just wondering if any one has had this or is thinking about it love to chat about it

  I have been thinking about it.  So far, everyone tells me that the failure rate is high.  But I haven't talked to anyone that has had it (good or bad results).  It would be nice to find some people that have had it.  My voice is no good. 

I know someone who had repeated voice surgeries.  NOT a happy story.  Based on her results, I would NOT recommend it - I've heard results from vocal training, and I am SO impressed with that option, that is what I will choose...

Voice surgery is a last result for people who can't get good results from voice training.  The physical challenges for such people are extreme, and while the results can sometimes be good, they can often be disappointing.

I had transitioned for 15 years before I finally resorted to voice surgery.  Now I've had two Femlars, a ThyroHyoid Elevation (THE), and a Pulse Dye Laser (PDL) treatment, all from Dr. Thomas in Portland Oregon.  I paid for the first Femlar, and he did all the follow ups for free.  The PDL was two months ago and I think my voice is finally starting to recover and sound fairly passable in recordings.  Each procedure has been an incremental improvement for me, but others have not been so lucky, while a few have had dramatic improvement with the first procedure.

If you want to hear some recordings of patients, Dr. Thomas provides a page at http://www.voicedoctor.net/media/cases/pitch/index.html

Those recordings are really interesting.

One of the drawbacks I've heard regarding voice surgery is that while it raises your pitch, it does nothing to teach you how to actually speak like a female - while voice therapsts cover that sort of thing.

Interesting topic.

Had a chat with my psychiatrist on this and he was like: given your current voice, you'll probably be need surgery to ensure a good baseline (in combination with therapy ofc). So he referred me to a voice specialist which I'm seeing next week (way too early in the process, but better prepared than sorry I guess).

Anyone else had experience with voice surgery?

Love,
Emma

Replying to myself... how silly can I be

Just that I went to a neurolinguist. He did a bunch of tests and ended up concluding that I had "a beautiful male voice" *sigh* "but..." he added, "we can turn this into a charming female one without anything invasive such as surgery". *happy me*

What was interesting though is that he wanted it to time correctly. He said that (and it all makes sense) there is no point in altering your voice if you're not in a (semi-)RLT situation i.e. using your voice continuously.

Thought it was worth sharing,
Emma

Generally speaking, no pun intended, voice surgery isn't a good idea. It's dangerous, and after surgery, you'll STILL need to practice. Some have had good results, some haven't. There is so much that can be gained by practicing with your natural voice, it's rare that vocal surgery is a necessity.

Jamie Kauffman is a leader, in New York City, in voice surgery, and much of her practice is surgery to undo the damage done by failed vocal surgeries. This is one transition related surgery that really scares me.

Voice surgery does one thing: it raises your pitch.

In the past there were horrible failures as surgeons just invented the techniques, those failures meant too high pitch and perhaps weakened voice or damage to it.

These days this is no longer the case with good doctors, they can raise it to a comfortable level this means female range fully, some can even change the resonance to the voice a bit, not all need resonance change but it is an option if one needs.

That's it.

What else can contribute to a voice surgery count as "failure"? Well, in truth once the pitch is in the right range, and if resonance modification was done too and properly then nothing. But as everyone knows speaking style makes a lot too and voice surgery has no effect on that.

Speech training as in, learning different infliction, tones of voice, soft speaking etc can benefit one's voice. Just because voice surgery does not deal with that does not mean they are horrible and failure, in fact voice surgery gives the benefits of being able to let the guard off, not being worried all the time, not having to put that extra effort and also saving your voice the damage, tiredness and exhaustion that often comes with the effort put in the voice to make it in proper range.

I've met people who went for surgery, those include people who had problems with their voice and people who had no problem creating the voice they want but instead could get tired, hurt or just uncomfortable of that feeling that you need to put an effort and keep guard or awareness on to it.

The result of those people were good, the pitch was in the right range, they didn't get tired or hurt, they said they could feel more comfortable with themselves as they aren't always aware of what can happen to their voice and of the effort put into it. Some spoke in feminine style, some spoke in a bit more masculine style, some of those with masculine style chose to practice more feminine style and some did not, either way it is unrelated to voice surgery which in my opinion had very good physical and psychological effects.

I am going to have my voice surgery soon, luckily in here it is funded by the government and done by a specialized doctor here, perhaps this (and the fact Israel is so small) is why I had a wider opportunity than most to meet people's results.

Those are my opinions over voice surgery, opinions formed after 2 years of researching the subject. I'd like to add that those 2 years actually had quite some changes and improvements in the results of vocal surgery, most probably due to experienced and knowledge gained by surgeons.

Hello Myself, is this surgery performed privately? I mean, because your will be paid due to fundation from government, and maybe people from abroad could undergo this surgery too?

Secondly, you are right, controlling your voice, putting effort to maintain this voice all the time can be tiresome and problematic, so surgery is better option. And even if the only thing surgery does is raising your pitch, it sometimes suffices!

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide us with about the israel surgery! And let us know if it succeds, which we warmly wish you!

I don't know if they do it privately too,  I will ask when I meet again at the end of July.

And do share of course with us the results and your impression! =)

I have to agree with others here as well. I haven't really seen a whole lot of success stories when it comes to voice surgery. I knew a poor girl who had the surgery in Thailand and now she sounds like a cross between Minnie and Micky Mouse.

I would expect that vocal surgery would be the absolute last resort sort of thing after you tried the best vocal teachers, the best techniques, etc etc

If you haven't tried a speech or vocal therapist first and wanted to jump right into the surgery; i wouldn't recommend that

im really curious about voice surgery as well, wish i personally knew someone who went thru it

Quote from: bethanypahl on October 24, 2010, 04:41:41 PM
just wondering if any one has had this or is thinking about it love to chat about it

I know personally of two girls who got it done at very good doctors and now they sound like minnie mouse on cigarettes.

It's better to do voice training.


oops didnt realize i posted this three months ago

There is just too much that could go wrong with this surgery, the surgery actually shortens the vocal chords and that is something that is irreversal

I have an acquaintance that had her surgery done by the voice doctor and had very positive results!! www.voicedoctor.net

I am also seriously considering getting it done, if I can find the 9.5k it will cost to get it done!