Do I need hearing aids? Does this audiogram show a need that justifies a $2,000 expense (after “coupon”)?
It all depends on if you are struggling to hear people. No one can tell you if you need HAs, only you can make the choice.
It’s not quite that simple. If you have problems understanding people (even if they "mumble) or people complain about your hearing, there’s a good chance hearing aids could help.
Only one person complains about my hearing, and that’s my spouse, who, in my opinion, speaks at low volumes and sometimes indistinctly. But if an audiogram doesn’t convey or exclude the need for a hearing device, what’s the purpose of the audiogram?
Your reaction to your spouse is a classic indicator of needing hearing aids. An audiogram is a useful test, but it by itself cannot tell if you “need” a hearing aid or would benefit from one. Your audiiogram certainly suggests that a hearing aid would be beneficial. With your right ear, you won’t be hearing the k, f, s and th sounds. With the left, you’ll be hearing a lot less. The longer one waits, the less useful hearing aids will be and the harder it will be to get used to them. If money is an issue or you don’t care for the hearing aid professional you saw, consider Costco. Their hearing aids start at $1500 a pair.
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Thanks. I’ve decided to move forward with the purchase of a pair of hearing aids regardless. The money is a problem but only in the sense that I hate to turn loose of it when it isn’t clear that the aids will yield a comparable benefit. It’s a cost/benefit analysis kind of thing. It’s good to know that the longer you do without them the less helpful they will be. My father developed profound hearing loss and became detached from people, especially when phone conversations became so difficult for him. Eventually he got some aids but never liked to wear them and didn’t wear them unless he was in a situation where it was truly important that he be able to hear.
Initially I had decided not to get the aids. Then a couple of days ago I did some Googling and turned up info on the correlations among tinnitus, hearing loss, cognitive decline, memory loss, and dementia. Scared the frugality right out of me. I have already experienced some memory loss and decline in my mental faculties, though I attributed it to age and idleness in retirement rather than to hearing. And those declines may in fact be due to age rather than to hearing. But on the chance that I’ll become positively stupid if I can’t hear sufficiently well, I decided to get a pair of aids. Now it’s a matter of figuring out whether to buy the aids discounted by my insurer’s “coupon” (if such a discount truly exists), what the features of hearing aids are, which features I need, and whether I’m getting the most bang for my bucks. (Yes, the cost/benefit questions still looms large.) This little study has been rather intense because there is so much to learn and I’m trying to learn it over a very short period of time. I go in for my fitting two days from now.
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Good for you.
As mentioned, Costco is hard to beat for many of the reasons you have mentioned.
Good luck.
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You should get a trial period with the aids, you can return them if they are not satisfactory. Be sure to clarify the details. You may still be charged a fitting fee for example. Be sure to clarify the time period for the trial.
Jim
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Thanks. There’s a 45-day return period. I am skeptical, but we shall see. Maybe I’ll realize there are sounds I haven’t heard in years. Maybe I’ll realize there aren’t… This stuff is far more subjective than I ever imagined it would be and audiograms far less meaningful.
You should expect to hear many sounds you can not hear now. All these new sounds can be overwhelming at first. Be patient and give yourself time to learn all these new sounds before quitting hearing aids.
This statement is pretty much wrong. The audiogram is factual. How you deal with it can be subjective though.
Good luck.
A simple answer to a simple question. Yes
I understand that the audiogram is objective, but overwhelmingly the feedback has been that the audiogram cannot indicate whether I need hearing aids. So . . . ??? But I do now see one clear, definitive, unambiguous “yes” in answer to my initial question.
I had already decided to be fitted for aids tomorrow (or whatever it is I’ll be doing there) 1) because there’s a 45-day return option if they don’t work for me; 2) I didn’t like what I saw in research papers that associated cognitive decline and memory loss with hearing loss and tinnitus (which I don’t remember not having); 3) i just want to see whether I really would hear better.
The HAs I’m considering have bluetooth. With a bluetooth television, theoretically I can send sound directly to the aids. Reservation: the aids I listened to at the audiologist’s shop sounded tinny as hell, so I’m skeptical that they can deliver good audio for movies and music and I speculate that I might be better served by a bluetooth headset for those activities.
Anyway, at this juncture this is all pointlessly theoretical. I shall find out for myself in several days’ time.
Ah. Simplicity, clarity. Just what I’ve been looking for. 
I just wrote this on the same topic, check it:
Also, I’d recommend https://blog.valuehearing.com.au/news/do-i-really-need-expensive-hearing-aid
and the rest of their blog to understand how things work.
Also, dr cliff on youtube, and checklist on his site about best practices
But only way to see if you need aid, or better said, if the aid you can get can help you, is to try it and compare in various situations. Especially in those you were told that you have a problem, but also open your ears for new things, if you hear some sounds that you haven’t heard before/for a long time, that will be really palpable proof of difference.
If it’s useful for you, you again will have to decide.
People with high frequency hearing loss use aids to get the clarity and headphones over them to get the proper bass.
Simplicity? I’ll join the chorus…yes.
Tinny? That is an exact observation of needing aids. Your brain has been missing all of those normal higher frequency sounds and so everything currently sounds quiet and muffled…but you’re used to it. With aids, you need to get used to hearing all of the proper sounds as they exist. Flushing the toilet, scrunching paper, dishes clattering, birds chirping, crickets cricketing, the wind, then of course all the sounds of speech. It takes a little while to retrain the brain. Some practitioners will start you kind of low for “volume” to let you adjust to all the new sounds. Then over time they’ll get you up to prescription.
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This may not be correct. There are different types of Bluetooth. They do not communicate with each other. But, most hearing aid brands have a tv connector that can convert the tv sound into the correct Bluetooth for their aids. This is really nice by the way.
And as mentioned, tinny sound is an example of someone who needs aids that hasn’t worn them. These are new sounds you haven’t heard in a long time.
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Where’s that WOW icon? Oh, wait. Here it is: 
Thanks, Blacky. I’ve been learning a ton from you guys over the past couple of days. As a result, I feel much better equipped to deal with tomorrow’s appointment and the possible consternation of adjusting to HAs. But even after all that, I still just don’t believe that my hearing is all that bad. I guess we’ll see.
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Disappointed in that Bluetooth news. I just assumed that Bluetooth is Bluetooth is Bluetooth and that if my TV delivered it my HAs would receive it. Sounds like there may be additional cost involved. Purely accidental and the part of the HA manufacturer, I’m sure.
If you look at my chart (click on my Z avatar icon) you’ll see that I don’t drop down as low as you. I think I can hear alright as well. But I just need that boost. But then even with them, I still don’t hear everything. So I just withdraw. I’m not going to constantly ask people to speak up or say that again or whatever. So I stare out the window…if I’m with others. Sometimes I’ll turn up the volume but mostly I can’t be bothered. Some people are soft-spoken. Some people trail off at the end of sentences. I call it missing the noun. I could hear the sentence except the subject of the sentence.
Bluetooth is a more recent thing around here. For a few years now, Apple led the way. But they’re proprietary. Phonak went the open standards route. Others are competing with that now. It IS bluetooth. You can connect to bluetooth transmitters. It’s just “better” with their bluetooth doodads.
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I guess I do say “huh” a lot, especially with my spouse, who tends to speak softly and sometimes trails off almost to the point of being totally inaudible. You’d think after 35 years of being together my spouse would know to speak up rather than complain that I can’t hear, so sometimes I say “huh” repeatedly just to annoy. 
(Oops. Did I just say that?)