image: A participant listens to a hearing test as a part of a larger experiment to determine how sex differences and hormones affect hearing.
Credit: Anhelina Bilokon
PHILADELPHIA, May 13, 2026 — Throughout medical history, men have generally been the target of studies, with results generalized to women. However, there are differences between the sexes in many aspects of human perception. Hormones influence the behavior of cells in the brain, including areas of the brain that process hearing.
Within the past decade, scientists have begun recognizing these differences and their effects on health outcomes. In line with this change, Anhelina Bilokon from the University of Maryland will present her work related to sex-dependent auditory variability Wednesday, May 13, at 9:25 a.m. ET as part of the 190th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running May 11-15.
“Hearing is quite precise and sensitive, and because of that, even small hormonal changes in the areas that regulate and process sound can have an effect,” Bilokon said. “When hormone levels change or fluctuate, the structures and processes that support hearing can change and fluctuate as well.”
In simple hearing tests, men show an earlier, more gradual decline, while women experience regular fluctuations each month during menstruation and sharp changes at menopause. By reanalyzing existing auditory data, Bilokon’s work focuses not just on how well people hear, but also on how these processes change and interact with other biologically significant events over time.
“Hearing is not free from the influence of other biological aspects of human health,” she said.
Because these variations are critical for understanding markers of auditory decline, Bilokon encourages her fellow scientists to consider sex differences and hormone effects more holistically in their studies. In addition to presenting evidence for sex-dependent auditory variability, Bilokon’s work outlines how additional studies can better understand these differences, which extend beyond simple sound detection.
“There are well-established guidelines for studying sex differences that have come from adjacent fields, and I hope our efforts over time will provide hearing-behavior approaches that can be easily adapted across labs,” Bilokon said.
Ultimately, learning about auditory differences between the sexes will provide insights into treating and managing hearing loss in a more personalized way — not only for women.
“This work is about improving how we understand hearing for everyone,” Bilokon said. “By simply recognizing real biological differences, we can shift our scientific approach toward more accurate diagnoses and better care.”
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Main Meeting Website: https://acousticalsociety.org/philadelphia/
Technical Program: https://eppro01.ativ.me/web/planner.php?id=ASASPRING2026
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ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.
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