Yeson voice feminization surgery

[barbie]

Hey kathyp, please keep us updated as much as you can during your recovery, if at all possible! I'm trying to book the surgery for the end of October and I'd love to hear how it goes for you. Good luck with everything. I can't wait to hear your new voice!

Sarah

The end of October is a nice period to visit Seoul. Not cold and not hot. The sky will be blue, and you can enjoy colorful fall leaves.

barbie~~

[kathyp]

Hello
         Thanks all for your encouragement, I am in Seoul now in a few hours I have my pre-op exam.
If anyone is interested we are staying at one of the recommended places on Yeson's list, Jin studio's (Airbnb)
it costs $832USD for 10 days. It's a studio apt. with private bath, wifi & kitchen. It is supposed to be within walking distance to Yeson.
Kathy

[Jennygirl]

Hello
         Thanks all for your encouragement, I am in Seoul now in a few hours I have my pre-op exam.
If anyone is interested we are staying at one of the recommended places on Yeson's list, Jin studio's (Airbnb)
it costs $832USD for 10 days. It's a studio apt. with private bath, wifi & kitchen. It is supposed to be within walking distance to Yeson.
Kathy

Awesome, Kathy. Sounds like a cheaper and better option than what I had!

Have fun at your pre-op consult & exam, and say hello to Jessie for me

I am now officially at 4 months post op. Feeling better about my voice every week. I've even started to hum/sing some stuff which seems to have gotten a lot better. A word of advice, get plenty of sleep when recovering from this surgery... It makes a huge impact on voice quality for the day, I've noticed.

[kathyp]

Hi
Jenny I said Hi for you, they smiled fondly.
    Dr Kim is super patient and thorough. He says I will need 1/3 inch removal and I should go from 139Hz to
218Hz. I do have a Tremor so Botox and an extra week of silence, my wife is ecstatic!
    Seoul is a pleasant surprise for us. The city is super clean, very safe at least in Gangham and the people
are really friendly when you engage them otherwise they mind their own business. I am a 6'2" blond hair giant
over here and I really don't get overt stares. The only big obstacle for us has been finding our way around without Google Maps. Sim cards for foreign visitor phones are new and not readily available.
      Question for Jenny, was the tour Yeson arranges for you worth it. The reason I ask is we have to pay extra (73.00USD)for my wife.
Thanks, Kathy

[barbie]

The only big obstacle for us has been finding our way around without Google Maps. Sim cards for foreign visitor phones are new and not readily available.

You could rent a smartphone at the airport. For example, http://www.skroaming.com/en/main.asp
The price seems reasonable to me. I also rely on smartphone when visiting Seoul.

barbie~~

[NIP]

FEMLAR is definitely permanent. What Yeson does is permanent if you don't talk for how long they tell you (give the stitch time to heal). CTA (crico-thyroid approximation) is not permanent because vocal cords stretch out.

Remember that what Yeson does is not enough: you need to learn to change resonance too. Learn that first. Quite possibly, you'll find that it's enough.

That technique detailed on your website really interests me and sounds highly intuitive in how it produces results, but I'm having difficultly progressing in my ability to do anything but delay the descent of the larynx. I can't seem to move from visualising the location of the muscles I'm supposed to be using to actually using them on demand. I don't know whether I'm over-tensing. I often seem to be holding my breath. Could you describe what I'm supposed to feel and where I'm supposed to feel it?

[barbie]

      Question for Jenny, was the tour Yeson arranges for you worth it. The reason I ask is we have to pay extra (73.00USD)for my wife.

As you know, Sep 19 is a national holiday (a kind of Thanksgiving day) here, and most stores will be closed. The real population of Seoul will be decreased to more than a half between Sep 18 and 20, as 35 millions nationwide (70% of the entire Korea population) will leave for their hometown to meet their family and relatives. I think you have better tour the city on those days. The price seems reasonable to me.

barbie~~

[Lena from Kiev]

I'm having difficultly progressing in my ability to do anything but delay the descent of the larynx. I can't seem to move from visualising the location of the muscles I'm supposed to be using to actually using them on demand. I don't know whether I'm over-tensing. I often seem to be holding my breath.

If you can delay the descent of the larynx then you do it by using the right muscles. It's the same muscles which pull larynx up when you swallow or gargle.

Could you describe what I'm supposed to feel and where I'm supposed to feel it?

If you see in a mirror that your Adam's apple moves up then you do the right thing.

