My hearing status sounds just like yours except it was a slow onset, steadily getting worse and not following a flight. I was told by several ENT doctors that I needed a stapedectomy but I feared I’d be the one in 100 who suffered total hearing loss as a result so put it off. Then I moved and in 2008 decided to get it done. The new doctor was rated by the local big city magazine as “Best in town”. He told me that I did not need a stapedectomy but needed another procedure called an ossicular chain realignment which involved the malleus and incus. He told me there was no chance of deafness as a result and if my hearing was not perfect afterward, he could go back in to fine tune things. Well, I ended up with 4 surgeries and no benefit to either ear at all. What I did get was tinnitus that sounds like crickets or just a low constant noise. I have been told, years later, by two ENT docs that this was inappropriate for my condition and highly experimental surgery.