Aerodynamic Assessment of Young Women’s Voices as a Function of Oral Contraceptive Use

Abstract

Objective: To examine possible differences in glottal airflow parameters according to oral contraceptive (OC) use. Subjects and Methods: The participants included 16 women, 20–24 years of age. Eight women were taking a triphasic OC; the remaining 8 women were not taking any form of oral contraception (NOC). All participants were recorded on days 7 and 14 of their menstrual cycle. Three repetitions of the sustained vowel /a/ were obtained using a circumferentially vented respiratory face mask connected to a wide-band pressure transducer. Measures of peak flow, minimum flow, alternating flow, fundamental frequency (F₀) and relative sound pressure level were obtained. Results: A multivariate analysis of variance with sound pressure level as a covariate revealed no significant effect of day of recording upon the dependent measures. As a group, the OC women exhibited significantly higher F₀, peak and alternating flow rates compared to the NOC women. Removal of data outliers from the OC women resulted in similar airflow rates for both groups. Conclusion: The findings from this preliminary study did not support the use of glottal airflow measures to distinguish OC women from NOC women. Differences in F₀ findings may reflect hormonally mediated changes in laryngeal tissue and warrant further investigation.