Surgery To Make Voice Deeper

Tips And Surgery To Make Voice Deeper

Whatever your reason for wanting to make your voice sound deeper, there are various ways to change the tone of your speaking voice, including voice exercises, testosterone therapy, voice surgery, and voice therapy for trans men.

The way your voice sounds can play a significant role in the gender-affirming process. Having a high-pitched voice is often an area of great distress for FTM individuals. Voice masculinization could go a long way in lessening the anxiety associated with gender dysphoria.

You may have heard mean with deep voices on the TV and radio when you were younger and thought to yourself, "Mmm, if only I could make my voice deeper, I would be talking all the time."

Well, the days of wishing for a deeper voice are over, and it's time to take action. Although a feminine voice is nothing to be ashamed of as a trans man, we do understand your urgency and the relief that a deep voice will bring.

Therefore, this article is created especially for you to explore and learn about how you can make your voice deeper, both through vocal exercises and surgery.

What Is FTM Voice Therapy?

If you are an FTM person who wants to get a deeper voice, transgender voice therapy may be the perfect option for you. Do some of your own research to find a professional speech coach with experience in helping trans men create a deep voice.

Your voice coach will customize your sessions according to your individual goals when attending speech therapy. You may think you can train yourself and make your voice deeper on your own with the help of YouTube videos. Although research could undoubtedly help you, it is an entirely different experience when you get professional voice training. However, it will always be to your advantage to additionally practice deepening your voice on your own.

FTM voice training is essentially a non-surgical method to make the voice sound deeper. It is beneficial in affirming the genders of trans men and ensuring their confidence.

Voice and speech therapy entails breathing and resonance exercises, as well as training to alter the pitch of your voice.

How Does Testosterone Therapy Make Your Voice Sound Deeper?

Testosterone is known for its significant contribution to voice masculinization. If you decide to commence hormone therapy, testosterone will cause your vocal cords to thicken. Thicken vocal cords mean the vocal folds will vibrate slower, resulting in a deeper voice.

Everyone will have differing transition experiences. When you start testosterone treatment, you may wonder when the results will begin to emerge. Though it varies widely, most men start noticing their voice sounds deeper after six to nine months.

Do not doubt or compare your transition to that of anyone else. Testosterone therapy will unequivocally deepen your voice, whether it takes a few weeks or a year.

That's the good news, so what's the bad news? Although very rare, testosterone may have some adverse effects on the voice. Vocal entrapment is a scarce but real occurrence, causing a hoarse and rough-sounding voice, an enlarger larynx, and little to no control or access of the voice in some areas of the range.

This is by no means common, but if you don't want to take the risk to get a deeper voice, we suggest you explore alternative methods of voice masculinization.

How To Make Your Voice Deeper

Step 1: Listen To Your Natural Voice

The first step to making your voice deeper is to listen to its current pitch. Without trying to force your vocal cords to produce a deep voice, listen to what your normal voice sounds like.

Start by recording yourself speaking in the comfortable pitch of your voice. Speak slowly and clearly so you can analyze the recording better, identifying the pitch where your voice may sound too feminine. This will be the voice pitch to focus on most as you start training your vocal cords.

When you speak, stand in front of a mirror so you can examine the way your mouth forms each sound. Focus on maintaining a good posture. Stand straight and hold your chin up.

You can either choose a passage to read or say the same sentence repeatedly. Be attentive to your breathing patterns, and pitch changes when you speak.

The pitch of your voice is determined by the extent and speed at which your vocal cords vibrate.

If your voice has a higher pitch, it means your vocal cords are vibrating rapidly. However, your vocal cords vibrate at a lower frequency if your voice is deep.

Step 2: Relax

Relax your throat as much as you can. Try not to tighten your vocal cords and continuously moisten your voice box with saliva to maintain a clear-sounding voice.

Our muscles are much tenser than we like to think. Bad posture, stress, and even workout exercises cause our bodies to tense up. So if you want your voice to sound deeper, you have to release that tension in some chief areas.

Jaw- You can deepen your voice and gain control of the way you speak when your jaw is nice and relaxed. To achieve a relaxed jaw, start by massaging your masseter muscles right in front of your ears. If these muscles are particularly tight, apply pressure and keep it there for a while to release the tension.

Tongue- Your tongue is the most critical organ when you speak. There are numerous different tongue muscles involved in speaking, so you should relax your tongue by sticking it behind your front teeth at the bottom. You can also stick it out as far as you can and release it again. Tongue twisters could help your tongue get the gist of the exercises you will do.

Throat- Have you ever noticed how relaxed your throat is when you're yawning? This is also the time when your vocal tract is lengthened, and your voice is at its deepest. To relax your throat, yawn, and as you're yawing, drop your head down to each shoulder. You will feel the back of your throat gently stretching.

Neck- Our neck muscles typically carry the most tension out of all our body parts. Our stressful lives have seen to this. Stretch your next thoroughly by rotating it from side to side. When you feel your neck relaxing and the tension slowly leaving your body, you are in the right state to take your place as your own vocal coach and practice making your voice lower. 

Step 3: Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing

If you notice your shoulders moving up and down while you breathe, you are shallow breathing. Although this is how most people naturally breathe, it puts some strain on the vocal cords and the neck.