[abbyt89]

Hi
Jenny I said Hi for you, they smiled fondly.
    Dr Kim is super patient and thorough. He says I will need 1/3 inch removal and I should go from 139Hz to
218Hz. I do have a Tremor so Botox and an extra week of silence, my wife is ecstatic!
    Seoul is a pleasant surprise for us. The city is super clean, very safe at least in Gangham and the people
are really friendly when you engage them otherwise they mind their own business. I am a 6'2" blond hair giant
over here and I really don't get overt stares. The only big obstacle for us has been finding our way around without Google Maps. Sim cards for foreign visitor phones are new and not readily available.
      Question for Jenny, was the tour Yeson arranges for you worth it. The reason I ask is we have to pay extra (73.00USD)for my wife.
Thanks, Kathy

Hi Kathy,

I am so glad you got to Seoul OK! I was also very very impressed with how clean and safe the city is!

As for phones, you can rent a wireless hotspot (called like an egg wifi or something) but from what I could tell you had to do it in advance and could only pick it up at the airport. I forgot to do that, and was really regretting it. I too was having difficulty getting around without data on my phone so I sucked it up and added a Global Data plan to my phone since I would only have to deal with it for a month. With Verizon, it was $25 for 200mb of data which was plenty since I was just using it for google maps and quick google searches. If you don't have Verizon or Sprint that won't work though because AT&T and T-mobile use a different type of cell service (GSM compared to CDMA in South Korea) for their phones.

As for the tour, I think it would be worth $80 since it's such a small group of people. For me it was supposed to only be 2 people but one person didn't show so I had a personal tour with my own guide and driver! It was really nice because I got to see all of the typical touristy things you would want to do in Seoul without having to worry about getting around due to the language barrier and lack of ability to talk.

Good luck with the surgery, I hope it goes well!!

[abbyt89]

Oh and an update on my voice:

My natural speaking pitch has gone up over the last week! I don't know why I got so worked up last week lol, just me being impatient I guess. Anyway, on Sept. 9th I was at 152hz, and today I am at 166hz. So the total increase one month and two days post-op is 41hz.

The quality of my voice continues to improve, but I still can't say more than a couple sentences at a time before my voice starts to crack a little bit and the volume begins to fade. The after-care instructions say to continue to limit use of my voice for another month, at which point I should hopefully be able to hold a full conversation. I can't wait for that because I've been DYING to see my therapist but there's no way I can do an hour session with her until then.

So yeah I am very happy with where I am at one month post-op (I seriously can not believe it's been over a month already!!) and I am looking forward to the next couple of months as it continues to heal. My natural speaking pitch is definitely up out of the male range and into the gender neutral range now which makes me a lot more comfortable with using my voice in public. And knowing it's only going to get better from here is amazing!

[sarahb]

That's great to hear Abby! I hope it continues to get better over the next few weeks. Keep us updated :-)

[Jennygirl]

Seconded, that is awesome to hear Abby Keep up the great recovery!

Kathy, my friend came with and had to pay the extra 75 and she seemed to think it was worth it. We had a pretty good time just being driven around all over the city. I would do it earlier on in your trip and then that way if you want to go back somewhere to shop or sightsee more you know where to go. I did mine pretty late for some reason, and we had already been to some of the places- which felt kind of redundant. Either way, yes it was worth it! Sheesh, all this talk is really making me want to go back! I would love to visit Insadong again. I found a woman who makes hand crafted ceramic jewelry and it's been my favorite accessories ever since going.

Super excited to hear your results as well Kathy! Good luck at your surgery tomorrow!!

[sarahb]

in case you are interested, my absolute range pre-op was D2 - C5 (72hz - 523hz). Now it is C#3 - E5 (138hz - 660hz).

When you say your minimum and maximum range, what exactly do you mean? Is your max like the highest you can squeak out a noise? I ask because I tested myself and I found my range to be 100Hz - 700Hz (pretty much exactly even at each end, which is weird). That is me rumbling the absolute lowest I can, and the highest-pitch squeak I can manage. I'm a little dubious about my max range being 700Hz though, so I'm wondering if we're talking about the same thing. Now, I can't consistently go from 100Hz smoothly all the way up to 700Hz, but if I pause in between I can work my way up to it. Does that sound right? I'm thinking maybe I didn't have an accurate measurement.

[Jennygirl]

Exactly, the highest I can go doing a sweep from lowest to highest and back down... A siren I guess some might call it.

It sounds like you're doing an accurate measurement. When I say 660hz max that is the absolute highest pitch I can make. I would loooove to be able to go higher and I'm working on it. I think it's just going to take practice and some vocal weight lifting to fully realize it. I could definitely be lifting heavier weights, but I really don't want to overdo!

[LizMarie]

I hope you're not just saying that to be nice!!!

Here's one a little bit higher, just over 200hz: http://vocaroo.com/i/s16DE97YIfcs

This is starting to sound a little bit forced maybe? Not sure which one I think sounds more feminine.

Abby, you have a beautiful voice! It reminds me of some of my favorite jazz singers like Diana Krall.

Jenny, your successes here caused me to write to the Yeson clinic explaining my specific medical issues. You see, in 1996 I had a laryngoplasty to insert the old style teflon inserts because one vocal cord became paralyzed after chemotherapy and surgery removed a cancerous tumor that was wrapped around the left vocal cord nerve. So that vocal cord of mine is completely not retrainable. (To be retrained you have to have muscle control and the nerve there is gone.)

