I ask people to repeat themselves, and then they yell and I still don’t understand. What’s going on?

Question: I ask people to repeat themselves, and then they yell and I still don’t understand. What’s going on?

Answer: Chances are you have a frequency-specific type of hearing loss. If you know someone is talking but cannot understand what is said, then you probably have a loss for specific sounds. It may be that you can hear and understand vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u), as these are deep, bass sounds. You may have a loss for higher pitch sounds, like consonants (p, t, s, k, sh). So when someone speaks, you hear part of the word and miss the rest. You may need a device to increase only the consonants without increasing the volume of the vowels. Speaking loudly does not help this type of loss. A hearing exam is needed to discuss this in more detail.