Yeson voice feminization surgery 2.0

[Dana88]

Thanks! As do you and you look gorgeous!

Thank you! :-)


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[iKate]

Doing some praat analysis now I am consistently above 200Hz. There are dips to 180ish but generally 200-260Hz is where I speak.

Volume and clarity is WAY better. Going to do a recording later after I've finished housework.

[misty2]

Thank you. I am traveling from the U.S. I will be staying at the Hotel La Casa Seoul. - Danielle

[misty2]

For weeks 2-4, two words is the maximum. What are the best two words to plan on using? "Help"? I fear I will end up saying "Good Morning" and then be done for the rest of the day! LOL.

[iKate]

For weeks 2-4, two words is the maximum. What are the best two words to plan on using? "Help"? I fear I will end up saying "Good Morning" and then be done for the rest of the day! LOL.

It is best to just stay silent. Dr Kim told me "best stay silent." Save those words for an emergency. The month will fly by before you know it and you don't want to mess up your surgery result.

[Dana88]

It is best to just stay silent. Dr Kim told me "best stay silent." Save those words for an emergency. The month will fly by before you know it and you don't want to mess up your surgery result.

Yeah, Dr. Kim says that he really means it when he says 1-2 "emergency" words, and much prefers you stay completely silent for the full four weeks. I messed up twice in the week 2-4 period (and actually once in week 1). Once in week two I lifted up my phone and said Siri like an idiot, and once my brother was being a backseat driver and pointed a stop sign out to me and I just explained "I see!" You WILL have accidents. Everyone does. Better to leave your emergency words to cover those than use them willy nilly.


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[Dana88]

So! I'll admit... I'm a little concerned... Today (admittedly after some use) my voice felt tired. I started using it sparingly, and then eventually even though I was using it sparingly, it started to feel considerably lower to me. I curiously managed to carefully and softly hum down to an Ab below a woman's low C (a full augmented fourth lower than I was capable of two days ago), and then when I measured in Praat, I was at 201 hz, when I had been consistently at around 220-225 hz for over a week. Have other people had drastic swings in their range in the 4-8 week period, or did I do something to my voice unknowingly that would account for this?

[Dana88]

Though also, I had gotten used to my voice sounding so high that it sounded DRASTICALLY lower to me, like I thought it sounded like my old male voice, and then when I used praat it was still higher than the first day I started talking again and still a 45 hz increase from my old male pitch, which at least made me feel a liiiiitttttle better.


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[anjaq]

I can just repeat what Jessie from Yeson kept telling me.
* Pitch stability is not at all given throughout the healing period and can occur up to 12 months post op [meaning that pitch can go up and down and it may be hard to hold a note at one given pitch until all is really healed and settled]
* From day 7 to the end of week 4, only use 1-2 words a day, if you really must [for me this meant I did just stay in the mute mode I was in during the first week but stopped worrying what would happen if I accidentially spoke a word or two in some situation. Also I used those two words once to check if I see any changes (which was stupid, as I did feel like I did not have success in surgery after that test). I think it is useless to try and use these words for anything meaningful. Maybe tell someone to "stop" something that is endangering you or therelike. But using them for saying "hello" or "bye" seems like a waste to me]

[iKate]

There are times my pitch will dip. I notice various psychological things will trigger it, such as having to get the kids to pay attention to me. I can't shout but I have to raise my voice a bit. I use more hand gestures as well. It won't dip as low as preop though, but it goes down a bit, I would say down to 170-180Hz.

My voice doesn't get that tired but I do get phlegm which I have to clear, as you may have noticed.

Also, I noticed a huge difference between month 1 and month 2. I did regain power and clarity in month 1 but that is on a whole new level with month 2 in the rear view mirror. The exercises do help but I think in general things are stabilizing.

Oh, and I really don't take much pitch readings with Praat anymore. Real world feedback is fine, and I haven't been gendered male once since I started talking again. I also don't pay attention to my voice anymore. I just talk. I would say just relax and work on the exercises when you reach month 2.

[Dana88]

There are times my pitch will dip. I notice various psychological things will trigger it, such as having to get the kids to pay attention to me. I can't shout but I have to raise my voice a bit. I use more hand gestures as well. It won't dip as low as preop though, but it goes down a bit, I would say down to 170-180Hz.

My voice doesn't get that tired but I do get phlegm which I have to clear, as you may have noticed.

Also, I noticed a huge difference between month 1 and month 2. I did regain power and clarity in month 1 but that is on a whole new level with month 2 in the rear view mirror. The exercises do help but I think in general things are stabilizing.

Oh, and I really don't take much pitch readings with Praat anymore. Real world feedback is fine, and I haven't been gendered male once since I started talking again. I also don't pay attention to my voice anymore. I just talk. I would say just relax and work on the exercises when you reach month 2.

Yeah, that makes me feel better. It didn't drop back down to preop, nor even as low as when I first started talking again which was 195.9. I'm just not gonna measure on praat till I'm well into month two.

My voice actually got gendered as male on the phone the other day when I was sitting around 225 hz. My parents were sitting with me and were completely flabbergasted. They were like, I can't imagine anyone hearing you and thinking that's a man's voice. That was also the day I had a meeting with an agent who was like, "Can I ask you something and I hope this isn't rude?" And when I said yes she was like "Your voice sounds 100% female, how do you do that?" Soooooo maybe the phone thing was just a fluke, but it was a little unsettling... Especially considering how high my voice was sitting.


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[iKate]

Hmm. Yeah I haven't been gendered male once. I called the credit union and they referred to me as "Miss <male name>" which was funny.

Beats me though, you sound 100% like a woman.

