Symptoms of Hearing Loss - A guide to Hearing Loss

The first sign that something is wrong with your hearing is an inability to hear certain sounds or words during a conversation. And this is especially difficult if your conversation is taking place in a public space or somewhere with background noise.

What tends to happen is that you start asking people to repeat what they are saying or to speak up. You may also feel that people are mumbling whereas in fact they are speaking normally.

You may find yourself increasing the volume on the remote control for the television or turning up the radio. This can fine for you but can be annoying for other people in the same space as you. Women and children have higher pitched voices then men: you find that you can understand what men are saying but struggle to hear what women and/or children are saying. And you may find that certain consonants in words uttered in your presence are out of your hearing range. It then becomes too much bother to take part in a conversation or too tiring to try and keep up. And people may become annoyed by your asking them to repeat certain words or things they have just said. Family members in particular may lose patience with you.

Another side effect of this is that because you don’t hear everything in a conversation then you end up missing out on what turns out to be important information. For example, an invitation to a social event or a date for a meeting. This may lead people to assume that you are forgetful or disorganised whereas the opposite is the case.

Another sign of hearing loss is a ringing in your ears or earache.

If you have experienced some or all of these symptoms then your first step is to visit your GP. Your hearing loss requires further investigation and the sooner this is attended to the better. Many forms of hearing loss are treatable but as with most things it is better to catch them at an early stage.