Hi,

Not being overly medically minded, i was wondering if I could just ask about the procedure at Yeson.  the way I understand it is that they go down the throat and basically cut along a certain length of the fold, then suture the cut areas together so the areas cut, heal together to make the fold shorter.  The once healed, it wouldn't matter if the permanent suture were to come out?

That is my understanding anyway, but if someone could confirm that's the case or put me straight, it would be appreciated   I just need to inform my doc at work and want to be able to answer any questions he might have.

Thanks,

Kim.

Kim, you are correct in the procedure. Dr. Kim cuts along the edge of the vocal cord anywhere from about one third to one half it's length depending on different variables. For me it was half way between the one third and one half. Then after he has cut the edge he sutures them together with permanent suture material. If you go onto their website you can see how they do it, just google Yeson Voice Center.

Does voice feminisation surgery actually work? I've alwasy been told you have a high chance of being left sounding like batman so I've never looked into it.

Quote from: northcountrymassage on August 26, 2014, 11:20:13 PM
Kim, you are correct in the procedure. Dr. Kim cuts along the edge of the vocal cord anywhere from about one third to one half it's length depending on different variables. For me it was half way between the one third and one half. Then after he has cut the edge he sutures them together with permanent suture material. If you go onto their website you can see how they do it, just google Yeson Voice Center.

Thanks Amy Lynn, thought as much - thats pretty much what I got from the Yeson site, but just wanted to check I was reading it correctly

Quote from: Jenna_ on August 26, 2014, 11:33:31 PM
Does voice feminisation surgery actually work? I've alwasy been told you have a high chance of being left sounding like batman so I've never looked into it.

Jenna,

Worth reading alot of the posts in this section - looks promising depending on the method used.  Yeson in Seoul seems to be the most popular

Batman - LOL - I never heard that one before ...

About the technique - yes it is correctly described. The sutures could eventually come out, the Euopean surgeons that use the technique actually use dissolving sutures which go away after some weeks. It may however well be that the long lasting sutures at Yeson are part of their success, as they keep the surgery site in shape for a longer while until it is healed. I never heard of anyone having removed the sutures in the long run - it may be worth a question at Dr Kim if this is possible after a year or so to not have a foreign part in the body.

Quote from: Jenna_ on August 26, 2014, 11:33:31 PM
Does voice feminisation surgery actually work? I've alwasy been told you have a high chance of being left sounding like batman so I've never looked into it.

I tried to do a lot of research before deciding if I was going to go thru with it, after all you only have one voice.  I did not want to end up sounding like Minne Mouse, a harsh gravely voice, or worse yet no voice at all.  After all of my research the only place I felt comfortable going to was Yeson.  I didn't hear of anyone having a negative outcome and only one person who had complications, but she coughed forcefully, smoked and yelled almost immediately after her surgery.  This ended up tearing the sutures out, but why she would do this is beyond me.  I'm 48 years old and had no luck with trying to train my voice to sound feminine.  After going to Yeson and learning of the issues that I had with my voice I'm glad I never really pushed too hard on the training or I might have caused permanent damage to my vocal chords.  I'm only 40 days post-op, but am already very happy with my results and Dr. Kim told me that I wouldn't see any real improvement until months two to four. :-)  I have recordings of my voice posted on my thread "Really scared" if you would like to listen to them.  Best wishes, Amy

What were the issues with your voice that could have lead to permanent damage?

I had the oh so common voice tremor, but along with that I had asymmetrical vocal folds and the didn't close very well at all causing me to use at least five times more air and force to make a sound.  During the consultation I could only hold the notes for about eight seconds, which I thought was pretty good until I was told the average person could easily do twice that.  I also was in a constant state of tension whenever I spoke.  With all of those issues I'm pretty sure (and I had someone else who has had a lot of training agree) that the strain on my voice to bring it up to an acceptable level would have resulted in damage.  This is also probably the reason that I could never get a decent voice no matter how hard I tried.  With the way Dr. Kim put the sutures in it evened out the vocal chords and closed up the bottom portion that was not even coming close to closing.

Oh, so you had exactly the same voice issues that I had? Incomplete glottis closure at both ends (http://i.imgur.com/9vgZc04.png), hypertension, assymetry and vocal tremor. Great. Dr Kim wrote me that with all these issues, he cannot guarantee that the recovery will be as fast as with the others, that I would need more voice therapy and more time if I do the procedure.
However I took it that some of that issues were actually damage caused by me speaking in a different way for many years now.