Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hi,

Does hormones have even the slightest effect on the voice of Male to Female's when they have broken?

Sarah

Not on a physical level, no. Testosterone thickens the vocal cords, which is an irreversible process. No amount of estrogen or lack of testosterone will change that. Many girls I know have reported that they feel they spoke softer, but I believe that's a mental change, not a physical change. Speech coaching generally helps to speak more feminine (as speech type is generally learned as children).

Quote from: discarded on April 08, 2008, 06:31:59 PM
Not on a physical level, no. Testosterone thickens the vocal cords, which is an irreversible process. No amount of estrogen or lack of testosterone will change that. Many girls I know have reported that they feel they spoke softer, but I believe that's a mental change, not a physical change.

They also tell you that hrt doesn't affect height, footsize, handsize or facial hair growth.  But it does!  It may not do a whole lot, but there are some perceptible changes.  I've heard about those ones happening to more people than those it didn't.  So, I think it actually is physical and that estrogen has a slight effect on the vocal cords.  It won't give you a female voice, but it does help with it.

Quote from: Melissa on April 15, 2008, 04:29:51 PM

Quote from: discarded on April 08, 2008, 06:31:59 PM
Not on a physical level, no. Testosterone thickens the vocal cords, which is an irreversible process. No amount of estrogen or lack of testosterone will change that. Many girls I know have reported that they feel they spoke softer, but I believe that's a mental change, not a physical change.

They also tell you that hrt doesn't affect height, footsize, handsize or facial hair growth.  But it does!  It may not do a whole lot, but there are some perceptible changes.  I've heard about those ones happening to more people than those it didn't.  So, I think it actually is physical and that estrogen has a slight effect on the vocal cords.  It won't give you a female voice, but it does help with it.

I think any physical changes on the voice is a result of a person using a higher pitch for an extended period of time, and as a result, changing their range. I have noticed a slightly higher pitched voice over the years, but really most of any improvements i've made to my voices "passability" is not pitch related, but more intonation related.

It is possible to work on your vocal range, and maybe increase the pitch a small degree, I've exercised my voice with a computer spectrograph(meter?) before with limited success.

I don't think estrogen really does anything for an MTFs vocal cords.

Alot of the other things, like height, handsize, etc are possible because of the bit of fat redistribution I believe, and the flesh between the vertabre, and joints can reduce or expand.

On the subject of voice, guess we've all encountered Candi from FLA (sure the name's a pun  ::)  !!!) ....

Candi :
    ____________ (https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fi%2FIUQw0IUKOQYavxmUThdVFQ%2F1.jpg&hash=e4e63af25082893b10242ab17a1b211dbb89e15c) ____________

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=candiFLA (http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=candiFLA)

Check out her 006 "Sliding Voice M2F" video ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJFGRMYPCc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJFGRMYPCc)

If she's for real (and on balance I think she is, although first impression was a "gg playing tricks") then wow ...  :) ... !

My voice has never ever given me away - despite guys commenting that I'm an incessant talker, hardly letting them get a word in edgeways (...  ;D ... !), but in middle age you can be a half-octave lower than Candi and be OK.

Laura x

I just watched some of CandiFLA's videos, and oh my word she's awesome!

I don't doubt for a second that she's for real, and I'm gonna try out some of the stuff she mentions. Well, depending on whether or not I can find a voice coach cheaply...eh...

Anyway, thank you so much for the link, Laura. The videos are quite humorous too. Definitely worth watching.


~Moi

Quote from: redfish the metaphysician on April 15, 2008, 08:11:31 PM
I can pretty much do the same thing Candi can if I really want to, so I dunno why it couldn't be legit

Sure many of us can speak confidently in a female voice .... but I just love Candi's personallity and humour !

And her awsome pretty face ?

And way, way better than those "Deep Stealth" DVDs we all thought it would be a good idea to buy !!!!

Laura x

Cool, I hadn't seen those videos before.  The way I've always described the technique is "breathy falsetto".  I should make a video of myself one of these days.  I just need to find my camera that I seemed to have lost. :angel:

Quote from: Melissa on April 16, 2008, 11:32:59 AM
Cool, I hadn't seen those videos before.  The way I've always described the technique is "breathy falsetto".  I should make a video of myself one of these days.  I just need to find my camera that I seemed to have lost. :angel:

Yours has changed over the course of a year. Don't know if that's the HRT or just whatever you're doing though.  :laugh:

HRT had no noticeable affects for voice for me.  My voice was changed through willpower and positive thoughts alone.  Just know that anything is possible ^^~

Quote from: kirakero on April 16, 2008, 12:27:46 PM
HRT had no noticeable affects for voice for me.  My voice was changed through willpower and positive thoughts alone.  Just know that anything is possible ^^~

Well honey, with a face like that, it wouldn't matter if you sounded like Darth Vader!  :-*

Quote from: Nero on April 16, 2008, 12:51:01 PM

Quote from: kirakero on April 16, 2008, 12:27:46 PM
HRT had no noticeable affects for voice for me.  My voice was changed through willpower and positive thoughts alone.  Just know that anything is possible ^^~

Well honey, with a face like that, it wouldn't matter if you sounded like Darth Vader!  :-*

Luke, I am your mother!


(sorry, had to say it :P)

There's this Kate Bornstein video about voice lessons, made me laugh - it's sort of a stand up routine about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVprxVvhix4

I've been working on my voice and there's been a noticeable pitch increase and I've not started HRT yet.  I bet estrogen helps a little bit but not nearly as much as constant practice.  I found I don't even have to think about it and it naturally goes to the higher range.  It doesn't sound super female yet, but hopefully I can get it there without having to sound super breathy.  GGs do have noticeable resonance in their voices so hopefully I'll be able to reach that.

Quote from: Pica Pica on April 16, 2008, 03:13:53 PM
There's this Kate Bornstein video about voice lessons, made me laugh - it's sort of a stand up routine about them.

Thanks for posting that Pica. I found it very funny, and besides, anyone that likes Laurie Anderson is OK in my book. Let x = x  ;D

Z

oh, it's not kate bornstien as advertised, it's Laurie Anderson?

Whoever it is, they managed to do some very well structured and presented comedy about it.

Quote from: Pica Pica on April 16, 2008, 04:10:10 PM
oh, it's not kate bornstien as advertised, it's Laurie Anderson?

Whoever it is, they managed to do some very well structured and presented comedy about it.

It's Kate, then near the end sie plays some audio of Laurie Anderson.

I like them both.

Z

Quote from: Nero on April 16, 2008, 11:46:34 AMYours has changed over the course of a year. Don't know if that's the HRT or just whatever you're doing though.  :laugh:

I'm sure it's from constant voice usage as well as periodic self-checks just to make sure I don't get lazy with it. :)  I think all HRT did is help switch it from more of a chest voice to a head voice.  I don't think it helped with pitch or technique much at all.

oh, the beautiful deep voiced song person...I thought that was bizarrely moving at the end.

Quote from: Pica Pica on April 16, 2008, 04:19:32 PM
oh, the beautiful deep voiced song person...I thought that was bizarrely moving at the end.

Here's a Laurie Anderson video

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And her website http://www.laurieanderson.com/ (http://www.laurieanderson.com/)

Z
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