@julieo4 Thanks Julie. Yes, everyone with hearing loss needs to be an advocate and, I like how you said it, "let the stigmas related to vanity go..." If we don't advocate for ourselves no one else is going to and ADA regs require many places to have an assistive listening system or if not in that "required" category, they are expected to provide accommodation when requested. Again, the http://www.CenterForHearingAccess.org has great information on this to help understand it and help you become a more confident advocate! And regularly hearing people complain about not being able to hear in noisy settings, I'm not sure any hearing aid will provide a solution to that. Maybe as AI technology advances enough. I read there are some that shut off the microphones on the back of the hearing aid to more focus the front microphones, but it still seems like people aren't satisified. Some of that, IMO, is someone having to much expectation on what hearing aids will do for them. They won't bring your hearing back to "normal." Hearing loss, correct me if I'm wrong, is often physical damage to some parts of the interior of your ear, the tiny hairs are damaged so nerve signals don't make their way to the brain. That isn't fixable. But one should not foregot a hearing test or getting hearing aids as they will still most likley be of some benefit. Everyone's hearing loss is different so some benefit more and some not as much. I have moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears and someone needs to be four feet from me in a less noisy environment for me to hear and understand them. Others don't have this same limitation. Bottom line, do research, then get tested, ask questions of the AuD, have a checklist of questions with you to ask, test them out, go back for tweaking of them if needed. I would love to hear better but realize there likely isn't a HA that will meet all of my expectations.