I’m starting to hit a bit of a wall with voice training lately. I can find my resonance, I can adjust the positioning of my vocal cords and where my voice is coming from. I occasionally pass on the phone, and I work all day over the phone so I do get pretty regular indirect feedback in terms of how my voice gets me gendered.
But I am very much struggling with pitch and maintaining consistent pitch. It’s just not happening and even when everything else is perfect my pitch will slip, and then I’ll get misgendered. I cant seem to find a specific pitch and comfortably rest there. I’m also 8 years in at this point, I’ve been doing voice training for a long time and I just think when it comes down to it I might be one of the women for whom training alone just isn’t enough.
I’ve done a lot of research into glottoplasty and find myself in a financial position where I could hypothetically afford it. Most accounts from people who’ve had the procedure seem to indicate they’ve had great results with it, but there’s a lot of people who swear that it’ll basically render me mute if I get it done. Its minimally invasive and the surgeon I’m considering has good rapport with his patients and I’m confident he’d do great. But on the whole I’m hesitating a little bit and curious what other people think. I do IT work that involves using the phone quite a bit, but if I had to take time off work for a little while that would almost certainly be fine. I don’t sing and really don’t have any concerns with regard to vocal range either.
Are you considering vocal feminization surgery? Why or why not? Have you experienced similar things with regards to voice training, or has training alone been enough for you?
Feel free to chime in with whatever thoughts you have on the operation or voice training in general.
I’ve had glottoplasty, and I know quite a few other folk that have too. And it can make a huge difference. But other people say that it changed their pitch, but that they aren’t happy with the results.
And from what I can tell, the difference was largely related to whether people had done voice training or not. Those who had done training seemed to find that VFS was a big help in getting them across the line, but those who hadn’t, tended to find that their results were more “meh”.
The way I put it is that VFS improved the instrument I was using to speak, and let me get more for less with my vocal training.
The downsides for me are that I can’t project my voice very well anymore. I am regularly told that I am softly spoken, and I have trouble being heard in clubs and busy restaurants. But I can shout and sing just fine. It’s only projecting a speaking voice that I struggle with.
