Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I thought it might be interesting to get a baseline on this subject. I didn't add options other than yes or no, you can explain your approach below if you like.

I have done nothing about my voice. I had no desire to start talking differently after fifty plus years of absolutely crushing a Boston accent. 😁

Frequently I will be gendered female in an encounter, then as male after I say something. That doesn't bother me, I'm not concerned if people know I'm transgender.

Let's get voting and see how the overall community feels about this! 🙂

Hugs, Devlyn

I had no "voice drop" during puberty but I said yes because men and women do talk differently.

Not yet but I intend to start soon. It is very important to me to try me best to achieve a passable voice due to needing to answer calls at work.

I will maybe start with free help guides and if I get nowhere I will go to see a voice coach.

My 'old' voice was moderately deep. I was frequently misgendered on the phone, and it was very discouraging. Initially, I attempted to simply raise my pitch. While that helped, there are many more aspects to consider. After we moved to Arkansas, I began having trouble with the muscles in my neck and throat. I expect it was caused by anxiety, and the fear of being 'outed'. Eventually, I joined a speech therapy class at a state university. I learned about pitch, resonance, intonation, breathing, and many other aspects of the human voice. I was able to integrate several of the lessons to make noticeable changes to my voice. There are other lessons I want to integrate, but I often forget to practice them.

Voice training can often result in significant changes to your speaking voice, but it takes time and dedication. While it may take time, if you never start, you'll never finish.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

Hey Devlyn!

I tried vocal coaching with several folks but it wasn't coming together for me and I still got misgendered on the phone... I didn't like feeling that I had to do all these tricks just to speak... I wanted my voice to just be... my voice! I did VFS in 2017 and glad that I did but, recovery was rough... took a couple years to smooth out and lost vocal power... it can be harder to make myself heard in very loud environments etc but, I don't have to think about my voice anymore... what comes out naturally gets gendered correctly on the phone etc... 🤗

Onward!

A💕

I spent a lot of time on YouTube (TransVoiceLessons) trying the various exercises. I learned a lot, but had no one to provide me with feedback. At that time, the VA said they could provide Voice Therapy. My doctor submitted the request, and it was denied, stating the voice pathologist wouldn't/couldn't do it. Several months later, the local VA LGBTQ Care Coordinator told us about a new program for voice coaching. She submitted the request for me, and it was approved.

The sessions were via telehealth video sessions with a voice therapist in Iowa (I was in South Dakota). I learned a lot from her, and she was able to listen and watch me speak, so she could tell what I was doing and how I was doing it. I spent six months with her, then the oppressive regime canceled my therapy coverage, reassigned our LGBTQ Care Coordinator, and shut down our LGBTQ Support Group.

My voice is far from perfect. It has changed a lot from what it was, but I still get misgendered on the phone. Like Ashley, I don't want to have to think about how I am speaking when I'm just trying to say something. When I am dressed en-femme, my voice doesn't seem to factor into people's impressions, so I haven't done much work on it. When I am on the phone, I still try to change it, but it doesn't seem to matter because they can't see me and misgender me anyway. I have gotten to the point where I don't care anymore. People can think what they want.

Quote from: tgirlamg on June 19, 2026, 09:29:48 AMHey Devlyn!

I tried vocal coaching with several folks but it wasn't coming together for me and I still got misgendered on the phone... I didn't like feeling that I had to do all these tricks just to speak... I wanted my voice to just be... my voice! I did VFS in 2017 and glad that I did but, recovery was rough... took a couple years to smooth out and lost vocal power... it can be harder to make myself heard in very loud environments etc but, I don't have to think about my voice anymore... what comes out naturally gets gendered correctly on the phone etc... 🤗

Onward!

A💕

I think I could take being quieter. I hardly ever raise my voice anyway. and I tend to avoid noisy places whenever possible. Vocal surgery is something I would consider but only as a last resort. I have seen so many examples of passable voices that I have confidence I can do it au naturelle so to speak.

You look amazing in your latest avatar picture Ashley! Love the hair.

Apparently I am far less confident in my passing then I should be. I was on the phone yesterday and I mentioned to the lady that I was trans and hoped to eventually be able to afford voice surgery and she said that I didn't need it and that I sounded cis to her. I also generally get gendered properly even on the phone.

I am very concerned about my resonance as I don't really adjust that but apparently I am naturally in the female range and just need to adjust my pitch though even with my normal voice I was told that I pass as cis. Though this was at GRS Montreal so I think that they were just being supportive but on my last cruise presenting as male I had this lady ask my gender after talking with her for a bit.

Currently fighting that fight and doing the work. Else I'll never be read as a woman out there and that scares me.

Tried NHS speech therapy 3 times and it kind of works. I was a smoker and heavy drinker so my voice sounds like Lemmy with a Lancashire accent most of the time. I seem to pass though after transitioning in 1991.

Quote from: Stottie Girl on June 19, 2026, 11:58:06 AMI think I could take being quieter. I hardly ever raise my voice anyway. and I tend to avoid noisy places whenever possible. Vocal surgery is something I would consider but only as a last resort. I have seen so many examples of passable voices that I have confidence I can do it au naturelle so to speak.

