How is my hearing affected?

While hearing loss can occur suddenly, it is typically a gradual process that affects high frequencies first. This makes it harder to hear soft-sounding letters such as ‘s’, ‘c’ and ‘f’ which, in turn causes problems differentiating words such as ‘same’, ‘came’ and ‘fame’. The problem is exacerbated in noisy environments where the thing you are listening to is drowned out by background sounds.