Abstract
This study explores the outcomes of symptomatic voice treatment plus Stemple's vocal function exercises (VFEs) for a group of male-to-female (MTF) transgender (TG) clients seeking voice feminization. Both acoustic and perceptual outcomes were assessed, in addition to the clients' attitudes toward VFE. Prospective treatment study. Three MTF TG clients plus three control female speakers and three control male speakers served as subjects. All provided a variety of speech samples. The TG clients underwent symptomatic voice therapy for 6 weeks, while simultaneously performing the VFE protocol. At the end of therapy, the TG clients provided posttreatment voice samples. All voice samples were analyzed for speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), SFF upper and lower limits, and the first three formants of /i/. A CD of pre- and posttreatment voice samples plus the control voices was presented to listeners for gender judgments and masculinity and femininity ratings. For acoustic measures, the TG subjects appeared more similar to the male control speakers in the pretest, and more similar to the female controls in the posttest. Perceptually, listeners continued to identify the TG subjects as male following therapy, although they were rated as significantly less masculine and more feminine. TG subjects were generally positive about the addition of VFE to their therapy experience. The addition of VFE did not appear to improve posttreatment outcomes compared with previous literature. It was suggested that both number of sessions and experience living full-time as a woman might be important variables in predicting progress in therapy.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.