Getting Feminization laryngoplasty with Thyrohyoid elevation soon

[Myself]

There's nothing there about FemLar or THE.

Those are all CTA, which I agree is not a procedure worth risking one's money or voice on.

If you (or anyone reading this thread) has documentation of someone's negative (or positive) experiences with Femlar / THE, I'd be grateful for the information to be posted here.

I'm really hoping this thread may spring board into a good resource for people in the future since, once again, there's not a lot of documentation out there with people's experiences with the FemLar / THE procedures.

I also believe the fear of voice surgery is due to outdated information.
Dr James Thomas seems like quite an experienced person.

Ask him if he can reduce the radius of the pharynx instead of the thyroid elevation though.
I talked with him on emails for a while and he said that affecting the pharynx by making an incision and removal some of it would cause it to be smaller and by that achieve better feminization of the resonance which will affect not only speak but things like coughing and probably sneezing too.

While the thyroid elevation would only affect speech it seems.

Be sure you know all the details before you run into either the pharyngeal or the thyroid elevation and choose carefully and wisely.
Make sure you ask what can affect and benefit more and what too.

Good luck! and let us hear your voice! do remember that even though you are allowed to talk again after 2 weeks it will take few months for the voice to stabilize and fully transform due to the HIGH AMOUNT of swelling in the vocal cords, you might even sound DEEPER for the first month or two until the swelling is off.

[june bug]

Ask him if he can reduce the radius of the pharynx instead of the thyroid elevation though.

I will!  I've been waiting for him to get back from x-mas vacation to answer a _bunch_ of questions I have.

Once again thanks for this bit of info!

do remember that even though you are allowed to talk again after 2 weeks it will take few months for the voice to stabilize and fully transform due to the HIGH AMOUNT of swelling in the vocal cords, you might even sound DEEPER for the first month or two until the swelling is off.

Oh I know!  Different for everyone as well.  Hopefully my lack of swelling with other surgeries and such will carry over into this one as well. 

Prepare for the worse, pray for the best! 

[Carlita]

I wish you the very best of luck. I keep hearing not-so-pleasant things about laryngoplasty.  But I confess I have not studied it very much.  Please keep us informed.  Sounds like the year will be quite an adventure for you.

Kristi

So did I ... but then I went to see Christella Antoni, who does the MTF voice training at the Charing Cross gender clinic in London. She said that she used to be dead-against surgery, believing that it was far safer and more effective to have proper training instead to achieve the voice naturally ...

... BUT ...

... Having seen the techniques that the surgeons at Charing Cross are now using, she's now become a big fan of the latest procedures (no, sorry, didn't ask specifically what they are - rats!!), which she says can be a big help. Girls relax their voices and are much more natural once they know that they physically can't drop into a male register. ...

... BUT (again!) ...

She was absolutely adamant that you have to train your voice before you have the surgery. It won't work nearly as well on an unaltered male voice.

Hope that helps

Dxx

[mmelny]

2010 - THE YEAR OF SURGERY 
January - FemLar : Dr. Thomas
June - GRS : Dr. Brassard
November - FFS : Dr. Ousterhout

Hi Devi,

Best wishes for your surgery, I was supposed to consult with Dr Thomas in August (whilst I was out West on a trip to Vancouver), but cancelled my appt.  I want to give voice training an exhaustive workout before doing another surgery.   I think that I'm getting better, that it just takes practice and patience, and being full time really helps, no reason to ever crank back into the old voice. 

The reason I replied is looking at your surgery schedule, you will want to ask Dr Thomas if he's ok with you doing two surgeries post his vocal work, that involve having breathing tubes inserted.  From the other two consultations that I have had with voice surgeons, they said that the breathing tubes can damage vocal cords that have been through surgery ... you may wish to look into that, post haste,.... would hate if you had to forego the much more important SRS or FFS surgeries because of voice surgery.

*huggs*, and best wishes,
Melan

[glendagladwitch]

Here is a link to a page I created a while back to document my FemLar results.  Along the way, I met some others who had surgery with Dr. Thomas.  One of these had only the voicebox elevation procedure, and it is surprising how much change that procedure alone can accomplish. You can listen to her two clips, then a bunch of my clips, and there are a couple of clips from another person at the end who had the FemLar and the voicebox elevation in one procedure. 

