How many hearing aid users here?

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I've worn behind-the-ear hearing aids in both ears since my youth and I'm curious who else here uses them? I have around a 40 db hearing loss, partially self-inflicted from too much rock and roll as a kid, and also had tubes in my ears in my early childhood.

My 5 year old HFA son does. He has moderate high frequency hearing loss in both ears.

Thanks, Mum.
I already had the tubes by age 5 but my hearing problems diden't really start happening until I was 8. I'm not sure how well I would have tolerated hearing aids at 5. My audiogram also shows a grater loss at the high end than at the low, which is typical for the type of nerve damage I experienced.

I lost my hearing in a bad infection as a child (under 2) and have about 50% in one ear and only 25% or less in the other. I'm not a great fan of hearing aids though - I wore them all through school - starting with cybermen-style chest units and progressing to behind the ear ones.

I've now got a "completely in the ear"model - after wearing none for the last 22 years. I only wear it to important meetings and it doesn't necessarily help a great deal. All things considered, the technology has hardly moved in 20+ years.

I'm 43 and have worn behind-the-ears aids in both ears since I was twenty. Congenital sensorineural hearing loss, about fifty percent in each ear. It seems to be getting worse, too, and having tinnitus sure doesn't make it any better. By now, I've lost the ability to hear most high ranges. Hubby has to keep an ear out when I boil some water for tea.

"Sounds" like my ears are in a little better shape than some others here. I worried so much about my remaining hearing failing that I actually took sign language classes in college. From what I can tell, though, my recent audiograms are only about 10db lower than when I was first fitted with hearing aids in my youth. As for some of those "high frequencies", I can still detect squeaking sneakers on the basketball court when I have my hearing aids in.

I've been hard of hearing since birth but I wasn't formally diagnosed as such until I was about 7 or 8 years old.
I currently use behind-the-ear- style digital hearing aids and whilst they're a marked improvement over the good ol' fashioned behind-the-ears-with-volume-dials models I've been using since my diagnosis, I still have trouble picking up certain sounds and accented words.

My hearing is currently at 25% in my right ear and I'd say around 45-55% in my left. without my hearing aids, though, I'm deaf to the point were I can barely hear a close-range shotgun blast or the roar of a low-flying jet engine.

I'm eager to try In The Ear hearing aids though I don't know anyone who currently uses them. Are they better?

The "in the ear" hearing aids aren't better.

sure, they look better and they don't hurt the tops of your ears but...

They're nowhere near as powerful -so you can't get the same levels of amplification.
The mould/earpiece is harder plastic and is therefore much more sweaty.
The earpiece is much more prone to wax, grit etc and is much harder to clean. Eventually, you need to replace expensive bits of it. (apparently about six-monthly).

Good pointes. I've had audiologists try to "hard sell" me on the ITE hearing aids, but I think I'm too active and would be worried about them falling out of my ears during contact sports or even dancing, and as they're smaller, they're easier to lose. ITE's also tend to cost more to service if something goes wrong, and in most instances one could buy two pairs of BTE's including earmolds for the same price as one pair of ITE's. I've stuck with BTE (behind the ear) aids since the very beginning.

I've just started wearing open fit mini BTEs about a month ago. I can hear much better at work with them. I have mild to moderate reverse slope hearing loss.

Is this your first set of hearing aids, Eyphur?

Yes, it was just last winter when I finally decided that maybe I wasn't just not paying attention when someone was talking (as years of misdiagnosis with ADHD has ingrained) but that I really couldn't make out what people were saying. I started a new job last fall and realized that I could be standing right in front of a person and still have no idea what they were saying. Still, I was somewhat surprized to be diagnosed with hearing loss I half thought it night be CAPD.

I have had a severe to profound senorineural Bilaterahearing loss since I was born. Meaning that sounds have to reach 65 to 95 dB before I can hear (with out the BTE that I have worn since I was 6 mo. old), and it depends on the frequency. When 90dB is damaging to the ear its no wonder my hearing loss has been getting more and more severe as I got older (55 to 75 as an infant).
Deafness runs in my family as well as ASD's (one on each side of the family)...
My dad and his two sisters were all born deaf too. Though dad has a cochlear implant nowdue to his inability to hold a conversation with just a hearing aid. I may consider a cochlear implant as I get older, since I do depend on being able to hear to communicate.
I have taken American Sign Language classes and am now very fluent in it. plus my mother is a sign language interpreter, so I have plenty of encouragement in that area.

Hello all. I wear hearing aids too. Exactly same reason i got infected when i was 2 years old that lost my hearing. My hearing aids are awesome! I can hear such things very well and even clearing things up a bit since old ones few months ago. So yea i used to do sign language ages ago in primary school with other deaf people.

I still can talk, speak and hear as normally, mainly just on with hearing aids. So yea cool.

Thanks, all. I wish I had been able to learn sign language sooner, but as I had already learned to speak before my hearing problem started, I guess the education system of the time thought my hearing aids would be enough, and never offered sign classes to me. I finally had to take classes in college as an elective.