Hearing
What you need to know about hereditary hearing loss
Hearing loss that is passed down from parents to children is known as hereditary deafness.
Just like the genes for eye colour or blood type are passed on, the defective genes for hearing can be passed down too.
There are two main types of hereditary hearing loss – syndromic and nonsyndromic.
Syndromic is where the person has hearing loss as well as abnormalities in other parts of their body (for example, problems with their vision) which is characteristic of a particular disease (such as Usher Syndrome or Waardenburg Syndrome).
Nonsyndromic sees hearing loss as the only characteristic.
A child can either be born with the hearing issue (congenital), or it may become apparent later in life (acquired).
Around 1 in every 800 babies born in Australia has a hearing impairment; and another 1 in 800 will develop hearing loss by the time they are adults.
Depending if the genes are dominant or recessive, the parents who passed on the genes may or may not have hearing loss themselves.
Hearing loss can also be caused by other factors, such as exposure to noise, your age, certain illnesses and medications, as well as physical trauma (such as head injury).
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If you are concerned that you, your children, or your grandchildren may have inherited (or will inherit) the genes for hearing loss, you may be interested in genetic testing.
This will give you information on whether the issues are likely to occur later in life, and give you some time to work out how you will manage it if it does.
Visit www.genetics.edu.au to find out more about genetic counselling in your area.
Related links:
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