they told me they wouldn't help....

My type of hearing loss, unfortunately, can not be addressed by hearing aids. Or so it was THEN...

I hear they are very improved since my last checkup. I'm planning a revisit to see if technology has caught up.

I'm like you... I couldn't care less how 'visible' they are. My constant "huh? what? can you repeat that?" is a much bigger give-away than the sight of a hearing aid.

I apologize a lot.... when meeting new people these days I always start by telling them I have hearing problems... that if they could speak very clearly it will help a lot. And in a crowd I explain that if more than one person is speaking at a time all I'm going to hear is - "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm". I also joke about it a lot -

After the person speaks I'll make up some absurd interpretation, (hopefully funny), to indicate I didn't quite catch what they said.

This didn't help at all, did it? Well... knowing several people who now wear them ALL of them report great improvement... their only gripe, and it's a big one, is the discomfort in wearing them... or rather, more than the comfort it's the 'hassle' of wearing them that drives them nuts. - JamesJM