[anjaq]

What kind of phone call was it - did they know about your previous name or "history" in some way? Could they somehow be in a situation where they were assuming to talk to a guy and were just not prepared to speak to a woman suddenly?
I sometimes get mail to "Mr <female name>" from people who do not know anything about the whole thing, they just forgot to switch the gender field in their software that churns out those advertisement paper mail things or that produces bills for companies I ordered something from. So those are just flukes.

[iKate]

Oh btw the pitch drop doesn't result in me being gendered male. It still sounds female.

I do agree with the computer theory. For example, in my Delta Airlines skymiles account (the airline, not Amex) I changed my gender to female yet it still has "Mr" in the salutation field. It's female because my driver license is female, but it has my male name. When I do get the official name change I'm going to call them and change the salutation too.

Navy FCU has "Mr" on my online account but when I call them they call me "miss <lastname>" or once the person called me "miss <male name>" which was hilarious. Same thing with USAA.

Bank of America flat out asked me if I was <male name> or his wife. I'm closing that card with them as I am weaning myself off the big banks.

[Dana88]

What kind of phone call was it - did they know about your previous name or "history" in some way? Could they somehow be in a situation where they were assuming to talk to a guy and were just not prepared to speak to a woman suddenly?
I sometimes get mail to "Mr <female name>" from people who do not know anything about the whole thing, they just forgot to switch the gender field in their software that churns out those advertisement paper mail things or that produces bills for companies I ordered something from. So those are just flukes.

I had placed an order on grub hub using my female name. The order was super late which is why I called. That said, it was an order for my whole family and I paid for it using my dad's credit card, which obviously is a male name. So maybe that was it. It was quite odd and disconcerting when it happened. This was actually the evening of the day I saw you iKate.

[Dana88]

In other news, I couldn't resist one more praat test, and already this morning it was back up to 212 hz. My voice still feels a bit tired from use yesterday. So I think I just got a bit hoarse and that is what accounts for the seemingly sudden lowering in pitch.

[Teslagirl]

I've just got to share a happy validating day with you! For some reason, even though I didn't think first my ffs and then my vfs has had much of an effect, just lately, (the last few days) I've had a remarkable degree of confidence. I went to the hospital to see a consultant about a hernia I have and on the way back stopped at a little out of the way gift shop to buy some lovely heart shaped filigree candle holders. I've been growing my hair more and was unusually girly for me, with a flower in my hair. The man serving in the shop was an absolute darling and kept calling me 'sweetheart' which I think is so lovely. I haven't been called that for years! Then he went out of his way to wrap my purchases in beautiful way, taking time to choose particularly feminine decorated gift bags for me. Now I don't know if it's the confidence or actually whether Dr Kim's and Dr Ousterhout's work have actually helped, but I left the shop feeling so authentic and far more of a woman than I usually do. Perhaps being girly really does work? I'm usually more off a jeans and tee-shirt girl. I saw some research which said the happiest couples are where the partners are quite different, such as a girly girl and a macho man. Does it blow my feminist credentials if I say perhaps I ought to do more of this sort of thing?

Maybe my voice really has improved and that's what he was responding to? I'll do recordings when I feel a little more confident.

Sarah.

[iKate]

Congrats! I will freely admit to not being a feminist, when it comes to guys doing stuff for me.

[Dana88]

I've just got to share a happy validating day with you! For some reason, even though I didn't think first my ffs and then my vfs has had much of an effect, just lately, (the last few days) I've had a remarkable degree of confidence. I went to the hospital to see a consultant about a hernia I have and on the way back stopped at a little out of the way gift shop to buy some lovely heart shaped filigree candle holders. I've been growing my hair more and was unusually girly for me, with a flower in my hair. The man serving in the shop was an absolute darling and kept calling me 'sweetheart' which I think is so lovely. I haven't been called that for years! Then he went out of his way to wrap my purchases in beautiful way, taking time to choose particularly feminine decorated gift bags for me. Now I don't know if it's the confidence or actually whether Dr Kim's and Dr Ousterhout's work have actually helped, but I left the shop feeling so authentic and far more of a woman than I usually do. Perhaps being girly really does work? I'm usually more off a jeans and tee-shirt girl. I saw some research which said the happiest couples are where the partners are quite different, such as a girly girl and a macho man. Does it blow my feminist credentials if I say perhaps I ought to do more of this sort of thing?

Maybe my voice really has improved and that's what he was responding to? I'll do recordings when I feel a little more confident.

Sarah.

Yay! Glad to hear this story :-). That's wonderful. And hey, I'm kinda a girly girl. Love getting dolled up, doing my hair and makeup, feeling feminine. I don't think being feminine or girly is adverse to being a feminist in any way whatsoever ;-). I certainly count myself as both things.


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[anjaq]

. Now I don't know if it's the confidence or actually whether Dr Kim's and Dr Ousterhout's work have actually helped, but I left the shop feeling so authentic and far more of a woman than I usually do.

It goes together. I am way more confident now that my voice changed - I dont feel like it is just about to betray me anymore. So I allow myself more and hold back less when it comes to a lot of things

Perhaps being girly really does work? I'm usually more off a jeans and tee-shirt girl.

I totally understand. For me it was the same - Shirts and pants all the time, not too much girly stuff, but this year things change - part of it is because of the voice thing and part is because of weight loss, but I actually probably wore feminine clothes like skirts and dresses more often this year than in the rest of my life and same thing goes for other stuff - using makeup, my behaviour changed - its very interesting to see what a boost in confidence can do for oneself - and suddenly one actually wants to do some of the girly things that one kept pushing away as being too girly, too feminine for oneself. And its kind of fun.