Yeson voice feminization surgery

[Jennygirl]

I have wondered SO many times if I come across like some sort of marketing scheme, lol.

I do agree w/ abby about the limited vocal range, I find that most if not all females can still make much higher noises easily with their voices (probably in the 500hz-900hz range). Hopefully that is yet to come for us (but happy otherwise regardless).

Other than that there is literally nothing that I would wish were different. Still improving here, too, and I can't wait to hear the results after a year of re-strengthening

[Carrie Liz]

Lol, yeah, I saw that on your Youtube channels where some of the commenters accused you of being a cis-woman that Yeson paid off to do a plug for them. :p

Consider it a pretty damned good compliment!

[abbyt89]

Hey guys, I'm a huge Excel nerd so I created a spreadsheet to track my progress now that I've started my vocal exercises.

You can download it here if you're interested in using it: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96561242/Yeson%20Vocal%20Exercise%20Worksheet.xlsx

Along the bottom you will see 17 different tabs. The first one is the "Dashboard" tab that pulls the averages for each exercise from each week's worksheet. It also calculates changes between weeks so you can see how much progress you're making on a weekly basis.

The next 16 tabs are the worksheets for each week. Since you start the exercises at about 2 months post-op, 16 weeks of exercises would bring you to roughly 6 months. For each exercise, you fill in your results as you do your exercises. At the bottom of each worksheet, there are averages that update as the week goes along. It calculates separate averages for your morning and evening exercises as they will probably vary a bit, as well as an overall average. This overall average is what gets transferred to the "Dashboard" tab.

The exercises on the weekly worksheets are the same ones that Yeson provides you after your surgery. The only difference is I added 4 more readings at the end. There is one for the rainbow passage (I only do a shortened version), one for a natural speaking voice (I just have a little 15 second message that I record - it doesn't matter what you choose as long as you say the same thing every time), one for counting from 1-10, and one for group 1 of the Harvard Sentences. I added these so I can get an idea of what my average speaking pitch is under different circumstances.

Everything is updated automatically - all the calculations and all the links between the weekly worksheets and the dashboard. So all you have to do is fill in your results each time you do your exercises and everything updates.

I'm not sure if this will be helpful to anyone else but I personally like to be able to visually see my progress. I've only finished my first week of exercises but going forward I'll give you guys updates so you can see how much my pitch improves each week.

[sarahb]

That's great Abby, thanks! I'll check it out once I'm at my computer. I'll definitely be using it myself.

[Shantel]

We sure have a lot of really smart gals here!

[abbyt89]

Alright so the first week of vocal exercise is complete! I am exactly 9 weeks post-op (holy cow time is flying by) and this is where my voice currently sits:



Jenny - at this point in your recovery do you remember about where you were at pitch wise? I'm just wondering if it's realistic for me to expect another 10-15hz increase or so.

[sarahb]

Alright so the first week of vocal exercise is complete! I am exactly 9 weeks post-op (holy cow time is flying by) and this is where my voice currently sits:



Jenny - at this point in your recovery do you remember about where you were at pitch wise? I'm just wondering if it's realistic for me to expect another 10-15hz increase or so.

Those numbers look good! I recall you saying you were something like 15Hz lower than Jenny before the surgery, right? That would put you around 125Hz I think? So it looks like you have attained about a 65Hz increase from before (based on your natural speaking voice).

[abbyt89]

Those numbers look good! I recall you saying you were something like 15Hz lower than Jenny before the surgery, right? That would put you around 125Hz I think? So it looks like you have attained about a 65Hz increase from before (based on your natural speaking voice).

Yeah after we did all of the tests at Yeson the print out said my average pitch was 125hz.

But when I downloaded my before reading of the rainbow passage it was only 115hz. And looking through my records from voice therapy it had my normal speaking voice at 114hz. So yeah anywhere from 65-75hz increase so far.

