Yeson voice feminization surgery 2.0

[iKate]

There are a few other options out there but I suspect it's going to be Dr. Kim because it took me a good deal of digging to come up with Dr. Haben. My order of discovery was Portland, Dr. Kim and then through Susan's I found Dr Haben. Had Portland been my only option, I would have passed on surgery because the post surgical voices didn't sound right to my ear. Dr. Kim's voice sound good but Korea is a long way off and I really like to have options to chose from so I went looking for another option.
As high as Jenner's voice is, therapy should work well but I think Dr. Kim or Dr. Haben would both be able to do a good job with that voice.

A little side note, when Jenner first came out and before I found Susan's place, I fired off an offer of help to Jenner. I never received a response and I never expected one but Jenner appears to have different support structure, most likely provided through her doctors. Jenner had dyslexia so I suspect she spends little if any time on the web or even reading fan mail. If she is aware of us, it would most likely be as the result of somebody else pointing us out.

I suspect Haben because she had the trach shave and Dr Kim tends to discourage the trach shave. They even used to do it as part of the procedure but I was told they stopped doing it because it makes things more complicated. Meanwhile Dr Haben offers it as part of the "triple." I also think that with Cait's voice that she may be more suited to a CTA in addition to glottoplasty.

[Dena]

Dr Haben didn't want to offer me the triple because he though he could do enough without it and because I told him I had the trach shave. I think he may have reevaluated things a little bit because my shave was very conservative and it was much lower than he though it would be. I didn't really want the loss of flexibility that the triple would cause and as he said he could push my voice into the acceptable range without the triple, that was the way we went.
My voice was far lower than Jenner's so I don't really see why either doctor couldn't do the surgery unless the trach shave was to extreme.

[Dana88]

So I can speak in 5 days (including today). I couldn't resist earlier and for the first time I used one of my one to two emergency words (I've been silent the rest of the recovery period). I just said "hi" into my voice memos. I wish I didn't do it just cause now it's set off my anxiety. I couldn't tell if it was hoarse or if my voice was trying to access a part of it that no longer exists, or a little bit of both. That said, the timbre definitely sounds more feminine. So now I'm just going to sit tight and be silent again till Monday and try not to obsess too hard.

[Dena]

Don't panic. I am 3 weeks out from Dr Haben and only the last 3 day have have I had any type of voice. I am pretty flat but I have volume. it also still sounds like I have the mother of all head colds but I am using my mouth voce and generating pitches in my old falsetto range. Until this swelling goes down a bit more I have no clue how high the final voice will be.  Before this, volume was limited to a loud whisper and it took around 10 days after surgery before I could even get the cords to vibrate. I suspect I do swell a bit more than normal. We have person who came back from Dr Haben who took over a month before the voice became usable. The only thing we do know is that nobody has reported permanent voice loss and voices can take as long as 6 weeks to 2 months to be come usable.
Dr Haben has put some people on a month long voice rest for the simple reason he knew how bad the initial voice would be and he didn't want them to have anxiety from a voice that was no where near finish form. I guess he figure I could handle the pressure but I don't know why he though that as I was really wound up before surgery.
Just understand we don't all heal at the same rate and some of us have to wait it out a good deal longer. I wouldn't be surprised if I am not ready to record a voice sample until 6 to 8 weeks at the rate I am going.
As for learning to use the voice, you do need a much lighter touch, much like controlling a falsetto voice in order to use the new voice. I was jumping all over the scale at first because it is different.

[Dana88]

I'm trying not to.

What's odd is that, okay, I'll admit, I did have ONE little mess up where I used my two emergency words before today . It was last Friday. My brother was backseat driving the hell out of me and he pointed out a stop sign and I exasperatedly said "I see." And that wasn't hoarse at all. So what I'm wondering is if it is that I was trying to access a low part of my voice that's gone, and that the "I see" was automatic without thinking so my voice just naturally went where it should now? Maybe? I don't know.

[Dena]

Don't try to over think it. Control of the vocal cords will be much different and you are going to have some experimentation to figure out how they work again. I haven't wasted time playing with the chest voice but I have slipped into it and control of it has changed as well. If you have had some words come out clear, trust that your voice is there and ready to work. There is a huge learning curve with the new voice unless you are like IKate and had it nailed from birth.
By the way, all of you voice is still there unless you had Dr Haben's triple, it's just moved up the scale a ways. My male voice should now be a high male voice or a low female voice, I won't know until I do some more playing which won't be for a month or two

[Dana88]

Don't try to over think it. Control of the vocal cords will be much different and you are going to have some experimentation to figure out how they work again. I haven't wasted time playing with the chest voice but I have slipped into it and control of it has changed as well. If you have had some words come out clear, trust that your voice is there and ready to work. There is a huge learning curve with the new voice unless you are like IKate and had it nailed from birth.
By the way, all of you voice is still there unless you had Dr Haben's triple, it's just moved up the scale a ways. My male voice should now be a high male voice or a low female voice, I won't know until I do some more playing which won't be for a month or two

Yeah. That's true. Also only having two words didn't afford me much opportunity to experiment with pitch or resonance to see where is comfortable.

And yes I know the whole range should still be there, but moved up. So I meant trying to access low notes that don't exist anymore because the block of my vocal range has been bumped up a notch.

[anjaq]

Oh - I would like to see that TV show where they feature Jennys video and talk about voice surgery. Is there a clip of that on youtube? I dont have any access to US television otherwise.

[iKate]

Oh - I would like to see that TV show where they feature Jennys video and talk about voice surgery. Is there a clip of that on youtube? I dont have any access to US television otherwise.

