Quote from: anjaq on February 01, 2016, 03:16:16 AM
Ok, I am closing in on my 12 month post op mark. 3 weeks from now it will be one year since the surgery...
I know its still 3 weeks and all that but I think I can assume that the changes until then will not be enourmous.
So what happened to my voice with surgery was not what I expected, I would say, but its still good. What I expected was a significant increase in pitch (+75 Hz), some change in timbre and the inability to go down into a male pitch range, probably some loss at the top end as well - all of this allowing me to speak without thinking in a female pitch and staying there even if I am startled, tired or whatever. I also expected my own perception of my voice to change , so that I would not feel "fake" anymore when I speak or try to change my voice.
Now what happened was that my pitch increased a bit (+35-45 Hz), timbre changed significantly and over time with a lot of unlearning and getting settled, my average pitch stabilized into a low female range and it became less and less straining to speak, compared to pre OP. So most of the time now I do not think about my voice, have not been misgendered or asked about my voice and because of the change in timbre even if my pitch drops very low, I still don't get weird looks. It has overall improved my self confidence a ton, my self perception of the voice is mostly female and I lost that feeling of "faking something" when speaking, which allowed also my inflections and laughing and all sorts of things about my voice to just run free and I guess my "natural femaleness" rushed in to make those good as well 
. When I am among other women I do not feel like I stick out because of my voice anymore, giving me a better feeling of belonging.
But some things did not play out as I expected. While in the beginning I was still expecting a slow pitch increase over the months as Dr Kim described it to me, that did not happen. I went up by 35 Hz right at the day of surgery (of course that means 4 weeks later when I was able to speak) and basically changed to possibly 40-45 Hz increase over time - but that is probably more because I changed my speech patterns and inflections. Interestingly though involuntary sounds changed more than I expected (like squeaking when being surprised or moaning or crying). And while my comfortable speaking pitch ("my sweet spot") changed up, my lower vocal range at first decreased (lowest possible pitch went up by the same 30-45 Hz) but then went back, so I now still can reach once more down to about 90-100 Hz. Luckily it is not happening involuntarily though. My upper range at first significantly decreased from over 900 Hz to 750 Hz, but recently seems to be betting a bit better and I found a new way to produce squeaking sounds ("whistle register") at well over 1000 Hz (C6,D6 even E6) for short moments. Not sounding presentable but still - I never could make a sound like that before.
So that surprised me the most. My vocal range did not really change a lot, I still have my lowest lows but my comfortable pitch changed within that pitch range.
This seems to be a bit unique though as I heard from many others that their average pitch did increase by those 75 Hz or even more and that their lower range was indeed cut off significantly. So I am probably not the best "poster case" for this surgery, just wanted to share it as well, maybe also for those who also experience having stil a low range and all that - the cahnges in perception of my voice by myself and others still has changed massively and is liberating - no matter what pitch ranges and average pitch change says 
Anja's expectations are pretty much exactly what I was expecting as well. I gained a bit more in pitch, about 75Hz, but found that I still needed to train my voice to speak consistently and convincingly in a female voice. It wasn't possible to 'just talk' and gain the pitch elevation. After months of vocal coaching, I am still unable to just talk without thinking. That said, it does change the involuntary sounds, I never have my voice crack down into a lower tone, but still have hoarseness and a weird rasp / flute like place that my voice sometimes cracks into. I also find I can't speak as long on the same mount of breath support at normal speaking tones.
For those that exercise, I can report that under exertion I do notice the impact of narrowing my airway both in needing to get more air, and in a raspy gaspy sort of sound when I am panting for air.
Unfortunately, Yeson wasn't helpful post op, mostly ignoring my emails or responding with information that made no sense. My therapist tried to reach them with questions and they responded with stuff that she (Jesse) said made no sense vocally and when we asked for clarifications, and sent vocal recordings, they stopped responding.
Bottom line, I'm glad I had surgery, had I been looking today, I would have gone to Haben just because he's closer (I live in the US). I think that results vary with either doctor, and that everyone who considers this should be prepared to spend a lot of time in vocal training to get full benefits. My advice, start with training, if you can't be bothered to keep up with that, then you'll probably not have a great result no matter who you go to. Don't go thinking it's a simple snip snip and you sound like Jennygirl, it likely won't be like that at all. Jennygirl had an exceptional result but she also worked hard on her voice and practiced rainbow passage and such a lot to get it to sound that good. If you aren't willing to do that before surgery, save the money, you probably won't be able to do it after surgery.
My $.02, I still am happy with my results but it I am considering a 2nd surgery to try and fix some of the issues that were highlighted by the Yeson surgery.
