Hearing loss and thyroid medication: Is there a connection?

Thank you, Julie. I've been looking online at the Panasonic 4 handset cordless phone with amplified volume, 3 band equalizer, and other talking features that look interesting. It is telecoil compatible. Does this sound like something good for an older woman living alone with hearing loss? I also ck'd the links you sent re loops and telecoils, so I'll chat with the folks at Mayo at that appt re hearing aids.
Thanks for the hearing aid links. I've read the ones from Mayo with 3 or 4 different aids. I'll ck this out. Other recommendations?

Thanks again for your help. I'm tired and heading to bed. It's 9 here, getting late for me since I've had a recovery few days from a little procedure monday. be well, be blessed. elizabeth

Yes, and she's really helping me get started on this next part of my journey. I need to address this hearing loss and deal with it. Means I don't eat for a while, but I'll figure it out....I'm meeting with Mayo specialist to begin the hearing aid selection process, and am getting a new phone with additional audio help as well.
Thanks for the help....again.
I'm tired, off to bed. It's after 9 and this has been a tiring week w/the silly procedure Monday and breathing issues. Doing well now, just not back yet.
Blessings, my friend. elizabeth

Phones are labeled with an M/T rating. M is for microphone; T is for telecoil. The highest rating would be M4/T4. That means that a phone has both a strong microphone and a strong telecoil. Many people say the 3 rating works well enough. Best to try before you buy whether it's a landline phone or a cell phone. Often the sales people don't have a clue about what this all means. YOU have to be assertive. Don't feel guilty about that You have a right to try the technology before you buy it. It would be wise to get the hearing aids first, and try the phones during your hearing aid trial period. .

Great. I noticed several phones on display in the hearing aid area at Mayo Jax, so will ck them out too. I've been dealing with a bunch of heal issues most of my life, Julie and have learned to be assertive and proactive concerning my health. You are helping me know enough to do my work more easily.
thanks, bless you and be well. elizabeth

Yes, it is shocking. In the early 2000s HLAA circulated a brochure on this topic that had been developed by a medical organization that is no longer in existence. At some point this brochure was no longer available. It would be nice if this info was more readily available.

Some drs don’t know about connection. They know their field and decide what they believe is best for you. It is up to us to look out for issues; esp now w technology. Then bring it up to dr. They just can’t be everything to everyone. My oncologist said after the fact that I prob list some hearing after chemo. For me, even though I am hearing impaired, I wouldn’t have asked for different chemo. That’s just me though. Good luck.

No question about it, we have to make some choices when it comes to our long term health. Chemo is known to cause hearing loss in some people. It also is known to cure issues that are life threatening. One can learn to live well with hearing loss by taking a positive approach. It sounds as if you have done that.

There is no question that the medical field today is very highly specialized and focused in specific areas. If it's not within a professional's specialty they have to refer to another specialist. Often it seems that hearing loss is brushed aside as being of lesser importance. Even in primary care, if a patient doesn't mention concerns about hearing loss in an annual appointment, they are rarely asked about their hearing by the physician. Too often it's not mentioned by the patient because they are embarrassed by it. This stigma issue prevents millions of people from getting the help that would be beneficial to them.

I am attaching a copy of a newsletter. On page 2 there is an article about this issue, along with a survey sponsored by Johns Hopkins. I hope you and others will take time to fill it out. (NOTE: I was unable to copy the survey link, so used the attachment.)

Hi, I took the survey. They asked if they could contact me for more info. I gave them contact info. Glad to help. The absolute worst issue for hearing impaired is contact info and it’s only a phone number. Absolutely the rudest companies do this and there are many.
Internet issue is all the videos wo closed captioning! I am amazed daily that top people put out something and want everyone to share, yet no captions. I am sad that it will take gov regulation to mandate captions the way they did for tv. Wish people would just add them bc it’s the right thing to do.

Thank you for following through on the survey. I agree with you about captions. Are you familiar with the speech to text apps that are available? They work quite well. Many HH people use the app in sync with videos that are not captioned. It's not perfect, but it helps.

FYI: A major effort by a national board member of HLAA managed to circulate a petition for Zoom to include automatic speech recognition (ASR) to their platform. That petition got close to a million signatures and while Zoom resisted this for months, they have now added ASR. The only catch is that it must be activated in the 'host' settings by whomever is scheduling meetings. So, the people who need this, those of us with hearing loss, must ask them to activate it prior to the Zoom event. Once it is activated by a host it will remain activated unless they reset it to be inactive. Only those who need/want it have to see it. It's activated by the participant by one of those 'buttons' on the bottom left of the computer screen.

The only reason we have made progress on issues like this is because the people who want the change get involved. HLAA provides the opportunity to get involved. That actually even involved those TV captions that were mandated back in the early '90s.

So much to learn. Have you considered joining HLAA? http://www.hearingloss.org

Julie, addition to list of ototoxic meds...

It's important to know if the med the doc proposes to use on you is one of the "families" of meds on the list. Not all individual meds are listed. Whenever anything is being prescribed to combat infection, check the list and look up the drug on the 'net to see if it's one of the "families" of meds not listed individually.

The list doesn't contain a med commonly prescribed for dogs, gentamicin. (It IS an aminoglycoside antibiotic, just not individually listed.) It used to be widely used for humans, caused lots of deafness. Before I was aware of its side effects, we had a golden retriever who had frequent ear infections (common in dogs with ear "flaps" that hang down that also love swimming). By the time he was 10, he had obviously lost hearing, and I knew by then that gent is a bad drug for hearing and, worse, balance. He also had all the symptoms we Menierians have: near total loss of useful balance with nystagmus (eyeballs rolling around in unusual and alarming ways). I don't think that gent is used much these days for either humans or dogs due to its extreme ototoxicity, but some vets still use it. Much more recently, one tried to prescribe gent for my lab's ear infection; fortunately, I knew that was a bad idea and was able to convince her to prescribe another antibiotic.

Lots of people lost hearing during the early days of antibiotics, which were a near miracle at the time, saved many lives. I did a book project where the author/photographer was nearly deaf due to an antibiotic used in the very early days to save her life. We used to sit around a table with the committee from the non-profit paying to have the book published, both of us hearing impaired, feeding each other hints from time to time. By that time, she had been nearly deaf for decades, so was far better at speech reading than I was, but I sometimes heard things she couldn't--quite a pair! The book's title was "Celilo Falls: Remembering Thunder"--hilarious because neither of us had ever actually HEARD the falls, just felt the thunder with our feet!