Hearing aids in but still not understanding words

@cmodling Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I have experienced many of the same issues regarding places where some people speak softly, or there is background noise, and what especially bugs me is trying to have one on one, or group conversations with my own adult children and their significant others in our own home. I try to explain that they need to speak up, or speak slower and more distinctly, that works for a while then I am back to nodding. It is funny when I am on a cruise with adults closer in age to me, I rarely have that problem!

Appreciate the insight. Do you think they will ever be able to restore hearing and regrow hair cells?
I keep on reading about studies that seem headed in that direction.
All comments are welcome.

Does anyone have experience with Costco and the hearing aids they offer along with their services?

Study your hearing test results to determine what range of frequencies are diminished. Make sure your aids are adjusted to boost audio in those ranges until you can notice signficant improvement in understanding those words you've been having trouble with.

Maybe your auditory discrimination is bad, with or without hearing aids. Mine was and I eventually got a cochlear implant which has been fantastic. If you haven't had an auditory discrimination test (although I'm sure if you're in a trial you must have done) ask for one.

I never would have imagined that hearing issues would change my whole life!
After a plane flight, my ears became clogged and stuffy and have never opened. I have seen many ENT doctors and they all have differing opinions. Everything from age related hearing loss, to TMJ, to nerve damage possibly from Covid. Also Eustachian tube dysfunction for which I had balloon inflation. Nothing helps, and my ears get more closed up all the time.
I wear hearing aids, but they don’t help me much. Over time I have developed tinnitus and hyperacusis!
I cannot live my life as I did before. I’m now close to three years with this condition.

Did any of those ENT specialists suggest that you be evaluated for cochlear implants?

No. I have had multiple CT scans and my ears appear perfectly normal. I also still have a lot of hearing. It is just distorted.
When I mentioned cochlear implants, I’ve been told, not for me.
But, I’m not convinced that something won’t help me.

This sounds so frustrating...have been told I have 70%loss in my rt ear and 30% loss in lft ear but I still didnt get hearing aids as the price was so high! It seems to me that a lot of not understanding is because of word distortion. Is there anyway to test that the problem could be due to distortion and not so much hearing loss......and get an aid that fixes distortion? That is my big question???yelling seems to increase the distortion. I also find that if I eliminate background noise totally I can hear normally with no great problem. My late husband got hearing aids and they were pretty useless and we wasted alot of money (even with gov'm't help). I wish you good luck and look forward to hearing how you solved your problem. Bon courage.

I’m not an expert but I think the hearing loss causes the distortion of words. Hearing aids are trial and error. You should get a trial period with your aids to see if they work for you. I know once I had tried phonax because the audiologist recommended them for my type of loss but I couldn’t hear very well. I returned them and went back to oticons which I had prior to the phonax and they worked better for me. So definitely make sure you get a trial period when you go for them. That way you are not paying for aids that don’t work for you.