[Jennygirl]

Alright so the first week of vocal exercise is complete! I am exactly 9 weeks post-op (holy cow time is flying by) and this is where my voice currently sits:



Jenny - at this point in your recovery do you remember about where you were at pitch wise? I'm just wondering if it's realistic for me to expect another 10-15hz increase or so.

Well it's good that you ask today and not a few days ago, because just a few days ago I was starting to feel as if my sickness had somehow affected my voice. Luckily today I'm finally feeling free of the cough & phlegm, so decided to do another rainbow recording

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1DSxGW0s2Qo

This recording has an F0 of 236hz! I was kind of shocked when I saw it, because I really wasn't putting any extra lift into my voice. Then I did a recording of just regular relaxed talking and with 3 tries the average was 219hz.

I don't know exactly why my F0 has seemingly increased so much (I was at 213hz rainbow immediately post op and 205hz normal speaking), but I have a feeling it is because I have been paying more attention towards upward pitch dynamics... or being more expressive with pitch is a good way to describe what I've been working on. It still takes a little bit of remembering to think about it, but it is becoming part of the way I talk normally. I think that is most likely what made my F0 jump up so much, because I am not talking in such a monotone manner and rather trying to float the pitch around.

Let me know what you think of the recording... I might submit it to Yeson since I am at exactly 5 months today!

[abbyt89]

Ahh that's awesome! Just getting better and better

And they say 6-12 months until it's fully healed so I guess we shouldn't be that surprised that you're still noticing an increase at 5 months.

That makes me very hopeful - I would love love love for my natural speaking voice to just be a bit higher - 200-205hz or so.

[Jennygirl]

Ahh that's awesome! Just getting better and better

And they say 6-12 months until it's fully healed so I guess we shouldn't be that surprised that you're still noticing an increase at 5 months.

That makes me very hopeful - I would love love love for my natural speaking voice to just be a bit higher - 200-205hz or so.

I am sure you will hit that, Abby. Seems to me that half of the recovery process is simply adjusting to the shortened vocal cords and learning how to use them. Although my voice does feel stronger now than it did a month ago... A lot stronger... usually I can tell when I'm trying to be loud. It's becoming easier to access higher pitches with a louder voice.

It kind of parallels what Dr. Kim told me, that I would have to learn how to use the voice at a higher pitch- it would not happen automatically.

Also the past couple of months I have been humming and lightly singing... I definitely have my mid range back but the high range is what I'm werkin on!

[anjaq]

I still adore your voice so much, Jenny! Seriously it is amazing. For some reason I think that you did some weird kind of intonation on the rainbow passage there, but I am not an english native speaker, so I am not sure, just I thought the intonation was different last time?

tomorrow I will call the voice clinic here and see if I can get an examination and voice training. I did some more recordings and my F0 according to praat is now often in the 170-190 range, so somehow I slipped back into a more female F0 range in conversations it seems, it depends on my mood though. But I have resonance issues and my voice totally strains. I am being silly a bit now and try to convince everyone at work that I have constantly had reoccuring/chronic throat infections for the past years, which is quite believable given that I did had lots of issues in the past months. The reason is that if I do some major changes to my voice now by training and quite possibly by surgery, I need a coverstory - I dont know if it is believable. Need to start another thread on that.

What i really love about your voice Jenny is how clear it is - that makes all the beauty. F0 is a definitive plus too. 236 Hz thats really up there

[Jennygirl]

Thanks Anja!! Yeah I have been trying to forget the millions of times I've practiced the rainbow passage with an intonation I have come to know so well. Otherwise if I don't it's beginning to feel a little too practiced and almost like cheating for more Hz or something.

Yeah colds are sucky. I've had a lingering chest cold that was giving me tons of issues with my voice the past couple of weeks. Phlegm = not good for feminine voice! No matter how much water I drank, it did not even matter. Good thing it's really cleared up today, because it was starting giving me pangs of dysphoria!

