Speech Therapy in the Management of Male-to-Female Transsexuals

Abstract

This article discusses communication problems of transsexuals and gives an example of phoniatric and logopedic assessment as well as a possible ‘prototype’ of speech therapy with male-to-female transsexuals.

Efficacy of Conservative Voice Treatment in Male-to-Female Transsexuals

“…Therefore, we agree with Böhme [12] , de Bruin et al [27] and Brown et al [28] that, while conservative treatment is recommended in all cases, surgery should be performed only if necessary. An early start of voice therapy could help the patient bridge the time of waiting for the transformation surgery.…”

“…According to Oswald [18] , the pitch cutoff point is around 140-170 Hz: below 140 Hz we perceive a voice to be male, while above 170 Hz we perceive it to be female. De Bruin et al [27] report a positive effect of conservative voice treatment, although without quantitatively describing the improvement. Successful treatment is not only characterized by an appropriate female habitual speaking pitch [29,32,33] , but also by a larger variation in the melody (frequency variability) of the speaking voice.…”

“…hormone treatment and a series of surgical interventions require an extended period of time), but voice treatment can already be initiated during the early stages of sexual transformation. Data in the literature show that conservative voice treatment may be effective [12,[27][28][29] . It seems that the therapeutic modifi cation of the male voice into an acceptable female voice is possible in spite of the anatomical constitution of a male-sized larynx [30] .…”

“…We paid special attention to this during voice treatment of our patients. It is also important to ensure that the person's behavior -mimic, gestures, posture and body movements -must also be feminine [18,27] . The present study differs from other reports in two aspects: First, we analyzed the effects of the voice treatment by using some additional parameters (DI, subjective self-evaluation by the patient using the 'communicative impairment' questionnaire and second, we compared the voice parameters of treated and nontreated transsexuals.…”

Hormone Treatment of the Adult Transsexual Patient

“…Maleness of the voice is not so much determined by the pitch of the voice as by chest resonance and volume. Speech therapy may lead to more feminine speech [8]. Laryngeal surgery may change the pitch of the voice but reduces its range.…”