Voice Distortion

All voices are distorted, including my own. Some worse than others e.g deeper male voices and higher pitched female voices. Distortion is exacerbated if there is background noise and also in echoey environments. In fact even in low levels of background noise, including other voices nearby, I find I can barely understand anything. I have worn hearing aids for 10 years but the distortion is more recent, probably 4-5 years or a little longer. It was not very noticeable at first but worsened over time. Volume is not an issue meaning, with my hearing aids, I can hear reasonably well but I struggle to understand because of the voice distortion.And it's not just voices - music is so distorted that everything sounds out of tune and often just a cacophony of noise. It is hard to describe the distortion, it's a fuzziness or like a radio slightly out of tune so that there is a static interference. I have seen various audiologists and ENT specialists and had an MRI which showed no nerve damage. Mostly, when I explain the symptoms t them they just look blank. My audiogram is classic for age related hearing loss albeit quite severe. As one audiologist said "your audiogram is normal for ARHL but you present quite differently". The only explanation I've had is damage to the hair cells. It seems to be the same level of distortion in both ears. It does make life difficult as social settings are awkward - I can't really participate, I can't keep up with group conversations as I am trying to interpolate what's being said and the conversation has moved on! The result is that I now tend to avoid social gatherings resulting in becoming somewhat isolated. Even one-on-one conversations can be difficult in the wrong environment and depending on the person's voice. Anyone else out there had this problem?

I am new to hearing aids for only 4yrs. I have had widex, Oticon, phonak.starkey now trying Signia charge &Go. I have mild to moderate loss. It is funny that without aids I hear others speak but my own voice sound muffled to me. With aids on my voice sounds better but others sound nasally and tinny. Been to many ENT drs. Had ballooning done but no help. My audiologist is baffled. Help

@iann I have tried to be optimistic about my hearing loss which is between severe and profound. My audiologist has told me that CI’s would not noticeably improve my hearing over the hearing aids I am currently using.
Like yourself I find that it is increasingly difficult to interact in noisy restaurants and even in family gatherings.
All my life I have enjoyed interacting with people and asking questions. My career was in commission sales and developing close relationships with my clients was extremely fulfilling.
I am retired now and find myself increasingly isolated. I was always hopeful that technology and AI would advance to the point where real progress would be made for those of us with severe to profound hearing loss.
I have been following the progress being made to restore hair cells in the human ear but feel that solution might not be possible in my lifetime.
I would love to hear from people in my situation. Maybe you can tell me how you are coping with what I am going through. Have you found a hearing aid that makes you feel comfortable in crowded places.
I look forward to hearing from people on this site. Maybe they know something I don’t about better ways to cope with hearing loss.

@daveshaw Please see my reply to Iann.

@martypl refresh my memory on your reply
I think we ought to be sharing how our hearings aids are working along with our degree of hearing loss.
Severe to profound is far different than mild to moderate.
Love to hear from people. There are a lot of new hearing aids out there and they all say they are the best. It is very confusing.

@daveshaw I went out to dinner with some good friends and the moment I walked in I knew it was going to be a rough night as far as my ability to hear.
The restaurant wasn’t that crowded because it was a Monday night but it had tall ceilings and absolutely no acoustics. I immediately switched to my “ noisy environment “ on my phone and it did absolutely nothing to increase my clarity.
I encourage people with severe to profound hearing loss to share how they deal with these situations.
I have Signia 7 IX platform hearing aids which is their most advanced platform.
They do not work for me in noisy environments.
Have some of you found hearing aids that do help with clarity in background noise that have severe to profound hearing loss?
Please no “Hugs” or “Likes” but rather how your hearing aids work in this environment.
As you are all aware all the major hearing aid companies say they have the best technology. It is extremely confusing. I would rather hear from people like me to find out if there is some new technology that works better.
I look forward to hearing from you.

@daveshaw I also have the Signia 7IX Charge and Go. The noisy environment did not help me either. Instead I just use the Direction then reduce the volume. This helps to hear the speech from our table better. It also lowers my voice as well because I have Own Voice Processing on the aids. Do you use the OVP also?

@delweb98 It is nice to know I am not the only one with this problem with Signia IX 7 hearing aids. I wish more people would respond.
I have heard that Phonak, Starkey and Oticon to some extent have gone to the next level with background noise.
I am not sure whether I have OVP on my hearing aids because they come through TruHearing. I can look in to that.
Hopefully someone reading this post has had experience with the latest Phonak, Starkey or Oticon hearing aids and can let us know how they work for them.
I will try what you suggest.
I am actually going out to dinner tonight so hopefully it helps.
These are the kind of conversation we should be having on this site especially for those with severe or profound hearing loss.
Thanks for your response. Hopefully I will get others.

@daveshaw hi Dave I already had Phonak, Oticon& Starkey and had no luck with any of them for noise reduction because they were constantly changing each time my environment or room size changed. Was hard to deal with.. I too get my aids from True Hearing. Only your audiologist can tell you if you have OVP. Please let me know.