I had two surgeries.  I had the FemLar without the voicebox elevation, and then went back and had the FemLar again and added the voicebox elevation too.  Dr. Thomas said my vocal chords were already very short, and there was not much cartilage he could clip from the top of the voicebox to elevate it.  He said my main problem is that my vocal chords are very thick.  As a consequence, my results are more limited than others I have heard.  Yet, I think there is still a significant improvement and I'd do it again.  I'm thinking of having CTA or laser to see if I can get more improvement. 

I just migrated this page to my own domain, so please let me know if you have any problems or success accessing the pages or playing the sound files.

http://p11.hostingprod.com/@glendagladwitch.com/Pre_And_Post_Short_List.html

EDIT:  It looks like the links may be broken as a result of the move, but I can see the files still exist.  I will try and fix it ASAP.

REEDIT:  I think I managed to fix all of the links.  Let me know if there are any problems.

[Renate]

... you will want to ask Dr Thomas if he's ok with you doing two surgeries post his vocal work, that involve having breathing tubes inserted.

"Intubation" (the sticking of a tube between your vocal cords) scares the heck out of me and I would not do it.
For Dr. Brassard, if you are OK with the idea, you can get a spinal anesthetic instead of general.
I recommend this for anybody that's not opposed to being somewhat awake during surgery.

[june bug]

"Intubation" (the sticking of a tube between your vocal cords) scares the heck out of me and I would not do it.
For Dr. Brassard, if you are OK with the idea, you can get a spinal anesthetic instead of general.
I recommend this for anybody that's not opposed to being somewhat awake during surgery.

Wow!  I didn't realize that was an option!  I'd definitely rather have spinal anesthetic (thanks for the correction Renate) than have a tube shoved down my throat.

... and yeah, I actually scheduled my GRS for June because of the recommended wait time after the FemLar... but if I don't have to have a tube, then I can get it done soooooner! 

Of course will have to talk to Dr. Thomas and Brassard first.

Anyhow.  Thanks Glenda for stopping by with the info, and thanks to everyone who's came forward with information!  It's great to finally have more of this stuff available!

[Renate]

I'm a big proponent of spinal anesthesia for SRS.
General anesthesia has been implicated in post-operative depression.

For SRS, you will get an IV and they will sneak in some tranquilizers.
The will shoot a local anesthetic into your back in preparation.
Then they will shoot the actual spinal anesthesia into your spine.
They may squirt you with a cold alcohol spray bottle up and down your side to check where you are insensitive.
You will probably take a nap, maybe waking up a bit. You will not care about anything.
You will be fully conscious afterwards faster than those who had a general.

(A spinal tap is something else.)

[june bug]

I'm a big proponent of spinal anesthesia for SRS.
General anesthesia has been implicated in post-operative depression.

For SRS, you will get an IV and they will sneak in some tranquilizers.
The will shoot a local anesthetic into your back in preparation.
Then they will shoot the actual spinal anesthesia into your spine.
They may squirt you with a cold alcohol spray bottle up and down your side to check where you are insensitive.
You will probably take a nap, maybe waking up a bit. You will not care about anything.
You will be fully conscious afterwards faster than those who had a general.

(A spinal tap is something else.)

Ha ha... sorry... got rock and roll on the brain.

.... but excellent.  Thanks for the information.  I was definitely wondering what it must be like to just lay there for the procedure while they do their magic.

Very exciting!!!! 

[Nero]

Hi Devi.

Have you spoken to  at least three women who have had the procedure as Anne Lawrence advises in the link?

[june bug]

Hi Devi.

Have you spoken to  at least three women who have had the procedure as Anne Lawrence advises in the link?

Nope.

I talked with him on emails for a while and he said that affecting the pharynx by making an incision and removal some of it would cause it to be smaller and by that achieve better feminization of the resonance which will affect not only speak but things like coughing and probably sneezing too.

Unfortunately it seems he doesn't do this procedure (see the quote below from an email he sent me). 

I think reducing the pharynx diameter is a great idea and some patients can shrink the size of their pharynx by using certain muscles to squeeze. They typically have great voices. I just haven't figured out how to safely perform such a surgery, so it remains just an idea for the time being.

