Yeson voice feminization surgery 2.0

[Dana88]

Oh right lol.

My brother is changing station to Japan and I might go visit him before the 1 year is up. I get good deals to NRT via ICN.

Nice. We just spent ridiculous money for the flights to Seoul/Thailand. Especially cause I'm flying Korean Air and I'm in Prestige cause mama's gonna need to be able to get COMFY during nearly 24 hours of travel when I'm only three and a half weeks postop from my SRS haha. We had AMEX points, a lot of them, which proved completely and utterly useless. We coulda transferred them to Aeroplan and used them for my seat on Asiana and Thai Airways, but for my mom to get on the same flights it wasn't gonna be much cheaper than just sucking it up and buying full price on Korean... And we preferred Korean to Asiana and Thai Airways.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[iKate]

You'll enjoy prestige. Private bar and all. Only way I will fly anyway.

The Amex points are useless now for me which is why I'm going to drop my platinum card at renewal. They also dropped the partner lounges for some airlines. I have a delta sky miles card and platinum medallion anyway which gives me better bang for my buck, even with sky pesos. I'm undecided who to go to for SRS given the options Zil talked to me about but I may choose thailand.

Good luck!

[kwala]

Quick question Dana, what has your head voice been like? As of now I don't really have access to it other than involuntary squeaks when my chest voice is giving out at the end of a phrase.

[iKate]

I basically speak in a mix of head and chest voice. I feel little to no vibration in my chest when speaking. Being 25 weeks post op I am slowly accessing higher ranges but I must admit it sometimes gets frustrating because there's a sharp cutoff. But with exercise my range keeps increasing just slowly

[Dana88]

You'll enjoy prestige. Private bar and all. Only way I will fly anyway.

The Amex points are useless now for me which is why I'm going to drop my platinum card at renewal. They also dropped the partner lounges for some airlines. I have a delta sky miles card and platinum medallion anyway which gives me better bang for my buck, even with sky pesos. I'm undecided who to go to for SRS given the options Zil talked to me about but I may choose thailand.

Good luck!

Yeah, I had a TON of Delta skymiles but they didn't have lie flat seats in business on the flights to Korea and Thailand (which is the reason I wanted business/prestige). Then you can book Korean Air since they're also in SkyTeam with Delta skymiles BUT the availability was so limited I woulda had multiple ridiculous layovers and then buying an extra ticket for my mom woulda been just as expensive as just buying two tix on Korean direct to Seoul and then to Bangkok outright from Korean Air.

And yeah, by the time Zil talked to me about all the stuff with what Beth Israel is trying to do, I was within the window of I could no longer cancel my SRS with Suporn without losing my deposit. Plus, I still prob woulda gone to Suporn anyway haha.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[iKate]

Yeah, I had a TON of Delta skymiles but they didn't have lie flat seats in business on the flights to Korea and Thailand (which is the reason I wanted business/prestige). Then you can book Korean Air since they're also in SkyTeam with Delta skymiles BUT the availability was so limited I woulda had multiple ridiculous layovers and then buying an extra ticket for my mom woulda been just as expensive as just buying two tix on Korean direct to Seoul and then to Bangkok outright from Korean Air.

And yeah, by the time Zil talked to me about all the stuff with what Beth Israel is trying to do, I was within the window of I could no longer cancel my SRS with Suporn without losing my deposit. Plus, I still prob woulda gone to Suporn anyway haha.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah delta has cut down a lot of partner redemption and earning and KE was cut down to a lower tier than say air France. Nevertheless the old award chart is still valuable and you can find some seats on sale and with decent points availability. Also higher medallion status like platinum or diamond can give you an advantage.

Also now you can book business/prestige as an award ticket on an international flight where previously you were not able to. But as you said many of them come with ridiculous layovers.

I check out the points guy and flyer talk. They have a lot of tips on scoring some good award flights.  My cousin is also works in the biz and gets me some good friends and family discounts.

I might end up flying to Japan and then ferrying to Korea and taking the train up to Seoul. I've been meaning to check out Ulsan/busan and the southern cities outside of Seoul.

