{"id":3265,"date":"2019-05-08T21:29:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T21:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/decibelhearing.com\/?p=3265"},"modified":"2019-05-08T21:35:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T21:35:00","slug":"reverse-slope-hearing-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/decibelhearing.com\/reverse-slope-hearing-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverse-Slope Hearing Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most cases of hearing loss in Simi Valley involve an inability to understand high frequency sounds. Women\u2019s and children\u2019s voices are the most difficult to comprehend. A rare type of hearing loss, known as reverse-slope, has the opposite effect: it makes low-frequency sounds hard to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low-Frequency Hearing Loss<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Damaged hair cells in the cochlea most often result in a loss of ability to understand high-frequency sounds. In rare instances, such as that of a Chinese woman last year, people have trouble with low frequencies instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The atypical story of a woman, identified only as Chen, made worldwide headlines<\/a> in 2018. She went to bed feeling nauseous and suffering from a ringing in her ears. When she woke up the next morning, Chen was unable to understand male voices, including that of her boyfriend. Doctors diagnosed her with reverse-slope hearing loss, a condition so rare only 3,000 people on the North American continent are affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reverse-slope hearing loss is characterized by an inability to hear low-pitched sounds. Chen was unable to understand her boyfriend because men tend to have deeper, lower-pitched voices than women. People with reverse-slope hearing loss find understanding vowel sounds, which have more low-pitch energy and contribute more to our sense of volume than consonants, which are higher-pitched and contribute more to speech clarity, especially difficult to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solutions for Reverse-Slope Hearing Loss<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are three main causes of reverse-slope hearing loss:<\/p>\n\n\n\n