By Dr. Max S. Chartrand Ph.D.

Question:

Dear Dr. Chartrand: Recently, you wrote concerning hearing loss in men and why it was so important to have family support in making decisions about obtaining hearing aids. Why is this such a big issue for men, more than women?-- Mrs. A. S.

Answer

Dear Mrs. J. D.: I'm glad you asked that. For the genesis of the problem goes back to what makes men and women different, including their neurological development at birth and throughout life itself.

You see, males develop their auditory (hearing) ability slightly later than females, and lose it much earlier. Hence, females sing in tune at an earlier age, have much larger vocabularies, and learn foreign language more easily. They also develop superior fine motor skills, and their corpus collosums (connective tissue between the two hemispheres of the brain) start out about 30% larger than males.

Males make up for this through superior visual and spatial development. Because of a smaller corpus collosum, they learn to specialize logic and language in the left (dominant) hemisphere, and develop spatial ability exclusively in the right hemisphere. So-called "women's intuition" is largely due to their bi-hemispheric ability in language development.

Males and females experience middle ear infections (OME) at about the same rate from ages 0-3. But, because of smaller corpus collosums, young males suffer the greatest developmental delays when middle ears are blocked for months and sometimes years at a time. Hence, better than 90% of learning and language disabilities are found in males, including attention deficit, dyslexia, and stuttering.

In the later teen years, males---even those developmentally delayed---play "catch up" academically with females, unless psychosocial, cultural, and behavioral problems stand in their way.

And this the crux of the problem: Males are generally less sensitive than females in self-assessing cognitive and auditory deficiencies, which is why few males come on their own to take care of such problems without female support. Less than 12% of males with hearing loss wear hearing aids in the U.S. (much lower penetration worldwide), while more than 35% of females with hearing loss wear hearing aids.

The tragic personal loss and costs to society are stunning, because of a lack of understanding about the interrelationship between hearing and mental health.

Therefore, it is imperative that we as a society recognize these influences in human behavior, and find ways to encourage males who suffer from auditory (hearing) loss to seek and accept appropriate help. Until then, it will continue to be a negative drain on the economy, human relationships, and personal progress.