Dr. Julie Norin, audiologist and professor at Towson University, joins us to discuss why hearing health matters—especially for women. In this episode we cover how untreated hearing loss can affect cognitive function, what tinnitus means, how life changes like perimenopause/menopause can make symptoms more noticeable, and practical steps to get a proper hearing assessment.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Joining me now is Dr. Julie Norin. She’s an audiologist and a professor at Towson University.

Julie, always great to see you. Thanks for making time for us this morning.

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to be here.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

And my understanding is that the semester is over. You had the summer off. How did the semester go?

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

The semester went very well. We had another cohort of our doctor of audiology students graduate. And so we have a wonderful new addition of several people to the field practicing in different areas all over the country.

And yeah, it makes me feel very happy and proud to have played a part in their journeys.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

So a lot of hearing diagnosis and improvements happening around the United States. That’s always good to hear. Julie, we just passed May.

It’s currently June, as you and I well know, and the audience knows. It was hearing month, I guess. Reaction to that month?

Did you see a lot of people interested in hearing? Did the communication and education and PSAs kind of make it through to the general public?

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

We do tend to see a little uptick in interest in hearing health care. It’s I’m always heart warmed by the fact that we have May as better hearing month, because it’s important to make sure that people are aware that their hearing health should be considered as much as every other aspect of our health, including our regular checkups to a dentist. And we have our eyes checked annually, hopefully.

And we have our wellness visits with our primary care physicians. And one thing that tends to fall to the side is our hearing and our hearing health care. And it’s really important for our ability to communicate and just keep our cognitive health functioning at an optimal level.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, really important. And the sooner you deal with it and you protect it, the better off you’re going to be in the long term. All right, let’s fast forward.

I wanted to really focus on women’s hearing health this month. Not this month, this segment. Are there specific things that women should be focused on when it comes to their hearing?

Are they more susceptible to hearing loss, less susceptible to hearing loss?

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

I would say in general, the statistics show that fewer women tend to have hearing loss than men. I think that those studies are strongly influenced by men who are exposed to more occupational noise hazards, whether it’s working in construction, military noise, machine noise, firearms from recreational use, and so forth. That’s not to say that women are not exposed to those same hazards, but it tends to be on a smaller scale.

However, with May having been better hearing month, May is also women’s health month. And so a lot of the health issues that specifically are of concern for women, among those include hearing. And that’s because women tend to function through their, we’ll call it pain or injury, because that’s what women tend to do.

And that’s not to say that there aren’t women that are more concerned or more aware or in tune of their physical health. But sometimes when things happen, such as we might have difficulty with our hearing specifically, we might put that aside and say, oh, well, we’re tired or we’ve had a busy day or we’re under a lot of stress. And it tends not to be something that we would relate to an actual physical problem, such as a decline in our hearing.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, well, I would posit that women are actually a lot tougher. They give birth. That, my understanding, can be a very painful experience.

And so I guess I understand how they can kind of mitigate or push aside something that they may view as insignificant. But Julie, it’s not insignificant. As we’ve talked about, having bad hearing or reduced hearing at any age impacts you socially and also cognitively.

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

Correct. And there used to be this mindset of, well, if we’re having difficulty with our hearing, it’s a communication issue. So let’s make sound louder so that we can resolve the communication issue.

And that does help. I mean, we do see that when using hearing aids, we can mitigate some of those communication challenges. And however, with untreated hearing loss, or the longer we tend to go before we treat a hearing loss, we do see a decrease in cognitive function.

And there have been a lot of studies that have focused on this, specifically over the last eight to 10 years. Some of that research has come out of Johns Hopkins. So being in Baltimore, of course, I’m very proud of that.

But there was a big study that came out about two years ago that really highlighted how hearing loss can contribute to cognitive decline. And that’s due to a lack of the input of sound at an optimal level. So auditory fatigue, delay in processing.

And I always boil it down to our brain is just like any other muscle in our body. If we don’t use it, then we lose it. So when there’s a decline in auditory input, or a lack of sound reaching our auditory processing centers in the brain at optimal levels, we will see a cognitive decline over time.

And so what happens is people start to experience difficulty hearing other people in noisy environments. So they’re working a little bit harder to understand conversation. Working harder leads to auditory fatigue or cognitive fatigue.

And then when it gets to be too hard, we start to withdraw because it’s just too much of a challenge. So then we’ve got less socialization, more isolation. And those aspects of hearing loss can then lead to a greater cognitive decline, as well as a lot of psychological factors such as depression and loneliness.

So when we talk about hearing loss having an impact, it’s not just impacting our communication, it’s also potentially impacting our overall cognitive function.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

I want to ask you about, I think I’m pronouncing this correctly, tinnitus or tinnitus. I’ve heard it pronounced lots of different ways. Is that an indication, you know, actually, as we’re talking, I’m hearing some ringing in my ears.

It has nothing to do with you. It could be the lights and whatnot. But in all seriousness, is that indicative of something that I need to have checked out?

And is it more prevalent, for example, in women, and women who are using like the headphones and the AirPods and the big over-the-ear headphones?

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say, first and foremost, tinnitus is tinnitus, tinnitus, tomato, tomato.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Tomato, right, potato, potato.