I'm thinking of having CTA or laser to see if I can get more improvement.

I did ask him about whether getting a CTA before or after FemLar/THE would be beneficial, as it seems imho, the best result from his website was that from a girl who had a CTA before hand : http://www.voicedoctor.net/media/cases/pitch/tighten_a.html

Here's his response.

Absolutely not! I find the CTA very risky with a wide range of results from too high to too low to a fixed pitch, which is why I no longer perform the operation. It is too unpredictable.

[AmySmiles]

This is a very good thread   I made a total 180 on my former position after reading more about these procedures.  Perhaps this is something I will look into if my voice doesn't turn out as well as I like on my own.

Nothing to add, but just wanted to say thanks for the info.

[gothique11]

I know a girl (she had SRS the same time I did, same place) who had vocal surgery done. She sounded great, but she also said she had to make sure to work on her voice as well, even after, with inflection and resonance and things like that. It helped with the pitch lots, she said.

She also had FFS and a BA (I think maybe body contorting, as well) too, and looked great. She had a lot done. She looks amazing. I felt a bit of jealousy, although, not because of the voice or looks (good for her), but that her parents are very supportive and have a lot of money -- 21, and SRS was last on the list. I wish I had parents to get all that for me, FFS, BA, body contorting, vocal surgery.

[Valerie Elizabeth]

I'm really considering having this surgery done as well.

My voice is struggling to get much higher than it is normally.  After my FFS (with trach shave) I have been having trouble getting my voice high.

I'm working on it, but I don't see it getting much better.


I would love to hear more information about this. 

I did talk to Dr. Thomas, but I've been having trouble finding other people who went through this surgery.

[june bug]

My voice is struggling to get much higher than it is normally.  After my FFS (with trach shave) I have been having trouble getting my voice high.

This is actually one of the reasons I decided to go to Dr. Thomas before FFS with Dr. O because I haven't ever heard consistent things about even the best FFS surgeons and their trach shaves affecting the voice is a good way.  I figure no better person than to go to a guy who specializes in throat surgeries for such things.

Anyhow, based on his revision surgeries I think he could do well for your post-trach voice! 

Two more weeks till I go for surgery!!!!! 

[Carlita]

I'm a big proponent of spinal anesthesia for SRS.
General anesthesia has been implicated in post-operative depression.

For SRS, you will get an IV and they will sneak in some tranquilizers.
The will shoot a local anesthetic into your back in preparation.
Then they will shoot the actual spinal anesthesia into your spine.
They may squirt you with a cold alcohol spray bottle up and down your side to check where you are insensitive.
You will probably take a nap, maybe waking up a bit. You will not care about anything.
You will be fully conscious afterwards faster than those who had a general.

(A spinal tap is something else.)

Off-topic, I know - moving from one end of the body to the other! - but would you say that having SRS with spinal anesthesia rather than general speeds up recovery time? Many girls report being debilitated for months after SRS and I wonder how big an element the GA plays in that ...

[mmelny]

Two more weeks till I go for surgery!!!!! 

Good luck!  Sounds like your FemLar falls on the same day, or within a day of my SRS...   Post back over time and let the group know how the voice surgery works out for you please!  My blessing and best wishes to you for a happy healing, recovery, and importantly, good results! 

*huggs*,
Melan

[june bug]

Good luck!  Sounds like your FemLar falls on the same day, or within a day of my SRS...   Post back over time and let the group know how the voice surgery works out for you please!  My blessing and best wishes to you for a happy healing, recovery, and importantly, good results! 

*huggs*,
Melan

Good luck to you as well and a sppeeeedy recovery! <3

I've already decided to do at least weekly video updates once I'm allowed to start talking again, just so people can see what kind of progress happens as the vocal cords heal. 





Let the FemLar specific vlogs begin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRnTGWtiiwE.#

[june bug]

ONE WEEK AWAY! 

I'll probably post a "silent film" video right after surgery if I feel up to it... 
Post Merge: January 13, 2010, 02:02:45 AM
Hey there.

I'm now updating my surgery info via my own forum : http://forum.deviever.com/viewtopic.php?f=175&t=8208

Feel free to stop by and ask questions or contact me via email : devi@deviever.com