Practice diaphragm breathing by breathing slowly, focusing on directing the effort toward your stomach instead of up toward your shoulders. Draw more air in through your nose than you usually would. Take a deep breath and assess where the air is going.

Though it seems like a very simple exercise, diaphragmatic breathing will help your voice sound richer and more resonant.

The ability of this exercise to make your voice deeper is displayed by singers all over the world. Diaphragmatic breathing forms part of singers' regular voice exercises as it helps them achieve a lower pitch and even those impossible high notes.

Not only will it help you improve your male voice, but it will also teach you how to control the lower depths of your range.

Step 3: Warm Up Your Voice

To warm up your voice, try humming in a lower tone. Hum from your throat with your chin down and your lips slightly parted. Humming is an excellent way to warm up your vocal cords and help you activate your chest voice instead of the head voice, which most people speak with.

Start raising your head slowly while continuing to hum and lead your voice to start speaking in your humming voice so that it sounds deeper than your voice naturally would.

Step 4: Speak Through Your Mouth

Any qualified speech coach would tell you that you will reach a lower pitch when you speak through your mouth instead of your nose. If your voice sounds too nasal, it will be challenging to make your voice sound clear and articulate. Don't worry if you feel like you have a breathy voice when speaking in that register. These breathy voices are actually considered very sexy in men.

Step 5: Practice Your Chest Voice 

Your chest voice is where you draw the power to reach that low register. When you learn to control it, your voice will sound deeper and more assertive than you ever thought possible.

It is in this voice that you will complete all the following exercises. Firstly, speak normally but engage your throat. Nasal voices tend to engage the nose, making the voice sound much higher and lighter, qualities most people avoid when going for a deeper voice.

Next, take a deep breath and exhale while making a hissing sound. You will feel your chest opening and the sound coming from deep inside. Start talking freely and feel your voice moving from your belly to your chest to your mouth.

If you notice your pitch raising while speaking, stop for a moment maintain a neutral inflection before aiming for a downward inflection to find your desired pitch again. If you practice enough, you will be able to sustain a deep voice in about a week. You will only reach and hold your lowest note after becoming completely comfortable with your voice register and how you breathe.

FTM Voice Surgery

If you find that you could not achieve your desired outcome with voice exercises alone, you can consider getting voice surgery.

There are two types of voice surgery:

Thyroplasty

A thyroplasty involves the altering of the position of the vocal cords. This is done by changing the thyroid cartilage of the voice box, where the vocal cords reside.

Of the three distinct types of thyroplasty, type 3 thyroplasty is performed to lower pitch by shortening the thyroid ala.

Micro Laryngeal Reduction Surgery

This surgery involves the thickening of the vocal cords. Tissue is transferred to the cords to increase their mass, making your voice sound deeper.

A surgeon will use a laser to make incisions on the laryngeal tissue at the top surface of what is called the true vocal cords. Next, the tissue bulk is transferred to the lower edge of the vocal cords where vibration occurs, increasing its mass. The cuts may also cause changes in tension and loosen the cords to bring about a lower, more comfortable speaking voice.

Potential Risks Of Vocal Surgery

• In an environment that has been less than adequately sterilized, an infection could occur.
• Reaction to anesthesia or medication could potentially lead to cardiac arrest and hypotension. Such reactions are rare and treatable by the emergency team on hand.
• The laryngoscope puts pressure on the tongue, causing numbness that should subside within weeks, but if it persists, seek medical attention.
• Unanticipated and unexpected injury to the vocal cords may occur.
• Although rare, a hemorrhage from the operative site could occur.

Surgery recovery

Some important measures must be adhered to if a patient wants to reap the full benefits of vocal surgery.

Rest The Voice Completely

Doctors recommend that patients rest their voices completely by avoiding talking, singing, or even whispering for the first three days after surgery. If the patient has an occupation where the voice is exhausted daily, such as singers or actors, a minimum of five days of rest is required.

Avoid Clearing Your Throat

If you feel irritation in your throat region, swallow instead of clearing your throat.

Drink Lots Of Water

Keeping the larynx hydrated by drinking at least eight glasses of water a day will relieve some of the more uncomfortable symptoms. Patients often experience extreme dryness of the larynx and throat in the days following surgery.

Eat And Drink Normally

Although patients should drink and eat as they normally would, limiting their caffeine intake is recommended. This is because caffeine worsens conditions related to indigestions and acid reflux, which could damage the throat region in its vulnerable state.

Utilize Steam Inhalation

To relieve the discomfort of a severely dry throat, patients can inhale the steam from a bowl of hot water. Place a towel over your head while doing so to confine the steam, and inhale the hot steam for five to ten minutes.

Avoid Drinking Alcohol And Smoking

During the advised period of three to five days of complete resting of the voice, patients should not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol and should avoid being around other smokers.

Surgery should only be considered when voice training in conjunction with testosterone therapy does not yield an individual's desired results.

An FTM person should always consult a medical professional and discuss exactly what measures they have taken to get a deeper voice and why these measures were unsuccessful or insufficient.

Surgery is a serious step, and you have to be absolutely sure that it is what you want, as there are always risks involved. You cannot simply go back and say, "I got this surgery to make my voice deeper, but, actually, I'd like to reverse it." It is irreversible.

Many people have found that surgery really improved the quality and depth of their voices, so it could be a life-altering change if all other directions failed to satisfy your dream.

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