation, sometimes I almost have to shout to get her to hear me, she is in denial, she has been for years and years.

A recent incident occurred where she was taking details of an important reference number via the telephone and got it completely wrong, I was in the room at the time, I managed to take the details myself. I am totally exasperated with her, and concerned for her, and her safety. She is not good at crossing roads (never has been, in 30 years). She lacks awareness, doesn’t look properly and says she uses her ears to hear when traffic is coming. I said look, you cant hear cycles, e scooters, or electric vehicles, you need to look. What can I do, nothing it would seem.

OH DEAR. I completely empathize with you BOTH! Even with my aids in, my husband warns me of upcoming traffic, and when riding a bike, I’d always wear a “side view” mirror attached to my sunglasses. You simply can NOT take chances with so many folks on the cell phone and distracted/crazy drivers out there.

You don’t mention your wife’s age? But maybe you can assure her that with her hearing going south, she WILL continue to lose the ability to process speech and with poorer comprehension, the brain WILL deteriorate faster - many MANY studies out there prove this fact. I went for just 6 mos with a faulty right aid many years ago and was shocked to see that my word comprehension had dropped from 70-odd percent to mid-50s!

With my newer Phonak Lumity Life rechargeables, my comprehension actually INCREASED from 70-odd to low 80%. And now I’m wearing the even newer 312-battery Phonak Lumity Life aids. They deliver a noticeable improvement in speech clarity and my comprehension - the best ever!

I may be an outlier, but I like showing my aids off (well, I’m 70, and sometimes not the oldest person at my table). I’ll pop one out - in lovely “Precious Pink” and say they are like jewelry to me! I’ve ordered a backup pair of these aids coming in Friday: “Caribbean Pirate” - a gorgeous shade of teal!

Your dear wife needs to understand that YOUR quality of life is being impacted even if she chooses to ignore her hearing issue. It’s a problem that can be addressed and make both your lives more stress-free and enjoyable! We don’t hesitate to get glasses if our eyes are failing… we get chiropractic treatments as needed for stiff backs … we get fillings replaced and dental work done as needed. So what’s with the DENIAL about hearing? I don’t get it.

I will be 63 this year, my wife is 78, my wife’s older sister (a few years older) had profound hearing loss in the last say 10 years or so, of her life. She also refused to use HAs, for the last 3 or 4 years of her life suffered from debilitating dementia/ or Alzheimer’s, she died last year in a nursing home.

My wife is young looking for her age, in generally good health, apart from suffering from arthritis, mainly hands and knees, severe and life long anxiety, from childhood, due in large part from needing glasses at a young age, and not actually telling anyone that as she put it, that ‘everything is a blur’ and never had glasses, until aged 14. The anxiety is not helped by the fact that for the last 25 years she’s also had to carry auto adrenaline injectors, is high risk anaphylaxis, both via eating, smells (our home is broadly fragrance free) and touch.

My wife and I have been together for over 30 years, she can be extremely stubborn and set in her ways, as can I tbh. I am considering contacting Boots and asking the audiologist why she did not do a full test, I suspect my wife’s hearing is not good at the lower frequencies either. The chances of me persuading my wife to have another hearing test any time soon is probably almost zero.

@andipandi said:

I am considering contacting Boots and asking the audiologist why she did not do a full test,

I suspect the audiologist would say that those few readings were enough to show that your wife clearly does need hearing aids and whatever is happening below 1kHz wouldn’t change that.

When I lost hearing, I didn’t realize how bad it was because I adjusted to it. Being in the work force, it became a necessity to get hearing aids. If she feels she is missing out on some things she might reconsider. Could you go with her and suggest that she just try them? If there is a 30 day or 60 day trial period that might help. Our local Costco lets you try hearing aids out by walking around the store before you commit to buying them.

@montieth said:

before you commit

Even after you’ve paid, they give no trouble refunds for six months.

WH

My hearing is way better than your wife’s and first of all I told my husband he was mumbling (I know), but a visit from our daughter convinced me. She and her boyfriend are quiet speakers and I struggled to hear everything she was saying- and then she said “no mum, he’s not mumbling”. Do you have any female friends/family who could visit, maybe you could enlist some help?

OK. I’m just weighing in here with my own 2-bits’ worth: if your wife doesn’t even want to find out IF her quality of life can be improved with hearing aids, she is NOT going to wear a lanyard sign that tells everyone, in essence: “I refuse to actually GET hearing aids, but I AM hard of hearing, in case you wondered.” Not gonna happen.

I totally empathize with her health and anxiety issues - who amongst us is without either one, the other or both?! But maybe you could show her how actually stylish the Phonak 312s are. They are the smallest, slimmest, and probably BEST aids out there to improve speech comprehension. They are not cheap, but she could start living better NOW if she just trialed a pair.

Lookit these color options:

On top of which, the aids are exceptional for hearing in noisy places, comprehending speech, listening to music. I am constantly amazed at what I hear even out of site from the person talking to me. Case in point: I was at the doc’s office yesterday, just checked in, sat across the room completely out of site from the gal at the window, who, minutes later called my name (to return my ID cards). GOT IT! HEARD IT! Several minutes later, I heard my name called again from across the room, not even able to see the window: same gal wanted me to fill out just one more form. With no idea I’d be called back up for what, when, I heard my name spoken ONCE. I challenge anyone with normal hearing to do that in a similar situation. Gal didn’t even call out loud at all! Like she was talking to her co-worker behind the window.

I guess I’m going to say that anxiety or not, WHO wouldn’t have LESS of it, if you can HEAR, and therefore ACT UPON and be SAFE?

Well, good luck in your quest. We ain’t none of us gettin’ any younger, so why not take advantage of the technological improvements in aids and USE 'em?

I was wearing a lanyard, 2 years before I got my aids, I don’t know why people want to keep their hearing loss a secret, it’s far more beneficial for the hearing loss sufferer to have people know about it. I’ve never had a bad reaction, although I do get people coming up to me wanting to know what’s on the lanyard and how bad my hearing actually is. So I tell them, nobody whispers after I’ve told them, which is good!

@andipandi said:

I was wearing a lanyard, 2 years before I got my aids, I don’t know why people want to keep their hearing loss a secret, it’s far more beneficial for the hearing loss sufferer to have people know about it.

You are an INSPIRATION to all of us! With grace and aplomb, you’ve addressed your needs and made that decision public to those around you. BLESS YOU.

The longer one delays getting hearing aids (once the need begins to show itself), the harder it will be to learn to use them properly and to benefit. This affects all the person’s contacts, especially their mate.

Or consider AirPods for a start, or some other superior over-the-counter device?

Use the Hearing Aid feature on your AirPods Pro 2 - Apple Support1

AirPods Pro 2 provides a clinical-grade Hearing Aid feature for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss and a Media Assist feature, which enhances the clarity of music, video, and calls.