Yeson voice feminization surgery 2.0

[sora_]

perfect ^^ i want to sound like a little girl anyway, its how i feel, soo... i disagree <3 i also disagree on the speech therapy because as previously mentioned, that going by my presumption, id be quite the contradiction wanting to sound like a mature woman, wouldnt it ? ^^ (and try to hide that envy better from your rhetorics... its quite noticable.. c; ) i sound awesome ^^

[TheaN]

perfect ^^ i want to sound like a little girl anyway, its how i feel, soo... i disagree <3 i also disagree on the speech therapy because as previously mentioned, that going by my presumption, id be quite the contradiction wanting to sound like a mature woman, wouldnt it ? ^^ (and try to hide that envy better from your rhetorics... its quite noticable.. c; ) i sound awesome ^^

I think you need to work on your voice... from what I heard you have a very limited voice, and It sounds weird to me... Just my honest opinion It has a lot to do with HOW you speak as well, not just your range.

[sora_]

sure ^^ fair enough , i know i tend to speak veeery high , but its also my childish nature <3 so , but im barely 3m post op, and im trying to extend my range up atm, cause decreasing it down,.. well at least imo, is not that hard at all, i can def speak lower around 215-220hz , but yeah intonation, pronunciation, blah ^^ i know after all ive done all the transitioning operations known to man and im barely well, ... deduce my age from my voice, im barely 20
thanks for ->-bleeped-<- anyways girls ^^ im working on it (when i recorded that, i did not, strain my voice btw, i just experimented with , whats possible, without force), if i go head voice... THAT sounds chipmunkish X'D i dont even wanna record ; super happy with the result however, kudos to Dr. Kim and Jessie ~

[anjaq]

I find it very nice. Admittedly I am a bit envious as I am just at 180 Hz post OP but hey, I am 42 and so its ok. It would  not fit me to be sounding like a teenager, but at age 20 it is ok. I was in my early 20ies when I transitioned and felt like a little girl as well. I also did a lot of things that were more appropriate for a teenager, including getting one of the famous belly button piercings that teenagers of that time did in secret with faked parental consent - lol. I think the voice will develop naturally to be more mature over time as you use it and as you develop yourself.
Its great you gained so much pitch - apparently age really makes a big difference when it comes to this surgery and the outcomes of it

[Rachel]

Hello,

I was wondering what the cost for VFS is with Dr. Kim; also, hotel costs ( I assume I need to be there 9 days) and flight costs for Eastern USA. Also, what is the waiting period?

anjag, I lost your PM that you sent me a while ago. If I get Dr. Kim's procedure success it is largely due to his expertise reducing the vocal cord thickness with a laser. This in turn changes the timber of the voice. Also, he raises the pitch but the timber is of great importance. He also leaves in permanent sutures.  Did I remember the gist of the PM?

[Miyuki]

Hi, so I went recently and I can actually give some pretty precise numbers:

Surgery: $7754.42 ($7,528.57 + $225.85 international transaction fee)
Botox: $420.29 ($408.05 + $12.24 currency conversion fee)
Flight: $1,576.63 per ticket (keep in mind I ended up traveling at peak times, you can probably do better)
Hotel: $582.07 for 9 nights at the Princess Hotel (which I would highly recommend since it's within walking distance from Yeson)
Other Expenses (transportation, food, entertainment, ect.): around $1000 (I came with my brother so I was paying for both of us)

It's also a very good idea to call your bank before hand and let them know your travel details, and make sure you don't have any sort of daily limit that would prevent you from charging the surgery if you choose to put it on a card.

[Rachel]

Miyuki, thank you very much for the information.

[Hanana90]

Hello everyone, I have a question about Yeson recovery.  I'm currently 6 weeks post-op from Yeson.  I've noticed that my pitch varies greatly.  Like, my f0 varies between 195Hz and 170Hz.  It tends to be lower earlier in the day, if I've been speaking too much, or if I'm dehydrated.  I know the pitch is expected to drop with these things, but is such a great variation throughout the day normal for this point in my healing?  It's hard to tell what my expected final results will be when it seems to be all over the place.  My pre-op fundamental frequency was 144Hz for reference.  Thanks!

[Ritana]

Your pitch is supposed to peak when you first start to speak then it will gradually start dropping a bit. I was at 245 -250 hz when i started speaking post vfs. I am now at 220 hz. However, that seems to be the general rule. Your case maybe different.

[Hanana90]

Your pitch is supposed to peak when you first start to speak then it will gradually start dropping a bit. I was at 245 -250 hz when i started speaking post vfs. I am now at 220 hz. However, that seems to be the general rule. Your case maybe different.

