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07.01.2009

Testosterone supplement lowers female voice after three months

Androgen use leads to a heavier larynx [see below] and a deeper voice, and the effect is even more pronounced in women. Never before have researchers monitored the lowering of a female voice as a result of taking male hormones as closely as Edward Damrose did at Stanford University Medical Center.

Damrose, an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, gave a 33 year-old semi-professional female singer a fortnightly injection containing 200 mg of testosterone enanthate, and monitored her voice changes for a year.

The singer, who worked as a lawyer, was undergoing a sex change.

The graph below shows how the average pitch of the woman's voice changed during the androgen therapy. Somewhere after the third month her voice started to deepen.

Damrose also tested the highest pitch that the woman could still reach [the Maximal F0] and the lowest notes the singer could produce [the Minimal F0]. In the graph below you can see that the subject's range had decreased by the fourth month.

The volume the woman was able to achieve increased after six months of hormone therapy.

Similar studies have been done on men who manufacture too little testosterone. In male singers the highest pitch goes down after only four weeks. [J Voice. 2001 Dec;15(4):553-7.] This may be because men’s vocal cords are more often exposed to androgens and therefore react more quickly.

After six months of taking androgens the singer in the above mentioned case study found it difficult to maintain his pitch. The transsexual in the study referred to in this article continued to sing with no loss of quality to his voice.

Sources:
Auris Nasus Larynx. 2009 Feb;36(1):110-2.