Jennifer Sloan
My transition journey began two years ago and at first I didn’t really notice my voice. The other changes were overwhelming (in a good way!). Hormones were doing their thing bit by bit, I was completely out - socially and at work - and managing my social and hormonal transition was all consuming. I grew up pretending to be a boy and no-one had ever explained how to be a girl. I was learning step by step and very kind people said I looked and sounded fine. So it wasn’t until about six months into my journey than my voice began to bother me. As the rest of me changed, my voice seemed static and intransigent, as if testosterone and male puberty had done its thing to my vocal chords - permanently and irreversibly. The more I changed, the more my voice began to bother me. I did all the usual things - bought a couple of apps, tried to practice and gradually re-educate my voice - thinner, higher, as well as trying to change speech patterns I’d learned in 40 years of being in the wrong gender. To an extent this did help, but it takes a lot of effort and it’s very slow! At work and in most social situations I’d soon forget, get tired or just be so self conscious that sustaining anything approaching a feminine voice became impossibly difficult. Two years after starting my journey I came across Kamol hospital in Thailand and was finally in a position to book SRS and some FFS and saw that voice surgery is also offered. The surgery I opted for, after a consultation and voice analysis, was the less invasive procedure which passively stretches the vocal cords. The surgery included some time with a speech therapist to help me gradually start using my new voice. For me the impact was incredible. The voice I’d tried so hard to achieve, often getting tired, often feeling self conscious, was suddenly just ‘there’. No effort at all. All the lower end of my voice had gone and I began to find a natural and effortless pitch that just felt right. My voice has become thinner because the deeper resonances have gone, it is lighter and more fluid and it is slightly higher - all without the effort I’d previously needed. Thanks to the hospital, brilliant surgeons, fabulous nurses and a very helpful speech therapist, for the first time in my life everything makes sense. My body, face and now also my voice. For me it has been truly transformative and completely liberating!