I (24 years old) had my hearing tested after a lifetime of struggling to understand people, especially anyone with a deeper voice. Phone calls are tough and i’m constantly guessing what they said. one on one conversations aren’t too bad, i catch about 70-80% (much less with men, but I make do and ask for clarification or just smile and nod and hope it’s not important) but when there’s background noise i have no clue what people are saying. if i know the topic i can guess some of what’s said, but otherwise i’m picking up 3 or 4 words a sentence at best.
my audiogram says my high frequency hearing is fine, but goes down to a 20dB loss in the mid-lower frequencies. From what i can understand, the amount i struggle to hear doesn’t make sense for how much hearing loss i have? the audiologist said “it’s normal to struggle like you do, learn to lip read and get another test next year”.
I understand that the actual hearing loss isn’t bad, but “can’t take phone calls without subtitles” doesn’t seem normal to me. my partner is very frustrated with how poorly i understand them, my hearing stops me from going out or making friends, and no matter how much i ask people to speak clearly or move somewhere quieter, sometimes it’s unavoidable. I can’t control the impossible to hear microphones they use in government hotlines, but I still need to call them.
is there anything more I can do to understand people? i’ve been trying to learn to lipread, but that obviously doesn’t work when I can’t see their face. i don’t qualify for subsidized hearing aids where i live, but would they even help me? i’ll try just about anything if it means i can be more independent.
Thanks for your help.