As far as a coverstory, you could always say that you need to have a corrective vocal cord surgery which wouldn't even be a lie... Then if they ask about it you could just say that you're getting a polyp removed because it was causing a vocal tremor. Very similar recovery

[Paige]

Jenny you really seemed to have got this transitioning down to a science.  Your voice sounds great, your profile pics keep getting better and better.  Every time I look at them I can't believe how feminine you've become.  If I ever get up the nerve to do it, I'm definitely going to follow your lead.

[abbyt89]

Seconding that you look fantastic Jenny!!

Also I wanted to share an awesome thing that just happened. So I was watching a TV show and I laughed out loud really hard for the first time since surgery. I've laughed before but it was always really quiet because my voice was weak and I also didn't want to laugh too hard on accident.

So anyway I'm watching this TV show and laughing out loud for a while. A few minutes later my dad came into the room and told me how feminine my laugh sounded. It was the first time he heard it and at first he thought one of my friends came over and he didn't hear them come in the door. He was seriously shocked at how feminine it sounded!

That's just one of the awesome side benefits of this surgery. Not having to think about my laugh at all and having it sound feminine is so nice! It definitely is something I would have hated to have to focus on. I was having enough trouble with my voice that working on a feminine laugh was a complete after thought.

I just can't wait to hear what everything is like when it's fully healed!!

[Jennygirl]

Jenny you really seemed to have got this transitioning down to a science.  Your voice sounds great, your profile pics keep getting better and better.  Every time I look at them I can't believe how feminine you've become.  If I ever get up the nerve to do it, I'm definitely going to follow your lead.

Thank you so much Paige Your comment really warmed my heart! I hope you find that nerve and show it who's boss! Lol

Seconding that you look fantastic Jenny!!

Also I wanted to share an awesome thing that just happened. So I was watching a TV show and I laughed out loud really hard for the first time since surgery. I've laughed before but it was always really quiet because my voice was weak and I also didn't want to laugh too hard on accident.

So anyway I'm watching this TV show and laughing out loud for a while. A few minutes later my dad came into the room and told me how feminine my laugh sounded. It was the first time he heard it and at first he thought one of my friends came over and he didn't hear them come in the door. He was seriously shocked at how feminine it sounded!

That's just one of the awesome side benefits of this surgery. Not having to think about my laugh at all and having it sound feminine is so nice! It definitely is something I would have hated to have to focus on. I was having enough trouble with my voice that working on a feminine laugh was a complete after thought.

I just can't wait to hear what everything is like when it's fully healed!!

Thanks so much Abby!

Yeah the laugh is a MAJOR bonus. I remember when I started to find my new laugh. So super exciting with the realization that it's not going away either given any circumstance. Congrats on the discovery! Keep em coming!

[anjaq]

Aww - you are back at making promotions there - no, seriously this all sounds quite amazing, I keep wondering and searching for where the flaw is, the things not told that make it less than fantastic, but can see only few so far (though reduced vocal range and the need to still tightly control resonance are some points).

Yes I think my voice genuinely suffers these days - maybe its psychosomatic as so many health issues I had. As in - I hate my voice thus I get sickness there for months and years making it worse. I probably even really have some damage, so I would maybe not even be lying for my coverstory, it would be hard to explain a pitch increase though, but from what I gather here, I might not really have a pitch increase with this kind of surgery anyways, but I cannot be sure as I think some questions I have are hard to answer. Like I get the impression that with such a surgery, I would not actually get a pitch increase in my speaking voice as it is now (with increased pitch by training) that much, but would be able to relax a bit more when trying to maintain that pitch and cut off some of the lower parts so I dont accidentially slip into them. So in the end I might sound more or less as on days now on which I am having a decent pitch control. But I cannot be sure of that. I already told them that i will do voice training also for loudness because I am lecturing for students as well and they have issues hearing me in the back. This will be another challenge in case I do surgery - I could not do this for several months I guess - how long until you can speak in a similar volume after this surgery? half a year? And they would probably wonder as well why I sound different if that happens. In a way I desire and crave that it sound different after, but in a way it also might cause some issues. Paradoxically I fear a bit that having this would actually in some cases cause people to be suspicious about my past rather than not having it - it would rather be an "investment" in the future. I'd not like it much if my coworkers or students would get the rumours that I had a voice change surgery because I was trans or something like that...