I hope that's not the case...  Because then I'd get only like 30Hz if even that from the surgery.  It's not like age is working against me - I'm in my mid 20s.

[Dena]

I didn't go to Yeson but my voice after surgery was lower due to swelling that limited the movement of the vocal cords. At three months I was up to 220HZ and I held that pitch for over a year. I now found I have move up to about 230Hz at two years after surgery. The healing process can go on for a long time so don't be quick to judge the final voice.

Also, if the 144HZ was your chest voice, you need to learn how to use your head voice. This will help you obtain the proper resonance and it will move your voice up another 30-40HZ minimum. Voice surgery is 50% surgery and 50% therapy. Surgery along for most people will not give you a proper final voice.

[Hanana90]

In 3 days I will be two months post-op and can start the exercises.  Unfortunately, my pitch gain is still pretty disappointing.  Reading the rainbow passage shows my pitch has only increased 30Hz (174Hz now vs 144 Hz before).  I really hope I will get more of an increase in the coming months but at this point I'm doubtful, since it seems to be stabilizing at this point.

Did anyone else here have a similar experience?  I was at least hoping the surgery would get me firmly in a female pitch range so that at least pitch would be effortless, but I guess I'm stuck in gender neutral (at least for now).

[Ritana]

You can still sound female at 174hz with the proper resonance and prosody. Yes it's harder than if you had say 220 hz but it still possible!

[Hanana90]

You can still sound female at 174hz with the proper resonance and prosody. Yes it's harder than if you had say 220 hz but it still possible!

I read the rainbow passage today (as well as some other stuff), and my voice is measuring around 192Hz.  I guess I should probably just calm down and be patient, and wait for the healing to be done before I judge the final result.  But that's me, I've always been an anxious person.

[Dena]

That sounds like you are still using the chest voice. I suspect that would be pretty similar to my results except I knew I needed to use the head voice so I started using it as soon as I could speak. I said 50% therapy and that's where the head voice comes it.

[Hanana90]

That sounds like you are still using the chest voice. I suspect that would be pretty similar to my results except I knew I needed to use the head voice so I started using it as soon as I could speak. I said 50% therapy and that's where the head voice comes it.

Perhaps.  I've done some basic voice training on my own before surgery, but not enough.  I start the Yeson exercises in a couple days, and I'm also talking with a local voice therapist that has a program for transwomen as well (I think that will help me a lot).  I'll post here later to update on my progress, if anyone cares.

[Ritana]

Remember that high pitch does not give u that natural female voice as much as propre resonance does (as long as your pitch is above 170 jz). Paradoxically enough, resonance seems to get worse straight  post vfs with yeson hence the importance of speech therapy

[Hanana90]

Remember that high pitch does not give u that natural female voice as much as propre resonance does (as long as your pitch is above 170 jz). Paradoxically enough, resonance seems to get worse straight  post vfs with yeson hence the importance of speech therapy

I've noticed this!  In fact, post-Yeson I've been speaking in a much more monotone way than I usually do.  I just chalk it up to the healing process.

[Ritana]

What you're talking about is prosody.(pitch fluctuation). Resonance is different. It's the way your voice resonates. I think voice breaking post vfs impatcs badly on resonance as it makes the voice resonate more frequently in the chest. Sadly our larynx is larger than that of ciswomen. That is something that vfs won't change.Speaking softly and letting air escape as well as using nasal cavities will inevitably help.

[Hanana90]

What you're talking about is prosody.(pitch fluctuation). Resonance is different. It's the way your voice resonates. I think voice breaking post vfs impatcs badly on resonance as it makes the voice resonate more frequently in the chest. Sadly our larynx is larger than that of ciswomen. That is something that vfs won't change.Speaking softly and letting air escape as well as using nasal cavities will inevitably help.

Thanks for the clarification on the terminology.  This can all get so confusing sometimes.

So an update on my progress.  I've been measuring my pitch with the rainbow passage in praat every day, and the variation is very interesting.  A couple nights ago, it measured at 222Hz.  Last night it was about 202Hz.  Other nights it is 195ish Hz.  I wonder if the yo-yoing in pitch each day is an effect of the Botox.  Regardless, the bounds of this variation seem to slowly be getting higher, even if it does vary each day.

I start my exercises tomorrow which I'm pretty excited about.  I know Jenny said that those helped a lot, so hopefully they help me as well (I do definitely need to work on my resonance).  I'm hoping my pitch settles sometime within the next month because the up-and-down uncertainty is frustrating.