As I drift into my mid-forties, the aches and pains are starting to become more regular. Things aren’t working as well as they used to, and I’m dealing with days of fatigue and lack of sleep that a simple “few drinks” can bring.
As such, I’ve become really aware of how my senses are performing – once they’ve deteriorated, it’s not easy to restore performance – and I’ve noticed something lately: I can’t hear my daughters as well as I used to when we are on the street.
It’s not huge, but it landed in the “I should probably do something about this…” category before I didn’t do anything about it because I still have a lot of laundry to do and, well, Netflix isn’t going to slow itself down. keep an eye on it.
So when I heard that Apple was going to upgrade its AirPods Pro 2 to help people with hearing loss, I was intrigued. How would that work? Could they actually be a real competitor to professional hearing aids?
Well, it turns out I only had to wonder part of that, as UK health officials have not approved them for use as clinical hearing aids, unlike in the US.
But with the launch of iOS 18.2 we have Doing now have access to the hearing test, which creates a detailed audiogram to map out where any hearing loss may be present…
Even though I’ll probably get bad news, I decide I can no longer hide from the truth. I put the headphones in my ear holes and take a deep breath.
The truth unfolds
The test starts by checking the fit of the earplug and assessing whether your location is quiet enough. I passed both tests with flying colors – and I can’t pretend I didn’t feel an ounce of joy about this achievement, despite it just demonstrating my ability to properly place headphones in my ears and in a chair can sit. non-loud room.
Actually, I didn’t even do that well in the second part. Although my iPhone thought I was in a sufficiently quiet environment, the test (a series of increasingly quiet beeps) was somewhat ruined by the distant hum of cars passing by. , so I had to move to an even less noisy part of the house.
But once I was in the right setting, the test felt good and thorough. It’s a simple case of tapping the screen when you hear a beep, over a range of frequencies and volumes, to determine where my hearing is strongest.
I would hear a lot of ‘phantom beeps’, where sometimes the sound would be so quiet that even thinking about the beep would replay it in my head (rather than actually hearing it), and sometimes I would find myself guessing when the sound might have been. and convince myself that I had heard something.
I tried to be a good boy who followed the rules and only tapped when I felt I had heard something, but it got really hard as the beeps got quieter.
Frustration started to set in; I was pretty sure there were sounds being played, but I couldn’t hear them. My fears of hearing loss were about to be confirmed, and I wondered how rapid the decline might be.
A surprising result
The results are in. I look down and can’t believe what I’m seeing: I had little to no hearing loss, despite the silence during the test ensuring I only heard half the beeps.
I could still hear within normal range! Maybe my body isn’t starting to fail me as much as I worried!
However, audiologist Ashish Shah somewhat undermined this joy when she told me that this result is as expected:
“For a person aged 41, we would generally expect no hearing loss and therefore expect results to be within the normal range of 0-20 dBHLm’; she said.
“However, hearing loss does not discriminate, so there can be early hearing loss, as well as conditions and external factors such as noise that can affect a person’s hearing.”
I was also left with some questions because the results graph, called an audiogram, was a little difficult to understand.
Despite being told I have little to no hearing loss, there were still some dips in the graph that, according to the statement of results, put me in the “mild” hearing loss camp at some points.
Is that normal, that everyone’s ears have fluctuations in audio frequencies, or is that something to be aware of?
Bad news: it’s the latter. My graph dips slightly at the 4Hz and 6Hz frequencies, and Shah says this is something I need to think about:
“Such a dip at 4 kHz would indicate some degree of noise-induced hearing loss; this may be consistent with noise exposure during recreational activities or work, such as overexposure to loud music or loud machinery.”
More to do
While I enjoy testing my hearing and learning the “shape” of my hearing, I think Apple can do more here.
Whether it helps you delve deeper into the results, encourages you to see a specialist, or just something as simple as turning on headphone safety on your iPhone (which sets the volume to a certain level to protect your eardrums), the results feel pretty easy.
Shah also suggests that my results – or anyone with less than perfect hearing test results – mean I should think about getting myself examined, because it’s not just hearing ability that can be measured and assessed by a professional.
“Under these circumstances, it is always a good idea to see an audiologist because it is not just about performing a hearing test, of which a Pure Tone Audiogram is only one part.
“But it is always useful to also consult an audiologist and have the health of your ears checked. Early intervention is also much more helpful when it comes to our senses affecting communication.”
One other thing that also bothers me is that while I understand that the AirPods Pro 2 are not approved as a clinical grade hearing aid in the UK, I don’t see why my results can’t be used to improve AirPods quality. performance.
For example, why can’t I use my personalized audiogram to calibrate how music and movies sound to my ears? This is possible in the US as part of the full Hearing Aid feature, but annoyingly not in almost all of the rest of the world – although I don’t think just adjusting the music output should really count as a medical adjustment.
But the Hearing Test feature certainly impressed me. When everyone started strapping heart rate monitors to their wrists, the sudden influx of heart health data helped save lives; Being able to diagnose the possibility of hearing loss in millions of people – or simply track their hearing health over time – is exciting.
So even if I find myself starting to have trouble hearing certain frequencies, I’m glad I went all in and took this test. It’s a good reminder to pay even closer attention to my ears and not be afraid to continue doing this test regularly to see if anything changes.
I would much rather notice a decline in my hearing ability than hide from the fact that it could happen…