Oh and I saw the changed avatar photo as well - you are looking amazing Jenny, this in combination with your great face and the wonderful vooice, you are one success story!

The thing about the laugh was great too - I dont even know how I sound laughing, I think I have a "brek" in there between giggling and laughing a bit at high pitch and laughing louder which isa at a lower pitch. I thought this would be among the things controlled by resonance stuff as well, good to hear that it also changes from this procedure.

[sarahb]

anjaq - I'm running through those same questions regarding everyone hearing a difference in the voice and essentially likely "coming out" to everyone who I'm currently not out to. This includes my work, which up until I told my bosses that I needed time off for voice surgery I hadn't come out to any of them. This also includes my boyfriend's family. I haven't told any of them and I'm pretty darn sure that they'll notice the difference. That's actually one of the biggest factors in me wanting to get this surgery is that my voice wavers so much around his family, since they have a large extended family and it seems like I'm almost always meeting someone new. Every time I have to meet someone new I get really self-conscious about my voice and it fluctuates wildly. After the surgery it will [hopefully] be solidly female. On one hand it'll be great since I won't have anymore hesitation around them, but on the other hand they'll likely suspect something.

It's an interesting dichotomy since I'm naturally a pretty overt person, but my voice has made it impossible for me to feel comfortable socializing or doing anything that involves speaking (which affects so many different areas of my life, from calling to make appointments with doctors, to going shopping, to ordering food at restaurants). It sucks that I have to consciously think before I ever say a single word, and when I do talk I'm always thinking of how I sound and whether I need to make adjustments. It takes so much effort and concentration just to do that, that I don't engage in the situation itself.

That's the only reason I'm doing this surgery, to allow me to engage in life 100% and to stop engaging in myself. I have been able to feel completely comfortable with my appearance and knowing that I pass physically, so it would seem, everywhere to where I don't ever think about that aspect of passing. But really, the thing that I associate with myself the most is my voice, since I hear myself all the time...I don't see myself all the time. Always hearing a guy (or at least a "fake" female voice) has made it so hard to completely let go of my past and fully let myself out. I can't even imagine how much having a passable female voice, without any effort, will change my life.

Also, Jenny, I have to agree with everyone else in that you're coming along amazingly!

Abby, that sounds amazing! That, right there, is exactly what I'm talking about. Being able to just live life and fully engage in whatever you're doing without an afterthought.

[Shantel]

Sarah,
     Your comments are such a straight forward assessment of what holds us all in it's grip of fear and self doubt. I am so impressed with what Yeson is able to accomplish for people, it is obviously the best answer to that "elephant in the room" problem that we all experience.

[Jennygirl]

Thanks Anja and SarahR. It's one thing to feel good about transition to myself, but to hear other people responding to it in such a positive way is something I truly appreciate. Thank you guys

Sarah- that is pretty much the exact reason I chose to have this surgery. Even at just 5 months into transition and just starting to pass decently enough visually, I was very much in tune with becoming overly conscious about my voice as the void between those parts of my presentation began to grow. In order to avoid the months or years worth of adjustment and struggle I saw myself needing to acquire a passable voice, I decided to act swiftly and deliberately and go to Yeson in an attempt to avoid it all and have a few added benefits in the process.

I cannot imagine doing it any other way given how comfortable things are now. Whenever I see people who haven't met with me since before my transition, it is a shock for them- but easy for me to forget how different I look/sound compared to a year ago. I think this surgery played a HUGE role (if not the biggest) in allowing me to continue the happy parade without any hiccups whatsoever. Next and final step: SRS!