Abstract
Objective: This study aims to compare the acoustic vocal analysis results of a group of transgender women relative to those of cisgender women.Methods: Thirty transgender women between the ages of 19 and 52 years old participated in the study. The control group was composed of 31 cisgender women between the ages of 20 and 48 years old. A standardized questionnaire was administered to collect general patient data to better characterize the participants. The vowel /a/ sounds of all participants were collected and analyzed by the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program advanced system.Results: Statistically significant differences between cisgender and transgender women were found on 14 measures: fundamental frequency, maximum fundamental frequency, minimum fundamental frequency, standard deviation of fundamental frequency, absolute jitter, percentage or relative jitter, fundamental frequency relative average perturbation, fundamental frequency perturbation quotient, smoothed fundamental frequency perturbation quotient, fundamental frequency variation, absolute shimmer, relative shimmer, voice turbulence index (lower values in the cases), and soft phonation index (higher values in the cases). The mean fundamental frequency value was 159.046 Hz for the cases and 192.435 Hz for the controls.Conclusion: Through glottal adaptations, the group of transgender women managed to feminize their voices, presenting voices that were less aperiodic and softer than those of cisgender women.
Highlights
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (American Psychiatric Association., 2013), gender dysphoria is characterized by a marked incongruence between the experienced/expressed gender and the primary and/or secondary sexual characteristics, usually accompanied by the desire to make the body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and hormonal treatment (WHO, 2004)
Psychological processes can mediate the relationship between minority stress and mental health, data relating these factors to trans women are scarce, the degree of satisfaction of this population with their own body is directly related to mental health outcomes (Kanamor and Xu, 2020)
In a study that used a minority stress model to explore the indirect effects on the association between attacks based on transphobia and anxiety and depression through the degree of body satisfaction of a person, it was seen that body satisfaction mediated the relationship between violence based on transphobia and mental health
Summary
Brazilian Transgender Women’s Voices “Transgender” is a generic term that encompasses a wide spectrum of people who do not identify with the sex to which they were assigned at birth (Ansara and Hegarty, 2012). For these individuals, the inconsistency between their gender identity and the sex attributed to them at birth creates discomfort (Schneider et al, 2017). Psychological processes can mediate the relationship between minority stress and mental health, data relating these factors to trans women are scarce, the degree of satisfaction of this population with their own body is directly related to mental health outcomes (Kanamor and Xu, 2020). Clinical intervention that promotes body satisfaction, including access to gender-confirming therapies, voice therapy, and especially hormonal therapy, can prevent negative mental health outcomes among trans women (Klemmer et al, 2021)
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