Hi lovelies,

Losing your hearing can sometimes happen suddenly, but in the majority of cases, it happens slowly, and you might not immediately notice the problem until it gets worse. There may be some symptoms that alert you to an issue, such as an earache, noise in the ears like tinnitus, or vertigo. You should visit your GP if you notice a problem with your hearing, as you would for any other health problem.

Signs Of Hearing Loss
It can be harder than you might think to tell when you start losing your hearing. In fact, other people often notice something is wrong before you notice it yourself. 

There are some signs that can tell you that you are starting to lose your hearing. If you have difficulty hearing other people clearly or misunderstanding what they say, especially if this is worse in noisy places, this might mean your hearing is going. Book a hearing test if you need to ask people to repeat themselves as you can’t hear them, need to listen to music or watch TV at a higher volume than other people need to, have difficulty hearing clearly on the phone, find it tough to keep up with a conversation or find concentrating on listening tiring or stressful. 

These problems can be caused by the kind of hearing loss that comes on as you get older. Age-related hearing loss is permanent, but there are options to help, such as a hearing aid. 

Hearing Loss In One Ear
It can be a challenge to tell if you are losing hearing in just one ear, as you will still be able to hear with the other ear. You may have lost hearing in one ear if, your hearing is worse when sound comes from only one side, or all sounds seem quieter than normal. You might find it hard to tell where a sound is coming from or have difficulty ignoring background noise or telling different sounds apart. You may find speech unclear or have a hard time hearing in noisy places.

Hearing loss in just one ear is often caused by something stopping sound from moving through the ear, like an ear infection or a buildup of earwax. Learn more about how this can be checked. 

Hearing Loss In Children
If you have children, you should pay attention to their hearing health as closely as your own. If they’re slow to learn to talk or aren’t clear when speaking, don’t reply when you call them, talk loudly, ask you to repeat yourself or respond inappropriately to questions, or need the volume on the TV up high, then they might have hearing loss. 

If you think your child has hearing trouble, you should contact your GP to identify the cause as soon as you can. One of the most common reasons that children find it hard to hear is glue ear, which is a build-up of fluid in the ear. This is very treatable, so there is no need to panic.