Is Yeson's VFS Method Proprietary?

[teeg]

This might be a dumb question, but when I think of VFS I only think of the Yeson Voice Center... I can't say I've really heard too much about VFS anywhere else (I could be very mistaken here).

Some of the results I've seen/heard from their patients (a few girls on here ) have sounded amazing!

I emailed them asking about requirements, available dates, etc., but I'm also curious if there's anyone who performs a similar if not same surgery in the US or Europe (hopefully with comparable results)? Or is the method that the Yeson Voice Center uses only performed by them?

[anjaq]

The basic method itself is neither new nor is it unique. there are at least 3 surgeons in Germany and one I believe in Belgium who do such a suture of the glottis to create a smaller opening and shorter vocal chords. BUT it seems like none of them have as much experience and precision. Everyone I have spoken to who either had such a surgery in Europe or knows people who had it gave me the impression that it will result in many cases in a feminine but hoarse voice. This is why I did not consider it seriously, even though it was available back when I transitioned around 1999. Dr Kim seems to have refined the method but probably will just not share the details of what difference he does. He seems to use permanent thread for the sutures, the others do not. He uses precision tools and manages to do very precise cuts and sutures, the others seem to be less precise. He also seems to use different depth of the stitches - I am not sure if the others do the same. I sure hope, the others will learn and get better with this, but as of now they do not seem to have $7500 worth of motivation for each surgery to encourage them to improve or specialize.

[teeg]

The basic method itself is neither new nor is it unique. there are at least 3 surgeons in Germany and one I believe in Belgium who do such a suture of the glottis to create a smaller opening and shorter vocal chords. BUT it seems like none of them have as much experience and precision. Everyone I have spoken to who either had such a surgery in Europe or knows people who had it gave me the impression that it will result in many cases in a feminine but hoarse voice. This is why I did not consider it seriously, even though it was available back when I transitioned around 1999. Dr Kim seems to have refined the method but probably will just not share the details of what difference he does. He seems to use permanent thread for the sutures, the others do not. He uses precision tools and manages to do very precise cuts and sutures, the others seem to be less precise. He also seems to use different depth of the stitches - I am not sure if the others do the same. I sure hope, the others will learn and get better with this, but as of now they do not seem to have $7500 worth of motivation for each surgery to encourage them to improve or specialize.

Thanks for the info!

I'd be comfortable going to Germany, but I guess it's the results that matter...

Do you happen to know which surgeons in Germany perform this and how I could contact them?

[anjaq]

I know about 2, but there are IMO 3 or more. There is one in Berlin at the Charité Hospital - it used to be Dr Gross but he seems to no longer do this himself. The other one was in Stuttgart at the hospital there, I believe they still do this there. It may be that there is one in Dachau who does it as well, I had the adress here somehwere as this is closest to me.
But as you say, the results matter and those always warn you a lot about possible hoarseness and breathiness. I heard no good result of them yet, but my experience there is limited, maybe thosw with good results dont talk about this. They will not provide voice samples, except in some cases if you ask them for it at a personal consultation.

If you want, I can find out more details, but as I said, I would not recommend them. Consider this: I could with near certainty get a insurance covered glottoplasty with one of them. I would have to pay nothing as they are in my home country and I can provide enough compelling statements that my voice is bad and needs to be fixed. Yet here I am, saving money every month just to fly half around the world to Korea if I want to do this. Its results that count...not money or travel distance

[anjaq]

Here is an image from 2002 about the method used in Stuttgart, Germany. The image contains the adress, but I am not sure if the phone numbers are still valid:


(via http://alex_home.beepworld.de/neue-stimme.htm)

The other one I know of is
http://audiologie-phoniatrie.charite.de/patienten/stimme/information_fuer_transsexuelle/
The method and results are described in a scientific paper from 1999: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10442755&dopt=Abstract

Be careful though. These doctors are around for over 10 years with this method but voice surgery still has an incredibly bad name in Germany, so I really doubt that they can compare with Yesons in Quality, as otherwise this would be a common procedure here by now.