Voice hightened?

[Alex59]

Does the voice highten on Estrogen if you are;

1) in Teens

2) early tweenties

3)30's

4)40 +

Alexis

[Guest Edu]

I ain't an expert, but afaik the voice deepened that happens during "male puberty" are quite irreversible. As a direct implication of this, for someone who starts HRT as a teenager that change can be prevented/mitigated (not by the estrogen itself, but by the T-blockers). Once puberty has happened, the deepened voice is there to stay, and the only thing we can do about it is voice training.

Hugs,

Ethain

[Guest LizMarie]

My understanding is that voice won't change much from wherever it is when you begin HRT. So if you begin early enough in your teens, the physical changes to the voice box can be minimal or perhaps not even happen yet. This is why many therapists prescribe treatment to stop puberty in prepubescent transgenders. They often don't actually start hormones but simply stop puberty so the impacts of that can be decided by the individual once they are of legal age. In other cases they may start transitioning. But the important thing is stopping the actions of puberty from setting the body one way or the other. If you are older, then the effects of puberty have occurred and you can consider voice retraining, which most transgender women do, or voice surgery, which may be helpful for particular cases (or may not).

[Guest Ney'ite]

Others have already answered your question that E will not affect your voice regardless of when it is taken (other than perhaps soften it). It is the T-blocker, such as Spiro, that will do this, and only if started pre-puberty.

I, as well as many other members, have posted on several other threads links to some very helpful "finding your female voice" web pages and videos. Take a look at this thread and you will find some links that are hopefully helpful for you.

http://www.lauras-playground.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43620

[VickySGV]

I have been lucky on this one, my "male" voice was in a range shared by both men and women, and my only changes have been speech patterns, and shifting my projection point from my lower throat to the back of my palate. A lot of us are in the '"shared ranges" and don't realize it, but when we worry and talk, we tend to go lower down the scale!! I am a blend of Tenor(male) and Contralto (female) and frankly can't carry a tune in a bucket!!

[Guest Leah1026]

Does the voice highten on Estrogen if you are;

1) in Teens

2) early tweenties

3)30's

4)40 +

None of the above. Any effect is purely psychological. Once your voice has been through a male-like puberty those physical changes cannot be undone. We retrain our voices through thousands of hours of practice to develop a female voice.

[Guest Fionnuala]

Does the voice highten on Estrogen if you are;

1) in Teens

2) early tweenties

3)30's

4)40 +

None of the above. Any effect is purely psychological. Once your voice has been through a male-like puberty those physical changes cannot be undone. We retrain our voices through thousands of hours of practice to develop a female voice.

Thousands of hours of practice?

I suppose if one counts "practice" as being out-and-about and just living, we could say thousands. If, on the other hand, we're talking about those drills and programs and exercises that some people use, we don't all do them. I didn't, nor did my three closest friends who've gone through this. We all just kind of arrived at the same place over time, the feeling of our voice coming from the roof of the mouth as opposed to down in the throat.

I remember telling my therapist that I just didn't have the patience do to those programs. She kind of shrugged and said, "well, it'll just come as you use it." So I went with that, and she was right. Probably a year or so after I started my transition, I was getting ma'amed on the phone, and I had a *very* masculine-sounding voice to begin with.

Point being, my way or Leah's way or anyone's way isn't any better or worse or right than anyone else's. It's different for everyone.

The one thing that is *not* different for everyone, as has been stated here, is that hormones do diddily-squat for MTF transsexual people.

[Guest Leah1026]

I suppose if one counts "practice" as being out-and-about and just living, we could say thousands.

Yes, being out and about in the world is included in my "thousands of hours". At some point it ceases being practice and just becomes who you are.

[Guest mumbaigirl]

I never "worked on my voice". Not even for a second.

I can't say I had a very masculine voice pre-HRT but it wasn't feminine enough to be called a woman's voice either. I found talking to friends over the phone "as a girl" gradually change my voice very feminine. It was automatic. I don't know what exactly did the trick (tone?pitch?) but I can tell you no one questions it now. In fact, I sometimes have men say that my voice sends a current down their ...uhmmm men! lol leave it

Unlike others and in contradiction to science, I'd say HRT somewhat did help my voice. I have no way to prove it though.

