Effect of Intranasal Estrogen on Vocal Quality

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of intranasal estrogen therapy on female vocal quality. Thirty-two women who had surgically induced menopause were included into the study group and examined through hall year for this study. Estrogen treatment was proposed to all of the patients. Twenty-three of them accepted the treatment protocols including oral (n=12) (2mg estradiol; Estrofem; Novo Nordisk, Denmark) and intranasal (n=11) (300 mc g 17beta-estradiol; Aerodiol; Servier, Chambray-les-Tours, France) form of estrogen. The rest of patients refused estrogen treatment and those patients constituted the control group (n=9). Vocal changes were evaluated with Voice Handicap Index (VHI) and acoustic analysis of voice variations (fundamental frequency [F0], SD F0, jitter, shimmer, normalized voice energy, and harmonics-to-noise ratio) at baseline and after 1-year follow-up. According to VHI, while voice improvement was not clear in oral estrogen group, it was significant at intranasal estrogen group. Voice quality in patients treated with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was significantly higher than patients without HRT. But between two treatment groups, there were no any statistical discrepancy. According to acoustic analysis, vocal stability among the women who use HRT was significantly better than those who did not use. Intranasal estrogen exerted the most significant effects on vocal stability. The data of our study support that voice undergoes changes in lack of estrogen in surgically induced menopausal women. Taken together with the relevant studies, while oral estrogen replacement therapy shows a favorable influence on voice quality, it seems to be more pronounced with intranasal estrogen than oral form.