I have a very small tumor (3.5 mm) with mild hearing loss that was dx about a year ago. I, like many of you, have been debating take it out or leave it alone. It's not necessarily the case that the odds are the same either way because there are many other individual factors involved. Both waiting and choosing intervention are decisions with consequences, unfortunately.
If you can get to one of a handful of surgeons who do middle fossa surgeries routinely, the success rate for tiny tumors, when going in with class A hearing, is 70-80%. The likelihood of losing functional hearing 10 years out is somewhere around 65% (looking at population studies from Denmark where they don't do surgery unless the tumor is really causing problems). So it depends on the specifics of your situation, how long you expect to live, and how comfortable you are with immediate versus long term risk.
I find it difficult to be responsible to make this decision, but I also know that it's important to be grateful to have choices as I'm sure all of you know people with malignant tumors for whom there are truly no good options. Our options aren't great but they could be a lot worse.