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

But tinnitus does tend to happen more so with individuals who have hearing loss. So almost everyone who’s experiencing tinnitus, the majority of them do have some form of hearing loss. Now, does that mean that it’s hearing loss that’s debilitating?

Not necessarily. And it also doesn’t mean that someone who has tinnitus necessarily has hearing loss. But I would say tinnitus in general is pretty gender neutral.

So just as many men as women can experience tinnitus. And tinnitus can come in all forms of perceived sound. So I’ll back up a minute and just give a little bit of a definition.

When we’re talking about tinnitus, we’re talking about ringing in the ears without any external sound source. But that ringing can also be perceived as chirping, buzzing, humming. Some people have reported it as clicking sounds.

It can be a high-pitched sound. It can be a low-pitched sound. It can range anywhere in between.

And it can also be constant or it can be sporadic or intermittent. And some people will note that it’s worse at night when they’re trying to sleep because it tends to be more quiet in those hours. Or it tends to be less bothersome early in the day when you’re less fatigued because you just woke up and you’re well-rested.

But when you get tired, you tend to notice it more. And it is an indicator that there could be something going on with your hearing. So I would say if your viewers are experiencing some kind of ringing or buzzing or chirping inside their head, it might be a good idea for them to, at the very least, get a baseline hearing test to determine if the ringing is related to some type of damage to their hearing.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

I want to ask you, going back to women’s health in particular, and I know nothing about this topic, but menopause. Many women, as they age, go through menopause. There’s a definition for that.

But is there a correlation at all that you’ve seen or found for women that are older going through this process? I think all women go through it. Does it have an impact or can it have an impact?

Because your hormones are changing, is my understanding. Your body is changing. Your hormones are changing.

They’re reacting to that. But does that in any way impact your hearing? And if so, is that the right time to go get a hearing, you know, perimenopause, menopause, et cetera?

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

I would say, I don’t know if I would specifically say that that’s the right time to go and see an audiologist or a hearing health care professional and have a hearing test. I would say anytime you’re questioning whether or not there’s something going on with your hearing would be a good idea. Yes, there have been some discussions in the media about all of the myriad ways that menopause and perimenopause can affect women.

And along with big changes in hormones can come other issues such as difficulty sleeping, changes in mood, changes in energy level. And all of those can then contribute to issues such as tinnitus. So if we’re already experiencing tinnitus and it’s maybe not that bothersome, but then menopause or perimenopause hits, and now all of a sudden we’re more fatigued, we’re not sleeping less, we’re not eating well, our mood changes.

So we’re probably going to notice whatever tinnitus is present a little bit more. So is there a causation or is there a correlation? It’s hard to know.

And I’m not a neurologist, I’m not a women’s health specialist, so I don’t think I’m the right person to answer that question. But I would suggest that when there are other things going on with the body, there’s definitely going to be a more noticeable, or we’re going to pay more attention to other things that could already be happening such as tinnitus. And even hearing loss.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Let me, as we close out our discussion this morning, and we like to bring you back at least on a monthly basis, audiologists and otolaryngologists, what’s the best way, you know, not all of us live in Baltimore, I don’t anymore, I do come back on a monthly basis to see my folks, but for those of us that can’t get in to see you in particular, because you’re a great audiologist, how do I find someone, a practitioner in the United States, an audiologist, but also an otolaryngologist that I think would be the MD equivalent, someone who actually looks at the health of the ears. What’s the best way to find those types of practitioners?

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

Right. I would say a quick Google search makes it pretty easy. The one thing that you do want to look for is to find someone who is licensed in your state.

I would discourage someone from working with someone on a virtual level or online, especially for having a baseline audiological assessment completed. You want to do that in person. You want to do that in a sound booth with the professional provider present, because there are tests that we do in that setting that we’re not able to do online or using a computer or at a distance.

It’s helpful that we’re able to take quick measurements of our hearing by using something like the AirPods or maybe just our regular headphones and a quick online test or online measurement, but I would say for a comprehensive assessment, doing a quick Google search, finding an audiologist or a hearing instrument specialist in your area would be the best bet. WebMD, Healthy Hearing, those are a couple of websites that people can turn to just to find listings in their area or working through your insurance company. Some people don’t even realize that they might have an insurance benefit through their insurance company, and if they do have a coverage or do have coverage for hearing health services, insurance companies are also a good resource to point their subscribers in the right direction to find a provider in their area.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, really, that’s actually really good advice. The other advice was good and great, but that’s really good advice. Probably start with the payment part, talk to your insurance company, get direction and go from there.

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

Dr. Norin. Many people don’t realize that Medicare actually will cover a test of your hearing once a year if you suspect that there’s been an issue with your hearing. So you can go to your primary care provider and get a referral that way, or you can seek out an audiologist yourself and then Medicare would likely cover that test for you if there’s a concern that there’s been a change in hearing.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Very, very good advice. Dr. Norin, Julie, always great to see you. Enjoy your summer, but look, we’re gonna bring you back next month and we look forward to having you back again very soon.

Julie A. Norin, Au.D., CCC-A, Towson University

Thank you. Same.