[anjaq]

These days my Fundamental Frequency is sitting pretty consistently around 245 hz, which is a 103 hz increase from my preop voice. I still notice changes everyday. Gaining more clarity and resonance, but the fundamental frequency has seemed preeeettttty settled for a while.

I personally have come to believe - looking at what has been reported here from many patients - that the pitch actually changes very fast and soon after that settles. I have hardly heard someone having significant pitch changes after the first couple of weeks - some changes do occur, mainly because one gets used to be comfortable at a different pitch and because one learns how to not force the voice down out of habit - or use different speech patterns and resonance, but the fundamental frequency seems to not change that much after the initial healing phase.
At least for me, the pitch seems to be the same after 8 weeks and now after 10 months, I just learned how to use my voice a bit differently. Of course - who knows, maybe something weird is going to happen and there will still be some changes in the 2 coming months, but essentially I would say that at least for me, the big change was with surgery and after that there were some slight pitch changes and then the rest was mostly changing habits and healing the hoarseness and improving resonance...

[iKate]

I personally have come to believe - looking at what has been reported here from many patients - that the pitch actually changes very fast and soon after that settles. I have hardly heard someone having significant pitch changes after the first couple of weeks - some changes do occur, mainly because one gets used to be comfortable at a different pitch and because one learns how to not force the voice down out of habit - or use different speech patterns and resonance, but the fundamental frequency seems to not change that much after the initial healing phase.
At least for me, the pitch seems to be the same after 8 weeks and now after 10 months, I just learned how to use my voice a bit differently. Of course - who knows, maybe something weird is going to happen and there will still be some changes in the 2 coming months, but essentially I would say that at least for me, the big change was with surgery and after that there were some slight pitch changes and then the rest was mostly changing habits and healing the hoarseness and improving resonance...

I think that is correct (and this is why I don't play the Hz game) given that I'm not really much above 200Hz. But my voice is always gendered female and has feminine timbre. This seems to be the biggest benefit of the surgery - that the voice is now concentrated in higher ranges and doesn't have much energy at lower ranges. It has a feminine timbre, a feminine color if you may.

I did measure a relaxed voice reading and the average pitch is 210Hz. However, it goes anywhere from 180 to 260Hz (taking into account any artifacts that would give a false high reading).

[iKate]

I am now 25 weeks post op.

I did this recording from the car, and somehow my phone recorded via the bluetooth system as if it were a phone call. Nevertheless, it's good to hear how your voice would sound over the phone, as I wonder how people would hear me.

So this is me at 25 weeks, as I'd sound over the phone:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0FYeyFKwby6

And this is a (short) regular recording with full audio range:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1lbwCTKPZn3

Hz isn't very high, Praat says about 205-210Hz. But it has feminine prosody and lacks the male resonance. Would anyone gender this voice male? They'd have to be deaf to do so. Also, it's not super high but I think it matches my build and appearance. I am not petitie but I'm not tall. I sound similar to my mom and cousins.

[Jessirules]

I am now 25 weeks post op.

I did this recording from the car, and somehow my phone recorded via the bluetooth system as if it were a phone call. Nevertheless, it's good to hear how your voice would sound over the phone, as I wonder how people would hear me.

So this is me at 25 weeks, as I'd sound over the phone:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0FYeyFKwby6

And this is a (short) regular recording with full audio range:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1lbwCTKPZn3

Hz isn't very high, Praat says about 205-210Hz. But it has feminine prosody and lacks the male resonance. Would anyone gender this voice male? They'd have to be deaf to do so. Also, it's not super high but I think it matches my build and appearance. I am not petitie but I'm not tall. I sound similar to my mom and cousins.

You sound great.  You should be very happy with where you are!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[iKate]

You sound great.  You should be very happy with where you are!

Thanks. I am!

[kitten_lover]

You sound great.  You should be very happy with where you are!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Wow, amazing Jessie -

I'm 7 weeks post op - still very scratchy....

