I realized after my last therapy session that I have some fears that I'd like to discuss with the therapy community and get feedback on. So my overlying fear is that I'm living off savings right now and am afraid I will run out of money before I can find a new job or transition. I have to say I'm comfortable with every transition aspect but my voice. My voice is low but not very masculine. I still have a great deal of problems trying to put on a female voice though. It's to the point where I will have to get a speech therapist or surgery. I'm leaning towards the latter. Also, I will be starting hormones in a few months. Will this allow me to hit the high notes without hurting my throat? Thanks for the help!

Voice surgery will only change the pitch - if your vocal mannerisms are wrong, you are still going to need to do work on your voice..

I haven't heard of HRT affecting MTF voices, only FTM, so I wouldn't count on it changing your pitch or range. Practice, practice, practice is what can get a lot of us there. For the rest, there is surgery or acceptance (along with continued practice on things surgery won't do).

Hormones will have no physical effects on your voice.. You may find some change happens, but only due to the placebo effect.

Quote from: Kelly the Post-Trans-Rebel on November 01, 2013, 06:16:50 PM
Voice surgery will only change the pitch - if your vocal mannerisms are wrong, you are still going to need to do work on your voice..

Well that's good to know. I think I will opt for that and get the help of a speech therapist if I can't get the mannerisms down. I almost lost my voice the other day from practicing the day before and I just couldn't hit anything nearly as high as I needed to.

Certainly HRT doesn't help you raise the pitch of your voice, but what I have found is that my formerly raspy throat that was always needing to be cleared, even more so if I was aiming for a more feminine sound, is much clearer and smoother now which is awesome.

I have heard that HRT does in fact have a very slight thinning effect on the vocal cords after a long enough time. However, the length will always be the same.

It is not necessarily true to say that HRT will have no effect there- even though the effects would be imperceptible.

Sorry I don't intend to be a "corrector".. I just thought it was interesting and maybe someone else would think the same

Quote from: Gene24 on November 01, 2013, 05:29:20 PM
I realized after my last therapy session that I have some fears that I'd like to discuss with the therapy community and get feedback on. So my overlying fear is that I'm living off savings right now and am afraid I will run out of money before I can find a new job or transition. I have to say I'm comfortable with every transition aspect but my voice. My voice is low but not very masculine. I still have a great deal of problems trying to put on a female voice though. It's to the point where I will have to get a speech therapist or surgery. I'm leaning towards the latter. Also, I will be starting hormones in a few months. Will this allow me to hit the high notes without hurting my throat? Thanks for the help!

I would counsel that survival comes first.  Get settled with a steady income stream as soon as possible.  There are lots of things you can do toward transition that are cost super-costly.  Like the voice training on your own.

It is not a good time to be out of work.  I might even put skills development before transition.  At 26, you are still pretty young.

I would second the whole "survival comes first" mentality.  I have been in financial, work-related, family-related struggles over the first two years of my transition.  Eventually, I had to start focusing on things besides my transition, and when I did, a lot of things just sort of fell into place.

Six months later, I realized my voice was much more flowing, feminine, and even pitched significantly higher.  None of this was a physical effect from hormones, but rather, it was due to my emotional and mental changes, surrounding myself with friendly women, and just coming into myself authentically. 

The grass grows beautifully if we stop watching it for a bit.