[Guest Shy]

The documentation I was given by my doctor/endo says that "Higher pitch of voice" is a possible "side effect" of HRT. I've only been on it for a few days, so I can't say if it will affect mine. BUT, my voice has been cracking much more than usual since I started. That used to happen rarely, now it's multiple times a day. Take that for what you will.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

FTMs taking T have the benefit of their voices lowering due to T. Not so with MTF takin E. Unfortunately, E does not change ones voice. Changing ones voice requires practice and more practice. There are voice surgeries available to help in changing ones voice to sound feminine. I would suggest to find your voice by practicing.

Love.

Brenda

[Guest HeatherAnne]

I recall when I was younger trying out alternate voices until I found one that masked my feminine side. Many years later I find that it is fairly easy to fall back into a feminine voice if I tear down my other masks (apparently I already did it automatically when in certain situations with folks I am very close to). Unfortunately I am a long way from full time, and the constant tearing down masks and putting them back up is painful.

I think as hormones let out your softer side, you mentally start to make the switch back to your natural state. Just make sure you relax and let it happen. It can be hard to break through those mental blocks that the world forced you to put up.

This is from an MtF with a fairly deep baritone singing voice, by the way. It is far more about inflection and tone than pitch. My mother and sisters all have fairly deep voices too, but nobody would ever think of their voices as anything but feminine! Think Adele (popular singer) and you'll be fine.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Strange answer here I guess - sorry.that it's so long.

This is my experience - and I have no idea if it is typical.

As a male - younger - I had a light voice, one where people were always asking me to repeat things. My daughter inherited that too. We just don't have volume. NOW that is a good thing.

In speech class and later in Army training we learned to project - and I had to learn a 'command voice' which is lower range and from the diaphragm - so I had to unlearn it over the last few years (I always hated it!).

I had a male voice starting HRT (age 61) - I was told it wouldn't change because of HRT. So I bought those two CDs that were available at the time - Melony Speaks and the Andrea James, Finding Your Female Voice. Both are very good - but I doubt I could ever achieve their voices in either one, or so I thought then.

But they gave me some very good basics. Two years of 2 hours practice a day, five days a week, I learned to 'half' my vocal cord voice box, tighten and use the upper muscles, and to enunciate (thank you Andrea James!) and to work in falsetto but slightly lower, and to use a female vocabulary and lilting (thank you Melanie!) So I have a passable female voice - which is good as I am totally full time.

BUT

HRT doesn't change the voice for we MTF? Right?

NO! It has helped me find an upper range - at least three notes higher, which may not seem THAT significant but it really helped me. PLUS my falsetto came back.

So that seems good. Yet that isn't the key to developing a female voice - the key is - like Leah says - THOUSANDS of hours of practicing! And how do you do that? You go full time.

So tap into your real self - and let your natural woman's vocabulary come out. Listen to yourself enunciating syllables, especially the last. And your 'T's and 'S's become especially crisp. YESSSSS!

Then DROP that male way of thinking and all that training you had to go through to be accepted 'as a guy' - because you don't need it no more no more.

And really? Pick up on female expression, which uses some very cool and highly feminine thinking.

Male voice? EWWWWW... how GROSS! Totally has to go away!

Lizzy

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[Guest Robin Robin]

Hay Lizzy,

Just saying EWWWWW... how GROSS! Totally has to go away! as if your the valley girl actually helps me. I have a baritone voice that projects very strong so i try to imitate my daughters and granddaughters voices. All these comments were very helpful.

Love, Robin

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

I thought at first I'd never be able to have a usable female voice and I was bummed out...

But with the last three years of practice (and living full time is practice...as Leah says) I am now able to use a very good voice and it's becoming more and more my everyday voice without effort...

Now I don't even have to cue people by them seeing a female standing there...my voice works....I even get "Ma'amed" on the phone...BINGO!

It's a total combination of tone, pitch, volume, practice and genetics...

Dee Jay

[Guest Paradox]

I accidentally get "mam"ed often. There is a collection of "rare cells," about the size of a golf ball, inside my throat, pressing against the vocal chords.