After age fifty, many women experience some hearing loss, and by age sixty-five nearly one-third of all women have some decline in hearing. You might not be aware that your hearing is fading until someone you live or work with brings it to your attention. Most age-related hearing loss is gradual and can develop slowly over a period of years.

Types of Hearing Loss

Some types of hearing loss can be the result of a physical injury, an infection, medication, or the development of growths or tumors. These hearing losses are called sensorineural (caused by damage to the nerves that transmit sound from the ear to the brain), because the sensors in the inner ear lose their ability to send sound signals to the brain. Long-term exposure to loud noise causes this type of hearing loss, so if you spent the 1960s with your ears glued to the loud speakers at rock concerts, you could experience this type of hearing loss.

Conductive hearing loss occurs when sounds don't reach your inner ear properly due to problems with something other than the transmitting nerves themselves. If you have a history of ear infections, damage to your eardrum, or even accumulations of earwax within your ear canal, you can experience this type of hearing loss. And, as the tissue within the ear canal becomes thinner and drier, it becomes less effective at transmitting sound.

Keep Your Ear to the Ground

Regular hearing checkups can reveal either type of hearing damage, but you also need to pay attention to changes in your hearing. If you notice that you're turning the television up louder these days or constantly asking people to repeat what they've just said to you, you're probably experiencing some hearing damage. Losing your hearing can make you feel isolated and out of touch with the world around you. Take steps to protect your ears and monitor changes so that you can correct developing problems before they become irreversible.