You look amazing in your latest avatar picture Ashley! Love the hair.

Sarah!

Thanks for the kind words sister!

I think surgery is very much a roll of the dice and should be last resort for sure... One of my issues was that even if I could get things working a bit while being coached, it always seemed to go right back out the window in real life situation and like I said, I didn't like having to think about it so much and happily now... I don't 😀👍

I do a good bit of speaking to classes at the university and other venues and had to use a portable microphone/speaker system for about two years until I got the vocal power back to the point where I could be heard from the back of the room!

Seattle Voice Lab on YouTube seems to have a really good approach and tips... If they had been around back when I was worrying about this, perhaps I wouldn't have gone the surgical route!


Onward!

A💕

I already had the  proper pitch and learned to clearly enunciate what I said.
But, I spoke on a monotone which was a strong clue towards a male voice.
Getting professional speech training on modulating my voice made a big difference.
After that I'd constantly get gendered as female, even when starting off a conversation as male.

Marion

Hi Everyone

For me, I voted no, although perhaps that was a little fib.  When I think about it more carefully, I did change the way I spoke when I changed my life around.  I suppose a little history about what I did might help explain it.

Looking back, I believe I had an innate feeling of not wanting my voice to change during puberty.  It was there within me, sitting just below the level of consciousness.  As it turned out, I did not end up with a deep voice, so I guess I was lucky and that helped as well.

So in the early to mid-eighties, when I was going to swimming training, I would sing along with female singers such as Olivia Newton-John.  In other words, I was imitating the way they sounded.

I think I was able to do this because I already had the ability to change my accent.  That probably gave me the courage, skills, or something similar, to try doing the same thing with a female voice.

In addition, somewhere along the way, I had picked up the idea that women spoke with a softer, quieter voice.  So when the time came, I spoke in a soft and quiet way.  When I started back at work, another woman in the office told me that I spoke very quietly.  That was a big boost to my ego, one could say and from then on I had no real trouble in that department.

These days, I can project my voice quite well. I guess ten years as a lifeguard, shouting across a 25-metre indoor swimming pool to kids, would have helped in that department. I also receive compliments on the way I speak to groups of people.

So the question is: does this really count as "voice work"?  To me, not really.  I did not sing every day and I cannot sing for peanuts.  I did not regularly practise by singing along with other female voices either.  It was more likely "very little" singing, plus the one other thing: speaking softly.

So my answer is no.

Best Wishes Always
Sarah B
Global Moderator

I voted no but my vote shouldn't really count.

I'm not really trying to do anything other than trying to work out who am.

When I thought I was cis a friend said I don't have a big booming voice.

I do speak softer now but nobody thinks of my voice or presentation is anything other than male.

If anything people think I'm a gay man. Even when I was in my twenties I had more male attention than female attention.

Everyone gets a vote here. 🙂

Hugs, Devlyn

Wish I'd have time to respond more often to the interesting things I read.

Voted yes - and it is an important part in my journey + high fun with a super-nice voice coach.

Male voice and related mannerism is a good part of my dysphoria. Working in a political environment often dominated or coded in power relations'male voice' is an instrument. Notably to take space in the room. I could use that perfectly anytime but started to detest the 'male gender expression'. How do I want to be perceived by others ... definately no longer male. So what needs to change?

I didn't like my voice, deep, dark, serious, always sounding like needing to fill a room of 200 people without microphone, unable to sing, or to match a tone. In the analytical session the coach put my medium pitch at around 110hz and cautioned that we might aim at going into the androgynous range. 6 months later - to everybodies surprise - I feel well in the feminine frequency range, can change resonances and we started taking theater monologues of (mature) female characters as practice in the sessions. It is a (or better one of the) playful discovery journeys we are undertaking.

Some fun fact: Living in Brussels (Belgium) we are in a French - Dutch / cosmopolitan environment. She native French, with good English; my mothertongue is German (only used with family), work in English and environment French. She is coaching in French with own material, I bought in a lot of (US-) concepts from the web and apps, and we jointly needed to apply it to German. That is the hardest part as the articulation in the mothertongue is more 'sticky' and German pretty monotone compared to other languages.

I had half a dozen voice lessons with a voice coach.  I found that I could raise my vocal pitch half an octave, well short of the full octave I would have needed to get into the "typical female range".  It was clear to both me and my coach that I would wreck my voice if I tried to go higher.  And even if I did get the pitch higher, the airway resonance would not change. 

So we concentrated on learning to put more inflection in my speech.  It comes pretty naturally now. I am seldom misgendered in person.  I am just a woman with a deep-ish, slightly masculine voice.

On the phone, however, lacking the visual clues, I am almost always misgendered.  I seldom make an issue of it, except if they slip "sir" in every other sentence. 

I never seriously considered vocal surgery.  I have heard that it is very hit-or-miss, and I have heard too many really bad examples.  My voice doesn't bother me enough to take that chance.