This is me honestly saying, and I'm quite critical, you couldn't sound male at all. Your probably the low end of the female range though, as your pitch confirms.

I'll post one here soon of myself saying the rainbow passage. I don't think I have as high a pitch - probably 175 I would estimate. But there's a definite female 'colour' as some call it, to my voice.

Just out of interest, what was your pitch in comparison to how it is now, when you were only 7 weeks post-op?

[iKate]

Wow, amazing Jessie -

I'm 7 weeks post op - still very scratchy....

This is me honestly saying, and I'm quite critical, you couldn't sound male at all. Your probably the low end of the female range though, as your pitch confirms.

I'll post one here soon of myself saying the rainbow passage. I don't think I have as high a pitch - probably 175 I would estimate. But there's a definite female 'colour' as some call it, to my voice.

Just out of interest, what was your pitch in comparison to how it is now, when you were only 7 weeks post-op?

Umm I think you mean me?

CHeck at the beginning of this thread. I think I was closer to 200Hz but maybe a little below.

[iKate]

Oh this morning the postman delivered the wrong package to my house, I had to shout at him (he was on the street about 150ft away). The shout came out almost as loud as I was pre op but feminine pitch and color.

So about 25 weeks post op I can say that I gained most of my power back, which I'm very happy about.

[anjaq]

This is me honestly saying, and I'm quite critical, you couldn't sound male at all. Your probably the low end of the female range though, as your pitch confirms.

I think one can still somehow sound "male" in some way - either because resonance is not right , then even a high pitched voice can sound male - or because pitch is lowered for some reason - old habits or such...
Out of fun I tried to do a low voice recording and I found it can actually be pretty low, right in the male range, but I really have to deliberately lower my voice to get into that range, so I don't think I would "slip" when I am not watching out for it and end up in that range, pre-op this was happening occasionally (it even dopped lower, I think).
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1SsbkbnfzaI

[anjaq]

Ok, this was a bit tough - first talk in front of about 100 people in a room designed for 200 or 300 people. 90 minutes. I definitely noticed that my voice is a bit weaker than a year ago (pre OP) but it definitely is better in respect to pitch and resonance. I need to actually go up in pitch a bit to reach the maximum volume but then it can resonate really well and project fairly good. I also did not feel strain in the throat afterwards, which is really new.
However, I noticed I have still quite some hoarseness and vocal fry that happens involuntarily. I can control it somehow if I watch out for it, but when I concentrate on my contents, I sometimes lost it and sounded hoarse and rough. I am not sure how to get this fixed. 2 more months until the 12 month healing period is officially over...

[Lara1969]

Hoarseness can be caused by wrong breathing. Did you checked with you speech therapist?

[anjaq]

I may well be that I breathe not perfectly. We did that a lot in therapy , usually it works there, but I loose some of it in daily life. Its not really become second nature yet... its a lot easier when doing singing/vocalization exercises rather than speech and language.

[Elaine S]

Oh this morning the postman delivered the wrong package to my house, I had to shout at him (he was on the street about 150ft away). The shout came out almost as loud as I was pre op but feminine pitch and color.

So about 25 weeks post op I can say that I gained most of my power back, which I'm very happy about.

Big smile here for you Kate. I am so pleased for you and the VFS result you had.

Your comment about the postman immediately made me think of going somewhere a bit noisy with my wife and her tendency to walk faster when she wants to just get something done. When that happens, she is quickly out of voice range. I've had t call her on the mobile as my vocal range was most definitely reduced since round 1 of VFS. Have to text now...

Be safe.

Elaine

[iKate]

Big smile here for you Kate. I am so pleased for you and the VFS result you had.

Your comment about the postman immediately made me think of going somewhere a bit noisy with my wife and her tendency to walk faster when she wants to just get something done. When that happens, she is quickly out of voice range. I've had t call her on the mobile as my vocal range was most definitely reduced since round 1 of VFS. Have to text now...

Be safe.

Elaine

I find that feminine timbre is not as powerful as a booming masculine voice. People ask me to repeat myself a little more often now.