Subtle difference between pre and post-op. The important thing is how you feel, your confidence level and overall happiness.

Well, some difference is there although I must say its not as dramatic as with some others. Pitch gain is about 30-60 Hz, timbre is different, I am not getting misgendered anymore on the phone, so it has to have changed and I do not hear the low undertones in my head anymore when I am speaking. So I am ok, although probably it could have been more dramatic, like getting a 210 Hz average as Dr Kim predicted.
Part of why the change is not so dramatic is of course that the pre OP voice is already feminized for 16 years before the surgery happened. I tried once to simulate what my pre transition voice would possibly have been, but I am not sure I hit it - it sounded horribly masculine though at 110 Hz average, making it a bass baritone, probably.

Dearest I have a question :

    I plane to have SRS and Voice Feminization surgery in short period time

I can either go Thailand have my SRS done then going  Korean have Voice surgery or i can put my voice surgery first then going to Thai have SRS.

I would like to ask is it safe have those two surgery in a short period of time .Like 4 weeks gap between each of them?
 

No - you cannot have those two surgeries within 4 weeks. After GRS in Thailand, you usually need to wait for several weeks until you are healed well enough to travel and need to rest and let the body heal from a major surgery. After VFS you need to wait at least 2 months to have another surgery performed and be very very careful then about intubation as this goes through the vocal folds. Dr Suporn is apparently aware of the Yeson procedure and post op protocols, but not before the 2 month mark. Also as far as I know both surgeons, but Dr Kim for sure, require you to have had no surgery with general anaesthesia for 2 months before the surgery.

So 8 weeks distance is possible, but even then I would definitely talk to the surgeons about this before booking

Thanks for replied .Anjaq

I been contact the both Doctor in Korea and in Thai

The Thai SRS recommend me have SRS first then going to Korea.

Dr Kim in Yeson told me is okay i can have voice surgery 4 weeks later after my SRS ,As long as i don't have flu or fever will be fine

But i will be more careful

Thanks a lot

Ok - thats the best choice - definitely its better to have VFS as the last surgery because of the issue with the intubation. 4 weeks between two full anaesthesia surgeries is maybe a bit tough on you, it depends on your general physical health and resilience if you will manage well with this. Also be aware that 4 weeks after GRS, travelling is not yet that easy because sitting is not comfortable and can be painful. It also depend on you not having any complications with GRS that requires a longer stay near the clinic. After VFS you are also bound to stay for a week in Seoul to go to the checkup. Do you intend to go back to Thailand after Seoul to have you checked up there, too?

I personally do never recommend having surgeries as close like that. I have seen it with some people that something goes not perfectly accoring to plan and then things get messy - especially if one wants to keep the plan, but the body would need a new plan... so forcing it is not good - if you realize that you are not ready to travel and have another surgery after those 4 weeks, then just don't and postpone it instead of forcing it, which can give you health issues or suboptimal results.

So, I'm able to start the voice exercises now.  They are quite difficult or me due to currently limited range.  I guess that bit will get better?  I can't really even do the lip trills... my lips just don't work that way.  Also, do you have to keep doing the exercises to keep your eventual range.  Anyone know?

The lip trills should give you more range. Do them with your hands at the cheeks as it was shown to you. this heps a lot to do the trill thing. There is also that Yeson video that shows her holding the hand at the lips/cheeks to help, just do that and you should be able to do lip trills

Thanks, Anja.  It just took me a day to get used to it and I can sort of do it now.  Looking on the Internet, lots of people have problems doing them for whatever reason.  I've definitely lost range on the top and bottom and hope these help to gain it back (on top anyway).  Is the gain permanent or will I need to keep these exercises up forever?

I gained part of the top range back within about months 4-9 - I should do a checkup again, last time I lost a bit again - it varies from day to day. I think it definitely helps to use that upper range more often in order to keep it alive, otherwise one gets out of the habit of using it. I mean - its a part of my voice that I do not use a lot - the upper range goes about to 700-800 Hz (pre OP it was 800-900), this is only used if I am doing voice training or maybe if I would train to sing.

