I know the subject comes up on occasion and I just got a new pair courtesy of the VA. I must admit I actually like them much better than the older ones. They hang over the ear but are smaller than the previous set and instead of a large molded earpiece they have a small piece that goes into the ear canal. Voices sound much more natural to me, although I'm not so sure I can define that anymore. However the big perk I've found is that they are not nearly so susceptible to wind noise when riding as compared to the older ones a definite plus in my book.

I am a Vet and just bought hearings aids, how did you qualify at the VA? Do they have a means test?
Anyway I have moderate to severe loss, I'm 71 and just got them in January, they help but not perfect. I enjoy hearing the birds now, it had been years. Still some conversations I don't understand. I can watch Jeopardy without captions!
Mine are behind the ear with speaker in the ear. Very hard for anyone to see, wind noise is the same but can now talk to fellow riders without them having to yell at me!😊

If you're service connected for anything it shouldn't be a problem to get hearing aids from the VA. Get your PCP to make you an appointment with audiology. If you're not enrolled in the VA health system, then I would get enrolled so you can see if you can get hearing AIDS.
I've been lucky with the VA, I wear a BTE in my left ear as well as I had a cochlear ear implant on the right ear.

I have pretty severe hearing loss from the Army and it was on record when I had to obtain a waiver for my 1st Class Flight Physical for hearing.

The VA provided me hearing aids by Siemens that have a custom in ear piece with a very small microphone / controller that goes behind the ear. Additionally, I have a bluetooth unit that connects to my cell phone and tablet and makes talking on the cell extremely easy and clear with the hearing aids as speakers and the bluetooth unit as a microphone. I can also control directional microphones either from the bluetooth unit or on the hearing aids themselves that makes it possible to hear the person sitting across the table from you in a noisy restaurant or even change the direction so I can carry on a conversation with someone sitting in the backseat of the car.

If you have a "Service Connected Disability of 10%" for hearing loss you should be able to get them from the VA.

Eliminating wind noise is easy.

Just pull a sweat band over the bearing aids.

I always ride with my hearing aids in. No wind noise.

No hearing aids yet, but they are on order. Years of sitting in front of loud speakers and or wearing headsets at work. But meanwhile for shutting down wind noise for riding these work pretty well. They mount on your helmet straps and make you even more of a fred.

cat-ears

I'm getting hearing aids this year. I've put it off for several years, but conversation in restaurants is becoming a problem. My hearing loss is age-related, according to the ENT guy. There's a pronounced drop-off at about 2500 Hz, although I'm good below that.

I'm going to give one of the mail-order places a try (60-day money-back guarantee). They have a nice behind-the-ear digital pair that has rechargeable batteries, bluetooth, smartphone adjustments to parameters, a few pre-sets, and noise-cancelling, all for what I consider a reasonable price. It's gotten pretty fair reviews. I have to pay for the thing myself since Medicare doesn't cover any of it.

I probably would pass if it weren't for the two-month return period.

The ones I ordered through an audiologist friend are fitted in-ear but also come with a 60 day exchange policy. Conversations in loud restaurants have also become a problem for me and my falloff is starting at 1k. Also age related. Luckily my insurance which I keep from my union covers me for partial cost since medicare doesn't cover them at all.

If you have a Costco near you see if they having a hearing aid department. I just replaced a six year old pair of Oticons ($6K!!) with their Kirkland iPhone compatibles. The best part - $1799 for two, complete with test. I haven't worn mine riding due to sweating a lot, but the sweat band over them sounds like something I'll try.


Where did all my previous posts go? Haven't been here for a bit.

All vets should check in to getting hearing aides through the VA. If your hearing is a problem they will start the process fairly quickly and get things set up for your testing and the audiologist eval. My wife's uncle put getting them off for years, he was very impaired from being around race cars most of his adult life.

A close friend went to the local VA clinic, on-board the Navy Hospital here in Pensacola, just to get an entry eval so if he needed future assistance he was in their system. Part of the day was spent having his audiology base line established, in case he had hearing issues in the coming years, along with blood lab work. With all the bad press, and what has been uncovered at the VA, things are getting straightened out at some locations. Give them a call, it won't cost you a thing for any of this.

Bill

Do you have a hearing aid that will turn down the ringing?

I wish! Afraid we are stuck with that for the rest of our natural lives. There is no known cure. At least tinnitus isn't anything that is physically harmful. It's just a 'pain in the butt'. Mine seems to come and go. Normally, I don't even notice it. Right now, that the subject has come up, it's so loud that it almost masks the noise from the air conditioning and computer ventilation fans, (there's a lot of computers in my room here).

Went to have an audiology exam last month, thinking it was time to get hearing aids. I've always had a loss of hearing in one of my ears, and as several have mentioned, in noisy restaurants, I just cannot hear enough to understand what the person across the table is saying to me. That is so frustrating! The cause of my partial hearing loss is due to misdiagnosed juvenile ear infections. Silly doctors removed my tonsils instead of treating the ear infection. The loss wasn't bad enough to keep my out of the Navy, but I wasn't going to be a sonarman either.

The result of my audiology exam is that I don't need hearing aids . . . yet. They would let me get them, if I really struggled with conversations in noisy environments, but it's not to the point where I really need them. Don't really think I can connect this to my military service. I'll be on my own dime, or medicare's dime when the time comes. By then, I figure technology will be so much better. Some times, it pays to wait.

Besides, one of the main reasons for getting out on the open road on a bicycle is to get away from noise. Other than birds and stream flows, I cannot think of why I'd want to enhance my hearing abilities when pedaling along.

Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids so it will be a lot of your dimes. :-)

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know that. I'll make sure I select a medicare advantage or medicare supplement plan that covers that. Thankfully, my employer will give me about $270 a month to pay for something. It's so very confusing that I don't know which way to go, but I'll figure it out. Still have a few months.

The new ones are programmable and there is actually a "cyclist mode" where they adjust it so that the wind is not even an issue. Phonak Audeo is a really good one.

Good luck with that. I couldn't find one.

I can adjust mine to eliminate wind noise with no problem. I won't ride with them in due to fear of moisture damage. I'll put the hearing aids and the controller in my bar bag to have them with me when I get somewhere. My hearing loss is primarily high pitch, but restaurants have become a problem for me too.

What did you say?

Not sure what is worse:
Loosing one's hearing or one's vision--the second is what gives me trouble!
I cannot imagine not be able to listen to Mozart--on the other I cannot imagine not being able to see all those stars up there through my scopes!

My Costco Kirtland Signature in-the-ear models use a Bluetooth connection to an iPhone app.

The app does the adjusting between 4 presets that can be adjusted by the aid tech pretty much anyway you want.

You can also create "favorites" as the app allows separate volume control for each ear. Thus you can set the aids to any desired volume(s) and save and recall, where as the presets created by the technician does frequency and tone changes.

Then you get phone call ported to the aids, with the microphone on the iPhone providing talkback. This is possibly the best feature.

I would expect that a lot of other manufacturers to go the smartphone route in the coming months and years as Coscto is killing the market with this technology currently.