What are your HZ post VFS>

[Rachel]

After you had VFS what is your fundamental HZ? What was it prior to VFS? What procedure did you have? If you raise your pitch how much effort is it to get 220 to 240 HZ? How much effort is it to project to your nasal region? It does not take me much to raise my pitch to 220 or project but I was hoping to not need to.

My fundamental frequency was about 130 to 140 HZ pre VFS. I raised my pitch and projected to about 180-190 HZ. Above that was my vocal break and above that is falsetto. After VFS I am 180 to 190 HZ without projecting. I am just under my vocal break. I was hoping for 220 HZ and being just on the other side of the vocal break.

I am naturally soft spoken, always have been. My vocal folds are in tact and not altered. I am a bit hoarse but that is fading and I no longer have any pain. I am 19 days post op. I see the doctor in 25 days. He stated if I am not satisfied he can do a glottoplasty. Any suggestions? Would you get the glottoplasty?

[Dena]

I went to Dr Haben and the decision was made to only do a glottoplasty. Initially I was promised about 190HZ which wasn't what I was hoping for but it was the only game in town. I am not sure of my original chest voice but it probably was 90-100Hz. Prior to surgery my working chest voice without forcing the voice was 130-140HZ. After surgery, Dr Haben said I might have a bit more gain in pitch and I had a 50% tie. Now my head voice falls comfortably at 220HZ and my chest voice is about130-140HZ.

Healing was a son of a gun and it took almost 6 months for my voice to start gaining power and a year before it had reasonable punch. Swelling leaves my body fairly slowly so this was expected and most would recover faster than I did.

[Rachel]

Thank you Dina for the support.

Dr. Sataloff does a glottoplasty 40 to 50% tie. He leaves 1/3 of the mucosal membrane, he moves it aside. 185 to 195 HZ is too low. I wonder if insurance will cover a second operation? Dr. Sataloff said when the glottoplasty operation is done the pitch is raised "too" high then after a year it lowers to the correct pitch.

I had a meeting with a woman that had a 30% tie from Dr. Spiegel. She was not satisfied and had about a 30 to 40 HZ rise in pitch. She had some loss of vocal power.

At least with the glottoplasty there is no neck incision, which is a good thing.

I noticed that swallowing large vitamin pills is more difficult. I need a little more water. Sometimes I need to swallow twice. When I swallow I can see the combined cartledge move. I guess it was that way before but I never looked.

Dina, do you need to raise your pitch to get 220 HZ or is that that your natural frequency now?

[Dena]

Dr Haben gathers a lot of information before surgery and then judged what the correct pitch adjustment should be. A 50% tie can produce up to a 70HZ change so if you only need half that, a 50% tie wouldn't be appropriate and you might need about a 30% tie.

Remember that my 220HZ is with my head voice so in a way I am pitching my voice. Each voice has a sweet spot. This is a pitch where you extend minimal effort to use the voice and the voice is the strongest. To find your sweet spot in a voice, use that voice and say Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Vary the pitch up and down looking for ease of usage and strength of the voice. My sweet spot in the head voice is about 220Hz. I can comfortably  force the pitch to over 500Hz but I wouldn't do it unless I was singing or showing off.

Your larynx moving up when you swallow is normal however this shouldn't be new to you because the same thing needs to happen when you use your head voice. One of the ways to learn the head voice is to place your hand gently on the larynx and swallow. You then need to duplicate that action when you use the head voice.

[dmj23]

when I am not sick or on medicationit's around 210-215. Head voice is 240 and chest choice is 180-190 depending. That's one thing though I look forward to is getting on t because my voice is naturally pretty lowish to begin with all I need is my head voice to get lower and I'd be good. I know this person who was on t they had the same voice maybe slightly lower before they started taking testosterone then after a year I saw them again their voice was really really deep. I hope my results turn out like that. I wouldn't be surprised it's not that far to go for me I'd think.