My voice surgery result at 3 months

[Eve87]

Hey everyone. I did a little recording real quick to maybe get some ideas on how my voice sounds to you.
At 3 months it is not even close to the final result. And I am not a native English speaker. My English is from textbooks and television. I *never* speak it... so cut me some slack. :p

http://kiwi6.com/file/ac4v5atrg8

alt: http://soundcloud.com/evelien-legein/cta-3-months#

http://www.aimini.net/view/?fid=mRjRkTL6H0s2ybNM3RIW

http://www.mediafire.com/?lhn36v7z101c8ch

[Jenny_B_Good]

Hey Eve,

Well yeah.. you sound like a woman with a sore throat. Must be really positive to know you can't register on the lower frequencies.
You should be happy, oh.. and your English isn't that bad either.

Questions:

1) What procedure did you have?
2) Painful?  Recovery time ?
3) and I realise this is personal, so no offence meant - Cost?

Any answers greatly appreciated,

From my heart to yours

Jennifer

OXOXOXO

[A]

32 KB/s, and download bugged... I'll try again tomorrow. I was able to hear about 2 seconds of it, that's all.

Jenny_B_Good: I don't know the details, but going with the name of the file, it was CTA - circothyroid approximation.

[Jamie D]

I had a similar download problem.

Which is too bad, because I really like Eve's posts, and wanted to put a voice to the face.

[Eve87]

Oops. I'll put it up elsewhere.
Voilà: http://soundcloud.com/evelien-legein/cta-3-months#

@Jenny
Yes, I've been told I sound like a woman with a bad cold before. In all honesty, for now, I can live with that. =P

Yeah, it was the cricothyroid approximation. The other surgieries kinda scare me. Vocal chords are ridiculously delicate!
No real pain at all, but I had 2 months of complete silence where I communicated by passing notes or whispering. Not because I medically had to, but because I could literally barely produce sound. Scarier than I imagined.
Cost: nada since I did the whole traditional transition path at that hospital. I was surprised to hear that. Sorry I can't give you a number. It's really a minor surgery though - like an hour. And I was out of the hospital the next morning.

Thank you for the comments. Still pretty insecure when I hear myself talking. xD

[A]

Still not working.

I'd suggest Aimini.net; never had a problem with it.

[Eve87]

Geez really

Ok, number three. =P

http://www.aimini.net/view/?fid=mRjRkTL6H0s2ybNM3RIW

[A]

Sorry, this file is not available from user's privacy setting.

Hang on; you'll get there.

[Eve87]

*twitch*

Ok. Try now.

[Annah]

*twitch*

Ok. Try now.

nope

[A]

It works for me, but strangely enough, online listening won't work. I had to download. Well, I have an account, so I can download, so no problem.

Your accent is very easy to understand ^^.

Uhm, it sure sounds like it's not quite there yet, but that's normal, isn't it? Anyway, the inability to go down to certain pitches must be really great. I really hate it when I just destroy a normally passing voice with a laugh or something that goes too low.

It would be interesting to hear a "before" sample, too.

But I'm definitely looking forward to hearing your further progress!

Edit: Oh, are you going to have therapy along with this? Oh, and I GET why your accent is so particularly easy to understand! Belgium=French! (Unless you speak German, which would screw up my reasoning).

[Eve87]

Aaaah. Anyway here's a mediafire thingiemabob too. http://www.mediafire.com/?lhn36v7z101c8ch

It is pretty great. Even coughs sound different. I can't really make any before samples now! I may have some old practise recordings. It's really basically a guy voice though.
And yes I'm seeing a voice coach as well. We are working on expanding my vocal range and just control exercises. The strained sound is supposed to fade with healing and use.
Another interesting bit: when I asked my mom to describe my voice the first thing she said is that the resonance is gone. Did not think CTA would do that, but I'll take it. =D

Thanks for the feedback

[A]

I'm not sure... Wasn't resonance a good thing?

[Eve87]

Noooo.. resonance bad. It's what makes a note on a cello sound bigger and fuller than that same note on a violin. Testosterone-poisoned ( ) voices tend to have a deeper sound because they resonate in the chest. I was expecting to have to tackle my resonance separately but apparently it's gone or at least lessened, so that makes me happy.

[Annah]

Resonance is a good thing.

You have female resonance and you have male resonance. You have to train your voice towards female resonance. If you had no resonance you would sound like the computer from "War Games."

I described it here on my voice video:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0qZWSG8g5JD

That's my voice after a couple lessons with Kathe Perez and the rest was self taught. I think when it was said and done, I invested 55 dollars in my voice.

[Eve87]

True. Obviously what she meant is that the previous "male" resonance is gone. (which was definitely a bad thing)

You sound really good. I actually bought Kathe Perez' CDs and went through two professionals for over a year but still couldn't keep my voice up all day every day. It would slip away sometimes. And I stressed out worrying about losing it in a conversation. And when I was tired... forget about the voice period. Was a bit of a mess. =p

[Maja.V]

Eve87 - even though your voice is a bit raspy and somewhat monotone, it sounds great!

That's my voice after a couple lessons with Kathe Perez and the rest was self taught. I think when it was said and done, I invested 55 dollars in my voice.

As far as I've seen, Kathe Perez' individual therapy sessions cost ~$130 per hour. Not sure how you invested only 55 dollars, unless her therapies used to be a lot cheaper.

[Annah]

i bought the CD...i didn't do personal voice therapies with her

[A]

Eve87, I sort of envy you. They paid for voice therapy, and even voice surgery. I feel sort of bad saying this on a forum where the majority have to pay for everything, but I'm sort of envious, anyway. Here, they pay SRS and part of HRT and that's all.

Belgium looks like it's a great place! Do they pay for FFS and all, too?

In any case, please make sure you keep us updated!

[Eve87]

Sure, I will post updates.

Belgium has definitely been great.  I think the only thing I've paid for so far is the laser. I don't know if they would cover FFS. Wouldn't surprise me. I think they probably would if the psych agreed it was significant enough, but I really don't know. But if they pay for voice surgeries (and I recently read they would pay for breast augmentation if I chose) FFS has a good case as well. I think I may be a little spoiled.
I should say it's great if you fit the typical box of classic transsexuality. I mean if you don't want SRS it's still legally impossible to change your gender markers, for instance. The care is outstanding but the legislation.. little medieval.