Hi. I'm 70 years old and hard of hearing in both ears, with a more severe loss than most people my age. My loss became noticeable at about age 50. I've had hearing aids since then, and don't think I could get along without them. I'm looking forward to having an online support group!

I've never been very aggressive about making sure my hearing aides were correctly fitted - I always assumed the audiologists knew what they were doing and the aids seemed to work well enough. But lately - maybe because the aids are more complex, or because my hearing is worse - the aids seem to need a lot of individualized adjustment. I have difficulty figuring out what's wrong and communicating it to the audiologist. I've been making frequent appointments to try to get them just right, but I'm worried that I'm wearing out my welcome. It's very frustrating - sometimes the adjustments are improvements, sometimes they make things worse.

I'm wondering if anyone has tips about communicating what their hearing problems are. I try to figure out whether it's with male or female voices, and to come up with a few words I've had a lot of trouble hearing. Is there a way to make finer distinctions? Is there some kind of hearing test I could do over the internet? Should the audiologists be testing me after each adjustment? I'd really appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

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