My hearing aids were fitted a year ago today, so I thought I’d share a bit of my story.
The Hum
It was in October 2024 that I began to experience the Hum whenever I was somewhere quiet. It sounded like a low continuous rumbling sound, around 30 Hz, with pulsations a few times per second. I remember walking around the house and leaning out of the windows, trying to identify the source. Had we left something on in the kitchen? Was there a lorry parked nearby?
I found that I was far from alone. There is a vast amount on the internet about the Hum. There are documentaries, and even a BBC drama. It has been an active topic of research. I even joined a couple of Facebook groups for people who experience it. People have strong opinions about it, and there are numerous theories. I began to investigate possible sources. Was it the sound of a high-pressure gas pipeline, for example?
Tinnitus
‘Tinnitus,’ according to the website of Tinnitus UK, ‘is the sensation of hearing a sound when there is no external source for that sound.’
One hypothesis for the Hum is that, at least in some cases, it is actually a form of low-frequency tinnitus, with no external source.
I began to suspect an internal source for my experience of the Hum one day when I was over 20 miles from home. Seated in a quiet room, the Hum sounded exactly the same as it did at home.
I began to read around some of the scientific literature. One paper struck me as pretty conclusive in demonstrating the possibility of an internal source (tinnitus), at least in some cases: ‘A Detailed Study of Low-Frequency Noise Complaints’, by Christian Sejer Pedersen, Henrik Møller and Kerstin Persson Waye (2008). The authors studied 21 people who claimed to hear a rumbling noise. They made recordings of the noise in their homes and did various tests of the people’s hearing in a controlled environment. Of the 21, they concluded that seven were hearing a physical sound, six were experiencing a rumbling with no physical cause (‘low-frequency tinnitus’), and the others were mostly inconclusive.
People have some very strong opinions about the Hum. I wouldn’t be surprised if I attract some negative feedback to this post. But, for me personally, I was ready to treat my experience of the Hum as low-frequency tinnitus. I was also beginning to experience high-frequency tinnitus (around 10 kHz).
Hearing loss
Tinnitus takes many forms. Mine has been quite mild: not something I notice except in quiet settings. But it was becoming quite irritating, so that I found it difficult to be in a silent room without putting some music on. In addition, I was concerned that it might have been a sign of something more serious. So I went to the doctor, and was referred to the hospital for a hearing test.
To my surprise, it was found that I have mild hearing loss at higher frequencies. Perhaps I had been in denial about that for some time. My wife would sometimes hear the phone ringing next door, but I wasn’t able to hear it at all. (Also, sometimes my wife would say something to me, and it would be as if I hadn’t been listening at all, but that might be an unrelated issue!)
Hearing loss is very common with age, especially at higher frequencies. It’s possible that there may have been other factors – such as too much organ practice, or listening to too many talks through headphones – but it’s difficult to say.
Hearing aids
The audiologist recommended hearing aids. He explained that it is believed that hearing loss can cause tinnitus. If the brain is struggling to pick up real sounds, it can start ‘hearing’ things that are not there. I was told that hearing aids can help with tinnitus.
I was provided with a pair of Phonak Bolero M70-M hearing aids on the NHS (free of charge).
Wearing hearing aids was quite a big deal at first. I was quite self-conscious, but I needn’t have worried. For a start, I wear glasses to help with my vision, so why is it so different to wear something to help with my hearing? People often wear devices in their ears – headphones, earbuds, and so on – so why not hearing aids? Also, they are quite discrete: sometimes I’ve been talking face-to-face with someone about my hearing aids, and they hadn’t even noticed I was wearing them.
But the change to my hearing was much bigger. I wasn’t sure what everything was supposed to sound like, and I think everything was initially turned up much too high by the audiologist who fitted the hearing aids for me. There was a constant loud hissing sound (white noise) and extreme distortion when listening to music or playing the piano. The hearing aids have various controls, either through the buttons on the hearing aids themselves, or through a smartphone app, but I couldn’t get things quite right. I ended up taking them off when listening to any music, and started to wonder whether this was what life was going to be like from now on.
I was sent a questionnaire a couple of months later, and ended up having another appointment with the audiologist a month after that. I met the same audiologist, and this time he adjusted the settings much more carefully, basically turning everything down, and the results have been a lot better. I can now enjoy music with the hearing aids on, and rarely find myself adjusting any of the settings. (There is a music mode, which engages automatically, and the ‘WhistleBlock’ setting is now set to zero in that mode, which reduces distortion of pure sounds.)
All modern hearing aids are quite advanced these days, and include various features and Bluetooth connectivity. Audiologists can enable features as appropriate, which could mean keeping things as simple as possible for elderly people, or enabling lots of features for nerdy people such as myself. For example, my phone alert sounds can go directly to my hearing aids, and I can listen to podcasts and receive phone calls through them.
When listening to music ‘properly’ or playing the piano, I tend to remove the hearing aids (and turn up the treble if listening to the Hi-Fi). But I keep them in when singing in a choir, and they work fine. I do miss the ‘purity’ of just listening with my ears at times, especially when I am adjusting microphone levels on a sound system or listening carefully for background noise.
My hearing aids can also connect to hearing loops using the T-coil (telecoil) setting, although I’ve never found that to be necessary, and the clearer sound is often accompanied by various background noises. Our church notice sheet used to say, ‘Hearing loop: Turn your hearing aid to the “T” position’, but I’ve found that people typically don’t know what this means: they generally don’t have this feature enabled unless they have asked for it, and there is no ‘“T” position’ as such (‘select the T-coil hearing program’ might be more appropriate). In order to be less confusing, I’ve changed the notice to say, ‘Hearing aid loop system: Ask your audiologist to show you!’
What about the tinnitus? Over time this has definitely improved enormously. I still notice it from time to time, but only occasionally, or if I try very hard to hear it. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but that seems unlikely, and I do think the hearing aids have helped in that regard. They have also made it easier for me to hear speech more clearly. I changed the ringtone on our landline handsets to use a lower frequency, and that has solved that problem, but my ‘selective hearing’ is still an issue at times!
I hope this post might be helpful to some readers. Many people have hearing loss but stubbornly refuse to do anything about it. I can think of one older person who was struggling to hear people speaking, was inspired by my example to have a hearing test and then to get hearing aids, and is delighted with the results. It can make a massive difference!