Everyone knows that as you get older, your body starts to go through changes. Some are reasonable given your age, but others might have you stumped. If you’re a young person, things like aching joints and muscles might be a cause for concern. Something else young people might not expect to struggle with is a loss of their hearing.

This loss is actually more common than you might expect. In recent years, it’s even been given a name — hidden hearing loss. Do you ever find yourself having to strain to hear something you thought would be loud enough? Maybe you have a conversation with your roommate and have to ask them to repeat themselves a couple of times because you didn’t catch something.

Read up about hidden hearing loss and see if it could be what you’re struggling with.

How old are you?

To understand if your hearing loss is abnormal, the first thing you need to look at is your age. If you’re not yet middle-aged, it’s likely you’re not going to notice any issues with how you hear. That’s typically connected with people who are older, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of your hearing.

For instance, have you done something that may have temporarily disrupted your hearing? Going to a loud concert or recently wearing headphones while listening to loud music could cause your hearing to become sensitive.

If you’ve done any of these things and you struggle with hearing frequently — and you’re around the age of the typical college student — you might have hidden hearing loss. Because of the age factor, you can only have hidden hearing loss if you are young — most likely in your late teens or early 20s.

What are your symptoms?

Think about what you’ve experienced and compare it to the common symptoms of hidden hearing loss. This hearing loss typically makes it hard to hear a specific sound if there’s background noise, but quiet noises can be detected just fine. It’s difficult to get a diagnosis of hidden hearing loss because it’s hard to detect.

Hidden hearing loss refers to synaptopathy, which means there’s been damage to the connections between the sensory cells and the auditory nerve fibers. Because it can’t be detected with normal testing, researchers studied it and have set out to develop more sensitive measures.

What you can do about it.

First, if you think you may have this problem, there’s a test you can do to measure how well you hear. You can take an easy online test that’s only a few minutes long in order to gauge how bad your hearing is. After that, if you’re still concerned, you can talk with your doctor about what to do next, since everyone’s case is different.

If you find out your hearing is fine, you can then make efforts to prevent it from deteriorating in the future. Try downloading some free apps that will help you practice listening and communication skills. You can also do brain exercises to keep your mind sharp and able to recognize and differentiate between sounds.

As a young person, it’s hard to admit to yourself that you may be struggling with your hearing, even if it’s just to yourself. Once you’ve recognized the problem, it’s OK! You can always train your ears with apps and test the hearing skills you have.

Based on how the tests go, you can then meet with your doctor to talk about what might be going on. They’ll be able to help you more specifically, but the key is to know what hidden hearing loss is by learning all you can.