How do you get hearing rate percentage?

[Nancy Drew]

I hear a lot of you saying you have (for example) 50% hearing loss in your ear or you lost 20% of hearing in a year , etc.  I am just wondering how you get the % rate.  Do you have to have hearing loss in a lot of the frequencies before they can put a % to it?  In my case I only have hearing loss in one frequency.  In all of the other frequencies I have normal hearing--no decline in any of those frequencies since diagnosis.   

Nancy

[Tamara]

Your audiologist or ENT should be able to give you that - they might say "you have a 40% loss in the high frequencies" or something like that.  For me, it was "you scored a 12% on word recognition".  That's all...

Tammy

[Nancy Drew]

Thanks Tammy,

I wish the audiologist or doctor would have explained the hearing test more than saying if it is below 20 then it means hearing loss.  I didn't get anything about word recognition, but it seems to me that the doctor said I missed a couple of word.  Just goes to show that you have to speak up otherwise they might think you already know what they are talking about.  I'll be going to the doctor soon so I will bring up this question. 

Nancy

[JulieW4]

Back in 1995 when I first started having hearing loss my otologist told me I had 30% hearing loss.  Then a few years later it was 90% or pretty much SSD.  I wish now that when I went from 30% to 90% that I would of had another MRI done because I am sure my AN probably would of shown up then. 

Nancy, if something is unclear, please keep asking questions until you understand what hearing loss you have experienced.  Sometimes docs are busy and forget to spend the time explaining things to us.

Julie

[Nancy Drew]

Even though I have been told I have good hearing except in one high frequency, I find listening to others frustating in some situations.  The hearing in my AN ear has always been better than my nonAN ear in that one frequency.  Now both ears are the same in that frequency now that the AN has started growing.  My nonAN hearing loss on that one frequency has been in the 30 to 35 range from hearing tests that date back to 1996.  Both ears are at 35 now.  Up until now the AN has been a 20.  All other frenquencies are normal in both ears.  My AN doctor said hearing loss comes with aging.  I am 49, and I don't have any friends my age who have the hearing problems I have.  A lot of the time I have to really concentrate on what people are saying, and sometimes I just end up guessing what is being said (and, I am often wrong).  I have to turn the TV and radio on louder than "normal" hearing people.  Background noise is very difficult to deal with, and I can forget understanding people with soft voices. I also wonder why the words in that word recognition test are always the same.  I just feel like my hearing is worse than what the audiologist and doctor say. Talking to people in a quiet place that is in a relatively small area, like my doctor's office, presents no problems with hearing.  My husband has always said I don't hear very well, and he said lately it has gotten worse.  Can hearing loss in only one frequency cause that much trouble with hearing.  Confusing.

Nancy

[sgerrard]

I am 49, and I don't have any friends my age who have the hearing problems I have.

You do on the forum.

Can hearing loss in only one frequency cause that much trouble with hearing.

Depends on the frequency. Apparently your AN has picked out the ideal target.    I believe that sounds between 500 and 2000 Hz are considered the most important for speech recognition. Weakness there can lead to not distinguishing "b" from "p", "d" from "t", and other pairs of sounds that prove to be crucial in actually making out words. About half way through my last word recognition test, I blurted out "aflac", since the word I heard sounded like something, but I couldn't say what. The audiologist cracked up, but never told me what the word really was.

I think the official way to report your hearing level is an average of your response at 500, 1000, and 2000. I think it is called the pure tone average. Mine is a 52 on the left side, meaning 52 db below "normal." Then they also give a word recognition score, out of 100 possible, such as 76% or 85%.

Steve

[Nancy Drew]

Hi Steve,

You have officially given me the best laugh I have had in a long time.  The "aflac" just took me over the edge to hysterical laughing.  My husband came down the stairs to see if I had gone crazy.  He got a good laugh, too.

My hearing is affected only in 8000, and it is 35 in both ears.  My nonAN ear has lingered at 35 since AN was diagnosed in 12/05.  In the AN ear it was in the 20-25 range until the last hearing test when it went to 35.    I see something on my chart that reads:

Right Ear (nonAN ear):  SRT  0  dB   SDS (SRT + 35) = 92%

Left Ear (AN ear)         SRT   0  dB   SDS (SRT + 35) = 92%

My doctor told me that my AN ear has caught up with my nonAN ear which has always had worse hearing.  This is all Greek to me.  Perhaps my AN ear is just getting worse as I get older and not a result of having an AN.   Do you think the % I listed above is saying that I have 92% of my hearing?  If so, then I have pretty good hearing wouldn't you say?

Thanks again for the laugh Steve.

Julie, I am so sorry your AN didn't get detected earlier.  Seems like a lot of people on this forum should have had MRIs sooner.  I wonder if because these ANs are relatively rare, then maybe docs don't go looking for them.  Hopefully our medical schools are warning new docs to do more research when there is single side hearing loss.  You have been through a lot.  Thinking of you and hope all goes well for you as you travel on this unpredictable journey.

Nancy

[sgerrard]

92% is good. 35 db loss is not that much; many people are 10 to 20 and are considered "normalish." The only at 8000 part is a little confusing to me. That is very high frequency stuff, which usually wouldn't affect hearing speech, except maybe S's. But I don't know all the ins and outs of hearing tests, either.

Steve

[Nancy Drew]

Hi Steve,

Hopefully I will get the hearing test explained in detail when I go for another opinion Aug. 6th.  This doctor is supposed to spend an hour with me.  I've only had 15 minutes with my AN doctor.  And when I saw him this last time, I was sort of in shock when he said he wanted to go ahead with GK.  I really wasn't expecting that recommendation.  I still have a lot of questions to get answered yet before I do anything.  I am still laughing this morning as I re-read you aflac answer!  Thanks so much again for the laugh.  BTW, I will be seeing the same doc who did CaryF's GK.  Cary is 3 months out, and he has had total success. He really likes and trusts his AN doc so I am hoping to get a good third opinion that I will be happy with.

Thanks,

Nancy

[sgerrard]

Hi Nancy,

I think I saw one of those posts by CaryF. It did sound like it was a good place to go, and that he had a very good experience with them. I hope your upcoming appointment goes well.

Steve

[AMD]

Hi Nancy,

I am new to this, so my reply mostly will not be extremely useful, but back in 2001, my ENT told me I had about 30% sensori-neural hearing loss on the left.  Nothing at the time was said about the understanding the words.  A MRI was not pressed at that time.  Other than hearing loss, I didn't have much symptoms.  So, I got myself a hearing aid to help with being at work, and to be able to hear a phone conversation on that side. Things got worse over the years, and my last visit on 7/30/08 showed a 70% loss in that ear, all high-frequency if I am not mistaken.  I can only correctly hear about 40% of spoken word in that ear as well.  And whispering, well that is totally out of the question.  Hope you find the information you need.