Does anyone wear a hearing aid / or have partner with one?

[Indigoo03]

Just wondering how practical they are? How costly are they ? Information on the internet appears confusing as i am not sure if monthly subscription?

If working in an office how does that feel too for someone under 45....or any age for that matter...

Yes I do. I'm 50 and have had one for a couple of years due to low frequency hearing loss (ie not typical old age loss, more likely due to illness).

It makes a huge difference. Most of the time now I can take part in conversations, and follow what's going on - where as before I'd hear part of it and my brain would make up the rest (to a greater and lesser extent!). It's much less exhausting, and my nightmares of being somewhere where they spoke a different language and I couldn't understand them have stopped.

However it's not perfect, and in a large open plan office it's still hard. I had to ask to sit with my back to the wall so that all of the noise was in front of me.

I couldn't get hearing aids in the NHS - they said theirs would only amplify all sound, not the lower frequencies that I needed. So mine cost £1600 and I expect them to last 4 years. Within that I get check ups every 3 months, any parts that are needed, and ear wax removals.

I do! Mine cost around 2k (via my private healthcare consultant - which I’m lucky enough to get through work - not the NHS).

The office is fine, although work social stuff is harder. I have to concentrate a lot and it’s tiring. I’m 36 and have hardly any earring in one ear.

hearing, not earring!

Do you get the smallest one or just wear it with pride and honour? I guess it's hard for some people to show disability?

Going through company health insurance just means you get seen quicker and choice of consultant?

Does private also give you more access to a wider range/choice of hearing aids ?

Assume the hearing aid cost is still Bourne by the wearer when via private?

I’m about to get hearing aids. They will be NHS ones since I can’t afford the £5000 cost of private ones.

My boyfriend has hearing aids. His are quite discreet, I think he got them from Specsavers.

I wear them. I paid privately for them. It worked out around £2000 and I paid in installments. But I did go for ones that I could control from my phone. So I have five separate environments to choose from and this adjusts how sound is heard. One of the options is sound in a noisy environment. I can also adjust the level of sound up to five bars above or below my natural setting. Or just turn them off (very useful on a noisy train). My audiologist also gave me the option to try them out first so I did two weeks with three different ones before settling on these.

They changed my life immeasurably for the better. I no longer nod or smile at people whilst having no idea what they've said.

Is the £5k cost due to a specific hearing loss you have? Other posters have quoted lower though still significant costs...

I have NHS ones & they have changed my life.

the remote is on my phone so I can turn them up & down, different settings for music or normal volume.

Its made a massive difference at work, everyone I work with has said so & I can actually hear myself.

I have them. I got them in the summer. I am also 45. I have mild to moderate loss in both ears, for higher frequencies.

They are just awesome. I have very discreet ones, I doubt anyone would notice, and definitely not with my hair down. They make my life so much better and easier.

I got mine from Costco, and highly recommend this if you can get membership. They cost £1150 for the pair. The same ones bought elsewhere would have been double that price. They are Bluetooth enabled so connect to my phone, and they are rechargeable.

You can self refer to any audiologist. Specsavers do free hearing tests to get you started.

Me. NHS rechargeable Bluetooth. Not perfect but 100% better than it used to be. Working in an open plan office is hard though.

@Airfixkitwidow How long would your set last for? Any annual maintenance costs?

Would you have to go back and see the same audiologist?

Would private medical cover the annual follow ups etc?

I'm 42 and wear in both ears. I went private and spent £800. The reason being I can control on an app depending on environment I'm in. You still have concentrate lots in busy places as can't turn off back ground noise but you do get used to it. I'm much better with them and can hear better and follow conversations.

I wear NHS ones ..one in each ear
Better than nothing but not great ...I work in a school and sometimes the rooms are noisy and it can give me a headache ,I still need people to look at me when they talk unless it's just one to one and no background noise .
I'm struggling to get an appointment as they need a good service I think !!

I was told they would last between 3 and 5 years. I've had them for 2. I do all my own maintenance (YouTube is excellent) and get all the bits I need from amazon. Basically wax guards and plastic protectors. Along with the batteries as I skimped on rechargeable but wish I hadn't they cost about £30 a year to run.

No idea about private health insurance. And I think you could go anywhere to get them recalibrated if you needed to. I'm not locked in

I’ve just started wearing aids for severe to moderate hearing loss.I have the nhs ones which work with an app.They have been good but I do find them fiddly and sometimes the ear piece slides out occasionally.Also find with my hair if I move it, I can catch the wire.
I have an appointment at end of month with specsavers, not really sure what to expect or their price ranges etc although I have looked on the website.Has anyone got aids from there?

I have an NHS one. You can choose the colour to match your hair colour and they really aren't obvious.
I still struggle with adapting to it though because I'm not sure it helps as much as I thought it would.

My husband has an NHS one in one ear, which is hardly visible. He's had it about 5 years and is perfectly happy with it. He is also supplied by the NHS with batteries.

I got NHS aids when I was 33. I have an unexplained bilateral (both ears) moderate- severe loss.

I used Access to Work to purchase some devices that help me at work to hear in meetings and things. I do still get tired, though, at the end of the day and just want some peace and quiet, because no aid is going to completely improve your hearing and I have to lipread to help me hear, too.

Many NHS Trusts have preferred aids they use so you don't get loads of choice as you would going privately, but I got mine in silver because I didn't want beige and it was good to be able to talk to them about programmes and have them set differently by programmes for different situations there and then.

I wear ear moulds and regular BTE (behind the ear) aids and most people don't notice them. I am better at advocating for myself at work than I am in social situations so I actively avoid busy places with lots of people, sadly. But work is fine. They have a duty to provide reasonable adjustments!

The size really depends on what power you need. If you have a severe-profound loss in ear ones won't do much for you. Wear them with pride! You only realise how many people wear hearing aids when you have them yourself.

I have an nhs one for moderate to severe hearing loss. I can control it via my phone and stream music and my home straight to it. That functionality doesn't help me though as all I get is the vibration not the sound. So I think it depends on the type of hearing loss you have, the nhs ones seem to be the same as private ones, but less/no cost. I get all my batteries and tubes free.
My audiologist warned me that hearing aids aren't like glasses in that they can't completely correct hearing loss, just amplify sounds, some of which will help and some not, even though it is programmed to compensate for my exact hearing loss.

Do company medical plans cover fittings of hearing aid? If not then NHS means a long wait and limited selection? Are NHS ones adequate/sufficient as I work in an office?

I have moderate hearing loss and a collapsed ear drum. My local NHS supplies 2 free aids as standard (plus free batteries) but no choice of style ie BTE only, but they are exactly the same as the Specsavers ones at over £1000.
I might pay out for ITE eventually as a big drawback with mine is that the microphone is on top of the receiver and things like hair touching the aid or wind blowing across it makes quite a loud crackling noise. Considering I don't have to pay for them though (unless I loose them) they are pretty good though.

I work for a company that supplies NHS hearing aids and you need a GP referral for NHS aids but where I live that's a phone call to your GP then a hearing test, then fitting usually no more than a week later. All batteries, tubes, domes and servicing is free and you get a new assessment/ aids every 3 years. Only cost to you if you lose / break one in the 3 years then about £100 to replace each aid. I think it depends what NHS trust your GP is based in so may not be same in all areas.

Are you in England? Do you have to pay at all for them?