Summary

Sara Mearns, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, said she was missing cues in rehearsal and struggling to hear her partner from across the studio. She told AP that the problem affected timing and communication, including feeling that the music sounded too soft. Mearns said she made a hearing appointment without telling anyone, learned she had hearing loss, and later became one of the first dancers with the company to wear hearing aids during performances.

In her AP interview, Mearns, 40, described the change as transformative. She said, “I feel like it’s a whole new chapter of my life.”

Mearns’ experience echoed concerns raised by hearing specialists about how hearing loss can be overlooked even when it affects daily life. Dr. Anil Lalwani, a hearing expert with Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said in an interview with AP that “Hearing loss is often not detected by the person because what they can’t hear, they don’t know.” Dr. Maura Cosetti with Mount Sinai’s New York Eye and Ear Infirmary said some hearing-loss symptoms involve more than simply hearing less.

Cosetti told AP that one thing to look for is saying “what” more often and not being able to hear friends and family in noisy settings such as restaurants. She also pointed to other warning signs that can accompany hearing loss, including ringing, a sensation like something is stuck in the ears, and conversations sounding muffled. Mearns described how the problem showed up during the COVID-19 pandemic when she struggled to hear people wearing masks.

When people suspect hearing loss, experts say they should inform a doctor and seek evaluation. The AP report said doctors can connect patients with an audiologist or an ear, nose and throat specialist for a hearing test, and that specialist care can help distinguish issues such as wax or fluid from other causes. Cosetti said the Mimi Hearing Test app can be a useful starting point, according to the AP report, but seeing a professional is the “best way” to determine what is actually going on.

The AP report also said hearing aids can fine-tune the sound signal entering the brain—enhancing speech while lowering background noise. It noted that hearing aids can be expensive but that many are now available over the counter, and it said that some Apple AirPods can also be used as hearing aids. For more severe hearing loss, doctors may recommend a cochlear implant, which converts sounds into electrical signals sent to the brain and can take months to adjust to.

Mearns told AP she initially felt embarrassed about stepping into the booth for her hearing test. She said her audiologist, Marta Gielarowiec, helped her understand what she was missing and guided her to appropriate hearing aids. Gielarowiec said in the AP interview, “It’s definitely not a one size fits all. There is a lot of adjustment, tuning and calibration involved,” adding, “Overall, the goal is to maximize the hearing that’s left.”

Mearns described the emotional adjustment after getting fitted. She said that when she walked out of her audiologist’s office wearing the devices for the first time, she felt overwhelmed and began crying after being able to hear details such as shoes on the ground, birds outside, and a flag moving a block away. She said she can now hear the full orchestra during performances and also take phone calls, and she described how the strain of asking others to repeat themselves and missing jokes had worn her down. Mearns said, “I don’t want people to feel what I felt, where I was embarrassed and I was quiet about it,” and added that now she is “so happy.”