I had a physical over the winter break, and since I was just about to turn 59, and had just had an ear infection, so we were talking about my ears, my doctor suggested a baseline hearing test. There are some people with some significant age related hearing loss in my family, although my mother and maternal grandmother had notably good hearing, with my grandmother living to 98 and never needing a hearing aid.
My last audiogram was at age 26, induction into the army, and I didn’t see that one. Before that, it was when I was 20, and at that point, my hearing was really good-- 0 in my right ear, and -5 in my right. That would have been normal for a 10-yr-old. A 20-yr-old should have been more like 5/5. The highest the chart goes in -10, and the lowest it goes is 90, although people known to be Deaf can get them going to 120.
So, yesterday, I was about 10 across the audiogram, in both ears. Dropped to 15 a few places in the right, and was up to 5 a few places in the left, but on average, a 10 - 15dB loss since I was 20. That’s how much most people have lost by age 40 or so.
At age 40, FWIW, I could still just faintly hear that teenage buzz noise. (I can’t anymore.)
I also missed only one word on the word discrimination list, and when the tester came back and said I missed only one, I said “Was it ‘pole’?” he said “Yes.” I couldn’t tell if it was “pole,” or “pull,” and guessed. He said it was commonly missed-- but he said I did get the most commonly missed word: “mess.”
He said my hearing is like someone between 35 & 40. I can live with that.
Wish my vision were that good. I wear trifocals, and need new ones.
)