For those who try to lower their voice.....

[zombiesarepeaceful]

Do you do it consciously? [me, yes]
Have you tried to lower your voice since transitioning or do you still use your normal voice? [me, yes, I've lowered it since transitioning]
What methods do you use? Personally, I breathe from my stomach and that seems to help.
Has your method worked/passed to others?
If it worked, did it get easier to speak in a lower voice over time? [yes]
Regardless of if it worked or didn't work....does your normal voice lean towards male or female? [androgynous]

I love that low growl that I've gotten my voice down to. Sometimes I catch myself getting turned on by my own voice...creepy...LOL. I'm one of the lucky ones in this aspect. I have to clear my throat and cough sometimes to get it to where I want it, but no one has ever called me out on lowering my voice, and I pass as a guy when I talk. My voice occasionally cracks like a boy hitting puberty...it's funny.

[Silver]

I tried at some point. I can't get it really low at all though because I've got a really high voice.

Oddly enough though, I've passed after talking to people. So I've decided not to bother with it and potentially hurt my throat/sound like a jackass. T is a possibility.

[M.Grimm]

I spent my life conditioning my voice to be feminine because I was mocked for being too tall/too tomboyish to be an 'attractive girl' and I was trying hard to fit in as a female. So, my speaking voice is rather soft. Lower range female, I'd say. However, when I sing I can easily navigate the tenor range and nudge into baritone, so I know I have the capability to do it. But so far I've not been able to easily speak in that range, it just sounds fake. If the T doesn't do it for me, I intend on getting a little voice coaching to overcome a lifetime of vocal repression.

[Fenrir]

I sing a lot, and that helps with lowering it. I think I keep it low accidentally sometimes because there are times when I realise my voicebox is hurting, and need to remind myself to nudge the pitch up a bit. I'm not on T, by the way. My normal voice is fairly deep naturally, but obviously female.

[peterrabbit]

my voice can get pretty deep. i'm pretty lucky, it helps me pass more. but some days i can't get it that deep and it scares me, i start thinking it'll stay that way i started making myself talk lower when i was young, 11-12 or so, because i didn't like sounding girly, even though my voice wasn't high at all. i can't remember how, but singing songs that were a bit low for me helped.

[Wolf Man]

I think I have a young male voice, maybe even leaning toward androgynous. It's deep enough and I pass just fine.

If I'm playing around or much too comfortable my voice leans to obviously feminine because that's just how I've always used my voice. I've never restricted myself because it never seemed to bother me. In high school it did, but still did nothing.

Now I just use the natural low range that I have and pass 100%.

[Byren]

This has been an issue for me recently, as my voice is the one thing keeping me from truly trying to pass.
Normally my voice is mid-range, (I, like someone else mentioned above, can sing a lot lower than I talk...lol)  but when I get nervous my whole throat tightens up and my voice leaps in pitch.    The problem is, I'm generally so nervous around people, that it happens ALL THE TIME. Rar! It makes me sound like some stereotypical bubble-gum chewing receptionist!

I've been trying to practice, but to me it sounds so much like I'm faking it that I'm too afraid I'll be laughed at if I dare try in public.

[zombiesarepeaceful]

See...my throat never hurts. Odd. But I'm stubborn like that. Even if pushing my voice lower did hurt, I'd still do it. Well worth it.

[Carson]

When I was consciously lowering my voice it never made it hurt. I just did breathing exercises until I learned how to get used to breathing and speaking from lower in my chest.

[Nygeel]

I was planning on doing these vocal exercises I saw on youtube but it turns out they can wreck your voice.

[Lex]

Before T I tried to lower my voice and passed pretty much all the time.. Though I was passing for about a 15yr old boy and was/am 18/19.

I'd say I used to have an androgynous/ slightly femenine sounding voice.. and used to lower it by singing lower songs and screaming to metal (Otep specifically).. the screaming thing worked decently enough, but can mess up your vocals and such.. I just didn't mind.

Now that I'm on T though, my voice has dropped significantly.. but surprisingly, the sore throat I get from my voice deepening on T hurts more than anything I did to try to lower my voice on my own.

[Jam]

i started making myself talk lower when i was young, 11-12

I did this also when i noticed all the boys voices got a bit lower. It was just an automatic thing i didn't really think about it too much. It was pointless though, my voice is high and has a babyish ring to it that i cannot get rid of as in my head its a normal very adult tone.

[emil]

Do you do it consciously?----yes , for about 1.5 years now
What methods do you use? ---at first, i touched my throat a lot while talking in order to find out which way i needed to direct the air stream in order to make it sound deeper, and i cleared my throat a lot. then i just talked like that every night for two hours (with my girlfriend on the phone) and it became an automatism.
Has your method worked/passed to others? ----yes, indeed. back when i had a hard time to pass physically, people were dead sure i was a guy when i started talking. also, people tend to like my voice and find it very pleasant!
If it worked, did it get easier to speak in a lower voice over time? ---yes. i talk in my sleep, and sometimes i even wake from talking in my sleep...and most of the time that talk comes out in my deep voice now.
Regardless of if it worked or didn't work....does your normal voice lean towards male or female? ----pre-pubescent boy.

I love that low growl that I've gotten my voice down to. Sometimes I catch myself getting turned on by my own voice...creepy...LOL. I'm one of the lucky ones in this aspect. I have to clear my throat and cough sometimes to get it to where I want it, but no one has ever called me out on lowering my voice, and I pass as a guy when I talk. My voice occasionally cracks like a boy hitting puberty...it's funny.

same here.

one other thing i would like to add from a linguistic point of view- guys and girls have different speech patterns. when you try to change your voice, you may want to pick out ONE guy whose voice you like, and try to mimic his speech. girls generally talk faster and with more pitch changes. so if you can get rid of that, that will help a lot already.