I also gained something in the whistle register, it starts in a range over 1000 Hz but I cannot really do much with it as it is just "whistling"

So I think the upper range will usually improve somewhat with training - depending on where it was before and where it is now (do you have numbers on your upper limits pre and post OP?). Ans I also think that it helps to use that range - either by voice exercises or by singing  - to keep it working cleanly.

Ahh, ok.  I didn't record my pitch range, aside from doing recordings of my lowest and highest voices.  I just noticed that when doing scales I can't really hit the top yet.

Well, I think everyone is a bit different there - I did the scales and I was able to go pretty high at week 8 when I started to try it, but it was harder to do the upper pitches and they were straining and not sounding clean. It gets better if I train and gets worse if I lack training - the pitch range itself is less affected than the clarity of the voice at those pitches - but this is all way beyond my normal speaking range anyways, so its not an issue for me

Thanks, Anja

I just sort of crack a bit at the top, it at least sort of works.  However, I find my voice lacks clarity at pretty much all pitches at the moment.  My mother said it sounds like I have a head cold.

Yes - that sounds like I know it. I sounded like I had a cold for many months - even after a year I had days I woke up with that sort of raspiness to my voice (especially when I did not take the clonzepam) and in the higher pitches it was always worse. It takes a long time to fade away and in the high pitches even longer since those are not really used. I never use my voice at 700 Hz... I guess the pitches I use in regular speech are maybe from 130 if I happen to drop really low to 400 if I go really high for a word or part of a word each and the average is 180-200 Hz - so that range works ok now after 15 months.

Guess it will just take a while to heal, then.  Amazing how some seemed to have clear voices fairly early on... oh well!

I guess some heal faster - maybe it has to do with age or general health or the way they use their voices - I used my voice wrong for most of the healing time, causing it to be more strained than it should be. So doing these exercises properly may be really helpful and also a SLT - maybe it also helps to send in a very short video of you doing the voice exercises to Yeson for analysis - I did that and they told me to change some things that I apparently misunderstood.

Also - if you want to do impressive recordings for vocaroo to post somewhere, its probably possible to get a clean voice by using a very low volume and holding the microphone close to the mouth - I did that at week 4 and 5 because I could not speak much louder without the voice getting strained and hoarse. AFAIK Jenny did that as well initially since you are not supposed to speak louder than what your voice is able to do withoug getting strained - at least in the first weeks

Thanks, Anja. Dr. Kim's office blames botox for how I sound, but we'll see in 1-2 months when it wears off I guess.  Also seeing a speech pathologist in a week and a half and that should help for some useful input.

I have noticed that I have a terrible tremor now.  When doing the exercises and holding the mmmm or mi sounds it sort of warbles badly - much worse than before surgery.  If botox was supposed to help there, I shudder to think how bad it will be in another month or two.

I think the surgery makes the tremors worse initially, the botox and later clonazepam is given to decrease that effect until the healing is progressing enough for the tremor to subside again.

... so.. im post-op vfs at yesons and im not quite sure about my pitch gain tbh, it still seems to fluctuate between 200 at lowest and 250ish at best (without using a falcetto/headvoice kinda thing, which i obviously have been doing before the operation) ; i guess continuous speech therapy would stabilize it to come around somewhere in the middlegrounds of 220-230.. hm, though, i meant self-deductive therapy, as ive all the instructions given ; imo i dont think that professional training will do much ( it might even make it worse by overstraining my voice trying to explain wth exactly is the deal X'D ) http://vocaroo.com/i/s0mGRbqW4S6P

It's not clear how long ago your surgery was but I will agree you need to heal sufficiently before you seek speech therapy. Based off your current sample and assuming you had sufficient time to heal, you require therapy. The range is clearly feminine however your speech pattern sounds like that of a very young (like 5 or 6 years old) girl. You need to learn how to use a feminine speech pattern so your voice will be accepted as a more mature woman.