Hearing Loss: The Signs Your Family Notices Before You Do

Almost nobody wakes up and decides their hearing has gone. Age-related hearing loss arrives so gradually that the person living with it adapts without realising.

So the family notices first. Usually years first.

Why you are the last to notice hearing loss

Hearing usually fades from the high frequencies down. Those frequencies carry the consonants — s, f, th, sh, k — and those sounds separate one word from another.

So speech does not become quieter. Instead, it becomes unclear. You hear that someone is talking, but the words blur. As a result, it feels less like deafness and more like everyone has started mumbling.

Because it happens over years, each small adjustment feels reasonable. You turn the television up two notches. You pick the quiet side of the restaurant. You stop taking calls in noisy places. However, none of it feels like a decision about hearing.

What families actually notice

If someone at home has said any of these, take it seriously:

• “Why is the TV so loud?” — often the first and clearest sign
• “I already told you that.” — conversations being missed rather than forgotten
• “You keep saying what?” — asking for repetition several times a day
• They struggle in restaurants or at gatherings but seem fine one-to-one at home
• They have stopped using the phone as much, or hand it over to someone else
• They answer slightly off-topic, having filled in a word incorrectly
• They have gone quieter in group settings — often mistaken for mood or tiredness

That last one is the most easily misread. When following a group conversation becomes exhausting, many people simply withdraw. As a result, families frequently read it as ageing, or depression, when it is really hearing loss.

Why hearing loss is worth acting on

Beyond the daily frustration, untreated hearing loss carries consequences worth knowing about.

People withdraw from social situations they used to enjoy, which affects mood and deepens isolation. Meanwhile, a growing body of research links untreated hearing loss in adults to faster cognitive decline. The working theory: the brain strains constantly to fill gaps, so it has less capacity for everything else.

Neither point is a reason to panic. However, both are reasons not to wait five years.

The common causes of hearing loss

Age-related change. This happens gradually, affects both ears fairly equally, and becomes most common after 60.

Noise exposure. Machinery, loud music or firearms cause this, often years earlier. It is permanent, yet it was entirely preventable at the time.

Ear wax. This is genuinely common and completely reversible, so rule it out before assuming anything else. Please do not attempt to remove it with cotton buds or oil, because that usually pushes it deeper.

Fluid or infection. Children get this more often, but adults get it too.

Medication. Some drugs affect hearing, so mention everything you take at the assessment.

Sudden hearing loss in one ear. This one is different, because it is a medical emergency. Treatment within days offers a far better chance of recovery than treatment weeks later. Do not wait to see if it settles.

What a hearing test involves

A hearing assessment is quick, painless and non-invasive.

We examine the ear first, which often identifies wax straight away. Then you sit in a quiet room wearing headphones and press a button when you hear a tone. The tones vary in pitch and volume, so they map exactly which frequencies you have lost and by how much.

We may add speech testing, where you repeat words at different volumes. Day to day, understanding speech matters more than detecting a tone.

The whole thing takes around thirty minutes, and you get the result the same day.

Not everyone needs a hearing aid

This assumption stops most people booking a test, so it is worth stating plainly. A significant number of people who come in for a hearing test simply have wax, and they walk out hearing normally after we remove it.

Others have mild hearing loss that needs monitoring rather than a device. Where a hearing aid does help, modern ones are small, discreet and nothing like the equipment people picture.

However, you cannot know which group you are in without the test.

The takeaway

If someone in your family has mentioned the television, that is your signal.

A hearing test takes half an hour and costs little. In fact, the answer is often far simpler than anyone expected. So book the test rather than waiting another five years for the problem to announce itself.

Mount Lotus Eye & ENT Hospital — hearing tests available at Mount Lavinia & Kurunegala. Open daily 7am–8pm.
📞 Mount Lavinia: 0112 333 444 | Kurunegala: 0372 333 444