The things that changed and the things that didn't

[SallyPancake]

I'm new here. But I had a question and want to give the full story. I have been on HRT for two years now. And I have been noticing that some things have changed vastly and others haven't at all. I have A cups, a nice butt, softer skin, longer hair, less dense/ lighter body hair, and smoother features. But one thing I never expected to change without surgery was my voice. I was born with XX chromosomes and a nasty Testosterone overproduction disorder. So things like my voice shouldn't be able to change. I'll stop expositing and get to the point. Over the last two years I have gone from a baritone-bordering on bass voice, to a mid to high tenor. I took a day off from actively managing my voice one day and noticed it simply wouldn't go lower than an octave. Yet, when I am surprised or in pain I still grunt or groan instead of something more feminine. I have tried to make an active change and it just hurts. Does anyone have an idea of what the deal is? Is this a normal thing that some women do, too? Or is this something from my transition I'm just going to have to live with?

Sorry for all the extra words. It's my first time here so I may as well give a little background.

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place. I don't know if you have had voice training or have learned the proper way to produce a feminine voice but most people can produce a feminine voice with proper training. If it hurts to produce the voice you are doing it wrong and you should stop until you learn the proper way to do it or you could damage your voice. Women can produce a lower voice by dropping from the head voice to the chest voice and then they can also do vocal fry to produce something that sounds even lower. Vocal fry is when you really relax your vocal cords and they produce kind of a popping sound instead of a smooth tone. Surgery can produce a higher voice however you still need to beware of how you use the voice or you may produce some low sounding tones. One of the areas I am knowledgable about is voice so if you have questions, feel free to ask.

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[SallyPancake]

Thank you for the reply. But I think you misunderstand. While I have never had voice training, I learned how to edit it on my own. Everything I've learned, I did on my own. My voice has since changed on its own. I can only guess that it's from the hormones. My friends have told me it sounds like a perfectly natural female voice. What I'm confused with are the sounds I make when surprised or in pain, which despite everything else, are still very masculine.

[Dena]

I didn't know and still am not sure what you are doing with your voice however most women can make lower sounding noises. Women normally use a head voice where they tighten the muscles between the larynx and the jaw. MTFs also use the same process to pitch their voice up. This is called the head voice because the vibrations feel like they are coming from the areas in the head. Men normally use the chest voice where those muscles are relaxed. This is a little misleading because the vibrations feel like they are in the neck region. When women use the chest voice, their pitch drops and the voice becomes fuller. Karen Carpenter used the chest voice in her singing to produce her memorable voice but she isn't the only singer to do so. A few CIS women use the chest voice normally and they tend to have husky voice but because of inflection, they may still sound feminine.

If a woman has a very high voice normally, the chest voice may not drop them low enough to produce masculine sounds. If a woman already has a lower feminine voice, the chest voice may push them into the masculine range. I have worked with a few FTMs on the site who were pre T or just starting T and we were able to make a noticeable difference in their voice. Maybe not masculine but at least young boy.

I suspect that you are dropping into the chest voice when in pain or surprised producing a more masculine voice. The cure for it is the same as the one I used and thats to use the head voice enough that you forget how to use the chest voice. If I want to use the chest voice now, I have to force the muscles to relax because my normal respond is to tighten then any time I want to speak.