I'm waiting for an answer and I realize my situation would be non-standard. I never had much resonance in my voice and have been able to remove almost all of it with ease, but increasing pitch has been difficult for me and even more than a few minutes ends up being problematic so surgery is the only way I can increase that pitch.

I was previously considering Dr. Thomas in Oregon but this seems to focus exactly on what I need, pitch, not overall voice change, plus your results and Abby's results are simply fantastic.

[kathyp]

Hi
     Well I am 2 1/2 days now. The surgery went well, I got there at 8 a.m and stayed until 6pm. We walked back to our apartment and voila! That in retrospect was the easy part the hard part is not TALKING and not COUGHING! Abby now I know how you must have felt when you awoke to find yourself talking! I just lightly coughed a little while go and I am feeling really pessimistic that I blew it, I know I'm #2 out of 200.LOL!
Were you, Jenny and Abby completely silent and cough-less?
       Anyways, to all who are contemplating going to Yeson, I must add to the FYI that the clinic is top notch,
first class environment. The day of surgery your recovery room is like a hotel room with couch, refer, snacks
but no mini bar , so if anyone accompanies you they will be comfortable as well. After FFS in Peru this was a dream!
        Thanks for the heads up about the Moon Holiday, your right it's a ghost town around here. I think it's fascinating for everyone to take a long weekend because it's a full moon. I was told that if you pray to the moon during this time you will get what you want. 
         I finally came to the same conclusion as Abby did that any Sim card issue needs to be dealt with at the airport. I do have Verizon so I'll do the same.
         Reading about the evolving progress of Jenny and Abby keeps me motivated. Thank you for staying on the forum and responding.
Kathy

[Shantel]

Good report Kathy, glad it went well for you! Jennygirl has got to be Yeson's best outside sales rep huh?

[abbyt89]

Hi
     Well I am 2 1/2 days now. The surgery went well, I got there at 8 a.m and stayed until 6pm. We walked back to our apartment and voila! That in retrospect was the easy part the hard part is not TALKING and not COUGHING! Abby now I know how you must have felt when you awoke to find yourself talking! I just lightly coughed a little while go and I am feeling really pessimistic that I blew it, I know I'm #2 out of 200.LOL!
Were you, Jenny and Abby completely silent and cough-less?
       Anyways, to all who are contemplating going to Yeson, I must add to the FYI that the clinic is top notch,
first class environment. The day of surgery your recovery room is like a hotel room with couch, refer, snacks
but no mini bar , so if anyone accompanies you they will be comfortable as well. After FFS in Peru this was a dream!
        Thanks for the heads up about the Moon Holiday, your right it's a ghost town around here. I think it's fascinating for everyone to take a long weekend because it's a full moon. I was told that if you pray to the moon during this time you will get what you want. 
         I finally came to the same conclusion as Abby did that any Sim card issue needs to be dealt with at the airport. I do have Verizon so I'll do the same.
         Reading about the evolving progress of Jenny and Abby keeps me motivated. Thank you for staying on the forum and responding.
Kathy

I'm so glad it went well!!

I was pretty much completely coughless for the first 7 days, yes. Make sure you take the medicine they give you religiously (I love love love how they separated it into packets for each dose, so convenient!) because it really helps keep the phlegm down. For me, the first 3 days or so were the worst, so keep a bottle of water with you at all times in case you feel some phlegm in your throat. For me the "open mouth" coughing technique they showed you plus the water worked well enough to keep me from coughing.

As for talking, I accidentally said two words a couple of days after the surgery and was convinced I ruined everything! But it turned out fine, after that I just made sure I was super super careful not to talk.

Please keep us updated on your recovery!

[Jennygirl]

I had a few minor coughs early on, too. There was nothing I could do. Then I was so angry that I'd done it I almost hit myself, lol

I was super concerned and asked Jessie if I was screwed, and she said I should be fine as long as I haven't tried to talk and there was no sudden pain... That is the biggie to look out for apparently! Still, out of the hundreds of people they've treated with this procedure, only one has needed to come back for a fix... And that was because they tried to yell on day 3 or 4 or something and it affected the suture tying the cords together. Yikes, that must have been painful!

Glad to hear everything is going excellently for you as well, kathy I agree, their facility is great and very comforting. I remember having absolutely no doubts that what I was doing was a good idea. Barely any nerves at all. It sounds like others are having similar experiences, which is good!

[sarahb]

That's so good to hear Kathy!!! It sounds like you don't have to worry too much if you accidentally cough very minimally, so long as there's no pain. I myself am worrying about that too, as well as talking in my sleep, which I sometimes do.

Thank you for the updates. It's really helping me as I look forward to my own surgery. Please keep them coming!