It will probably show up on YouTube sooner or later... there are also other sources which are available for non-US viewers.

[iKate]

So I can speak in 5 days (including today). I couldn't resist earlier and for the first time I used one of my one to two emergency words (I've been silent the rest of the recovery period). I just said "hi" into my voice memos. I wish I didn't do it just cause now it's set off my anxiety. I couldn't tell if it was hoarse or if my voice was trying to access a part of it that no longer exists, or a little bit of both. That said, the timbre definitely sounds more feminine. So now I'm just going to sit tight and be silent again till Monday and try not to obsess too hard.

There are at least two factors at play here. First is the lower range which is now inaccessible and it will take a few tries before your brain gives up and tries not to use it. Second is the swelling. Your vocal folds are still a bit swollen.

For me using the voice the first time felt like more effort but it became easier with each passing day. Today it is pretty much effortless but I still do not push it.

[iKate]

6 weeks post-op and Praat is reading my voice at around 210Hz consistently now. I will see anything from 170-230Hz without really trying. My pitch varies quite a lot (prosody), and I have no idea why. It's just the way I talk and how I've always talked. But it's a good thing since people say I sound naturally feminine and they couldn't tell I was trans by my voice.

My voice is much clearer but there is still breathiness and a hint of raspiness (glottal fry). However, I think I can train the fry out quite easily.

Laughing sounds like any other woman laughing. I am especially happy about that.

On the phone I confuse people who haven't heard me in a while.

The best today was a conf call with a vendor who I had spoken to before in my old voice, actually from terminal 1 at JFK before I boarded my flight to Seoul. I came on, chit chatted for a bit, then the guy said, "okay, so umm, do you know if Kate is going to join us? We're just waiting on her." lol

In a month or two I want to go on a friend's podcast and tell my story. My voice is giving me confidence to do so.

I am very very happy with this result. My voice has opened doors like you would not believe. It is so nice to talk to people and not have half the conversation end up being about my transition and how I'm so "brave" and stuff.

[kwala]

6 weeks post-op and Praat is reading my voice at around 210Hz consistently now. I will see anything from 170-230Hz without really trying. My pitch varies quite a lot (prosody), and I have no idea why. It's just the way I talk and how I've always talked. But it's a good thing since people say I sound naturally feminine and they couldn't tell I was trans by my voice.

My voice is much clearer but there is still breathiness and a hint of raspiness (glottal fry). However, I think I can train the fry out quite easily.

Laughing sounds like any other woman laughing. I am especially happy about that.

On the phone I confuse people who haven't heard me in a while.

The best today was a conf call with a vendor who I had spoken to before in my old voice, actually from terminal 1 at JFK before I boarded my flight to Seoul. I came on, chit chatted for a bit, then the guy said, "okay, so umm, do you know if Kate is going to join us? We're just waiting on her." lol

In a month or two I want to go on a friend's podcast and tell my story. My voice is giving me confidence to do so.

I am very very happy with this result. My voice has opened doors like you would not believe. It is so nice to talk to people and not have half the conversation end up being about my transition and how I'm so "brave" and stuff.

I'm so happy for you.  Your voice is already so obviously in the "win" category and it's astonishing to think that it could get even better with more healing time and training.  Congrats again!

[iKate]

I'm so happy for you.  Your voice is already so obviously in the "win" category and it's astonishing to think that it could get even better with more healing time and training.  Congrats again!

What's amazing is that I only got 1/3 suture, whereas Jenny and I think J-Mi got 1/2. But my vocal folds weren't that big to begin with.

[Dana88]

What's amazing is that I only got 1/3 suture, whereas Jenny and I think J-Mi got 1/2. But my vocal folds weren't that big to begin with.

Odd question: how do you know you only got the 1/3 suture? Did Dr. Kim tell you? He never told me how much of my vocal cords he was suturing.

[iKate]

Odd question: how do you know you only got the 1/3 suture? Did Dr. Kim tell you? He never told me how much of my vocal cords he was suturing.

I asked him during the quick post op check before I went home. It also looks like 1/3.

[iKate]

That looks like 1/3. It definitely did not look like Jenny's 1/2. This was 6 days post op before Botox.

[Dana88]

So this is my postop:



This is when I had a Laryngologist appt last Friday:



To me it looks closer to 1/3 than 1/2. I suppose I could always email and ask. I'm sure there's record of it.

[anjaq]

iKate, this is wonderful - your voice really changed dramatically, you are very lucky

I am amazed at how consitent well the healing and the shape of the suture is with Yeson. Thos pictures look all pretty similar and good - same with the one that have been posted earlier and elsewhere. Where it gets interesting though is to take a look at the pictures taken while making a sound, when the vocal folds touch - this really shows then if there are any gaps or irregularities. Of course those can only be taken aber 8 weeks or so. In my case I still have some posterior gap, but the frontal (in the photos that is "down") closure was great, indicating that I dont have any scar tissue obstructing closure of the vocal folds or changing the shape of the commissure, as I have seen it with some other surgery results, for example from Berlin.

[iKate]

My medical certificate said I should follow up with an otolaryngologist in 2 months. So I'm going to ask my GP for a referral when I see her, although Dana did recommend a good one she went to. Not fond of the camera up nose but it would be nice to see how the healing is going.

[iKate]

So this is my postop:

To me it looks closer to 1/3 than 1/2. I suppose I could always email and ask. I'm sure there's record of it.

You also don't really show much of an asymmetry as mine did. You should heal pretty good, I think.