So with the apparent influx of activity relating to Yeson I thought it would be interesting to get a tally of what people are thinking. Answer with the most appropriate one for your situation. If there is any answer that's not there that fits your situation better let me know and I'll update the poll.

If you want to expand on your answer feel free to elaborate in a reply.

Holy crap you are right. I didn't realize how much it's flooding the voice therapy forum until just now.

Maybe it would be a good idea to have a dedicated voice surgery subforum, that way it doesn't devalue the importance of voice therapy in and of itself. Seems like in the past voice surgery was kind of taboo, so it wasn't necessary. But now it would seem to make a little more sense? I dunno, maybe not. I just don't want people to get the wrong idea that voice surgery is the only option for success.

I think that's a good idea. Would it be at the same level as Voice Therapy, or would they both be sub-forums of some all-inclusive Voice sub-forum?

a la...

Transitioning forum
• Facial feminization surgery
• Coming out of the closet
• Therapy
• Hormone replacement therapy
• Real-Life Experience
• Sex reassignment surgery
• Voice Therapy
• Voice Surgery
• Legal Matters

Sorry to hijack your thread, yo

I'll post it in the suggestion box. Resume on topic conversation... GO!

Yay, looks like they took your suggestion and modified the forum name.

I'm 50/50 right now; since estrogen has little to no effect on voice, and tge "standard note" for the feminine voice, according to videos I've seen, is between my normal vocal range and my falsetto. I'll try my darnedest, but if it doesn't work out, at least I know I have Yeson to help out.

Quote from: SarahR on November 19, 2013, 02:53:52 AM
Yay, looks like they took your suggestion and modified the forum name.

We try to please

Quote from: Cindy on November 19, 2013, 03:14:57 AM
We try to please

Ms Cindy you ladies sure do 

As I've said before, my situation is different. With a paralyzed vocal cord that cannot be retrained (retraining requires muscular control that I lack), and with a plastic implant in that cord to hold it taught, the only effective way for me to raise pitch is via voice surgery. I was studying options and concluded that Dr. Thomas in Portland was the best choice from among a less than optimum set of solutions. But YVC changes all that. Jenny, Abby, Sarah, Kiwi, I will be forever grateful for having discovered this through all of you. Thank you for writing about it. For someone with a medical issue, this will be a dream come true eventually.

Quote from: LizMarie on November 19, 2013, 11:19:22 PM
As I've said before, my situation is different. With a paralyzed vocal cord that cannot be retrained (retraining requires muscular control that I lack), and with a plastic implant in that cord to hold it taught, the only effective way for me to raise pitch is via voice surgery. I was studying options and concluded that Dr. Thomas in Portland was the best choice from among a less than optimum set of solutions. But YVC changes all that. Jenny, Abby, Sarah, Kiwi, I will be forever grateful for having discovered this through all of you. Thank you for writing about it. For someone with a medical issue, this will be a dream come true eventually.

I'm glad, too, that all of this information is out there now! It all started with Maja. However, her few posts here never seemed to make the same impact as Jenny's posts did. However, her videos inspired Jenny, myself, and I'm sure others to actually consider Yeson as a viable option, so a lot of credit goes to Maja for her bravery and many video updates on YouTube. Another large bulk of the credit goes to Jenny for actually sparking such a vibrant discussion about Yeson, as well as jumping in without much info herself and for continually updating us here with her progress.

It seems to have snowballed at this point now that there is so much discussion about Yeson and there are some really great results coming out of it. These initial poll results definitely show some real interest in Yeson. I really do think that this is the start to a whole new chapter in the trans* community where voice will no longer be such a hinderance to our lives. We're no longer limited by just our own ability to feminize our voice with practice and voice therapy and now have another option to help get us there more easily if we are struggling.

I hope if you do end up going to Yeson that they can fix the issues you have! Keep us updated if/when you do

I will need to have some kind of VFS since practicing doesn't do anything for me besides strain my voice to the point where I nearly lose it. It's a good thing if if you are able to do it naturally, but it doesn't make anyone better than anyone else. Just saying this because there are lots of people out there who seem to be on a high horse and discourage surgery based on the "hard work" that they put into feminizing their voice through practice.

I'll get if i can, though like everything it costs money. Sadly.

One of the things I've been suspicious of is that just retraining the voice may actually damage the vocal cords, especially related to significant pitch changes. Anjaq's issues with her vocal cords may be evidence of that.

Personally, I've mostly got my male resonance under control, so much so that I find it hard to put male resonance back in when I'm presenting male (still not full time). I'm usually ok if I don't try to suppress resonance early in the day but once I've done that for a few hours going back to a "male" voice is really a struggle.

Even so, it's when I attempt to raise pitch, since that vocal cord of mine forces all the work to the single "working" vocal cord, that I get tired much more easily and my voice cracks easily. And sometimes the throat hurts when I've done that so I don't push it too much. Despite that, after a good year of effort, raising pitch is still problematic for me though suppressing male resonance comes naturally and even without a significantly higher pitch I am being gendered occasionally female on the phone.

Consequently, I am wondering if the Yeson method (is that a term? should it be? ) will become far more popular going forward? It sure seems like it might.

I am looking into voice surgery because of difficulties in changing my pitch due to a previous injury due to a blood clot killing the nerve to my left vocal cord. Since then the nerve has healed and have regained some function but I don't have the pitch range I used to.

I saw a voice specialist (Dr Kirkham) about my injury and asked him about voice feminization surgery and he strongly advised me against it due to the restriction in your airway that results. He said any inflammation (like allergy) can result in closing off your airway much easier than without surgery.
He said he used to do voice feminization surgery but would never do it again for this reason.

Anyone who has had the surgery, have you had any issues with this?

Thanks


Alyssa

Quote from: LizMarie on December 11, 2013, 05:06:46 PM
Consequently, I am wondering if the Yeson method (is that a term? should it be? ) will become far more popular going forward? It sure seems like it might.

Currently it is the only procedure that shortens and doesn't sever or lay damage to the vocal folds. On top of that it is permanent, effective, and doesn't even have an incision.

It is also the smallest surgical area for any vocal procedure besides cricothyroid approximation ("CTA" - which is highly unsuccessful, not always permanent, and doesn't alter the length of the cords).