Voice and transgender
Here you may find information about voice adjustments during your transgender transition process.
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Here you will find our CHARITÉ-FAQs Voice and Transgender.
Living the Conundrum: Voice vs. Identity
One of the most important things for total self-fulfillment is having the voice we carry out to the world fit to our identity. With this, the perception of oneself as a whole to society is key to being fully complete as an individual: "Because my voice is perceived as rather male by others, I might feel uncomfortable."
Resolving this inner conflict should involve working on different levels: psychological support can addressed by means of psychotherapy – the process of changing the voice itself is through voice therapy or pitch raising surgery.
Surgery Technique and Therapy
Treatment usually begins with speech therapy. You can get a prescription from your local ENT physicians or phoniatrician, The costs are covered by public and private health insurance.
Should you feel that therapy alone does not meet your individual needs surgical options can be considered after respective consultation.
We offer the following surgical techniques to achieve a more feminine voice:
- Web-Glottoplasty according to Prof. Wendler (Interview with Prof. Wendler)
- Crico-thyroid approximation (thyroplasty type IV according to Isshiki)
- LASER-assisted thinning of the vocal folds
For patients identifying themselves as male, common procedure is through hormonal therapy by prescribing testosterone. Through this process, the vocal fold muscle thickens naturally, increasing the volume of the vocal folds, which in turn lowers vocal pitch and makes the voice sound more masculine.
The process of aligning voice and identity, especially in male-to-female transition, is often a major challenge. Therefore, it is important to balance individual demands and abilities with the risks of performing additional vocal surgery. The process of using a glottoplasty has shown the best results. Therefore, it is the method of choice by our surgeons.
