Voice Surgery

[Dodie]

Ok I have to admit.. I work sometimes 12 hours a day.. I sound female if you sitting there looking at me but on phone i get sir'd a lot. I have no time to practice much at all....
Anyway, I want to do voice surgery this fall, I was going to go to Korea but I have seen some posts on Haben..
Who is best???
Thanks so much
Dodie

[Dena]

I have been doing a good deal of research on this intending to get my voice worked on and I plan to use doctor Haben. The recovery seems to be faster, the voices sound pretty good and most important to me is I am not sure what they are doing in Korea so I am not sure they can deal with my issues. It is important to know in either case, you are going to need voice therapy to learn to use the new voice. I was trained 30 years ago in voice therapy so I know the work that will need to be done and I think I can do it myself with the possible exception of needing somebody's ear from time to time. A question I haven't ask yet but I think knowing how to use the mouth voice will be important because women don't use the chest voice. I am at the point where I need to send off a list of questions to doctor Haben to learn exactly what he would be able to do for me. Let me know if you have any questions about what I have already learned.
If you haven't already found it, the web page is located here http://www.professionalvoice.org/feminization.aspx There isn't a link off the main page so the only way to find it with with a search.

[anjaq]

I dont think there is a clear and definitive answer to that question. Wouldn't it be easy if the world was that black and white in some ways

[Dodie]

Thank you both.. yes it would be for sure.. ugh.. same thing when I chose my FFS doctor.. just used best judgement I could
Women say I don't need it.. and that I sound sexy.. just on lower end of female range which is true..
I did not realize I would need so much work to train the voice since I already do well.
Ugh
Dodie
PS I will be checking Haben out for sure..

[iKate]

Dodie,

If you want it then you get it. It's your life to live.

I am going to Dr Kim next week.

Dr Haben has going for him that he is stateside and his procedure costs less. He also does glottoplasty, CTA and something else which he calls "the triple." This supposedly gives better results for people with damage caused by smoking and similar. 

Dr Kim has going for him the fact that he has publicly posted more good results, uses permanent sutures and does something else which gets a consistent result (the AAC part of VFS-AAC). I think that Jenny also mentioned that he made some innovations including a micro scalpel . Mind you though, that because Dr Kim has posted more YouTube videos, doesn't mean that Dr Haben has less good results. It simply means that those going to Dr Kim are comfortable enough to post their results.

I would not hesitate to go to either one. I chose Dr Kim because I like the idea of going to Korea and seeing the place. I also had started the process with him long before all the good Haben results had come out here.

But I think you can't go wrong with either.

[warmbody28]

im a haben girl and im pleased. you cant go wrong either way

[ReDucks]

I got the surgery for the same reason - getting sir'd on the phone after working and living without any problems for years.  So far I am totally happy to have had the surgery, but if the hoarseness doesn't go away, I will probably need to get something done - but I'm still not even at the point where Dr. Kim said the voice would change the most.  All that said, I think the most valuable thing I am doing is speech therapy - it is helping me much more than it did when I first started getting it in 1986.  I highly recommend therapy before going to the expense and risk of surgery.  If you know how to speak before, it will be MUCH easier adjusting and really getting the full benefit of surgery later (if you even still think you need it)