Gender affects audiometric shape in presbyacusis.

A review of large-scale surveys of hearing over the past 50 years reveals a "gender-reversal" phenomenon in the average audiograms of the elderly. Above 1 kHz males show greater average loss than females, but below 1 kHz females show greater average loss than males. The effect increases with both age and degree of hearing loss. The difference is present whether or not the elderly persons complain of a hearing problem and remains after persons with a history of noise exposure are excluded from the analysis. A possible explanation, based on the greater likelihood of cardiovascular disease in the elderly female, is considered.