If it's getting harder to hear speech in noisy places - even at normal volume - it's worth considering your hearing health.
Hearing problems often go unnoticed.
Sometimes it's not that we can't hear well - it's that our brains can no longer “make sense” of speech. Words are heard, but they blend into the background. It takes more effort to understand the interlocutor, especially if several people are talking at once. This is tiring and may cause embarrassment or a desire to avoid communication. These changes are not always immediately noticeable. Online hearing tests don't diagnose these changes, but they do help to detect them and better understand what's going on. This is a step towards a more comfortable perception of the world.