Vocal Symptoms and Acoustic Findings in Menopausal Women in Comparison to Pre-menopause Women with Body Mass Index as a Confounding Variable

Abstract

ObjectivesTo compare the prevalence of phonatory symptoms in menopausal women compared to pre-menopause women with body mass index (BMI) as a confounding variable.MethodsA total of 69 women, 34 menopausal and 35 pre-menopausal were invited to participate in this study. Demographic variables included age, smoking, and BMI. All subjects were asked about the presence hoarseness, loss of high or low frequencies, pitch breaks, throat clearing, dryness in the throat and vocal fatigue. Acoustic analysis was performed and the Voice Handicap Index (VHI)-10 was filled by all the subjects.ResultsThere was a significantly higher prevalence of throat clearing and dryness in the menopausal group compared to the pre-menopause group with a P value of 0.035 and 0.032 respectively. When BMI was taken into account, there was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of any of the phonatory symptoms in menopausal women with high BMI and pre-menopause. There was no statistically significant difference in the means of any of the acoustic parameters between the menopausal group and pre-menopausal group. There was no significant difference in the mean VHI-10 between the menopause group and the pre-menopause (P = 0.652).ConclusionsThe results of this investigation substantiate the importance of fat as an alternative source of estrogen which can mask some of the phonatory symptoms.

Voice perturbations under the stress overload in young individuals: phenotyping and suboptimal health as predictors for cascading pathologies

“…Voice parameters and quality changes are usually secondary towards functional and/or structural laryngological alterations under certain systemic processes, syndrome, and pathologies. These include but are not restricted to Sicca syndrome [ 10 ], dry mouth syndrome [ 11 ] and body dehydration [ 12 ], hormonal alterations linked to pubertal [ 13 ], menopausal [ 14 ] and andropausal [ 15 ] status and acromegaly [ 16 ], cardio-vocal syndrome [ 17 ], respiratory disorders (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [ 18 ] and asthma [ 19 ]), gastrointestinal reflux [ 20 ], autoimmune diseases such as rheumatic arthritis [ 21 ] and Sjögren’s syndrome [ 22 ], systemic lupus erythematosus [ 23 ], amyloidosis [ 24 ], cystic fibrosis [ 25 ], endocrinologic disorders such thyroid dysfunction [ 26 , 27 ] and anorexia nervosa [ 28 – 30 ], underweight versus overweight and obesity [ 31 , 32 ], and diabetes [ 33 ].…”

The Effects of Menopause on Neuromuscular Parameters of the Rat Vocal Folds

“…However, menopause does not affect all female voices similarly, perhaps because of variability in estrogen levels. For example, postmenopausal women with a higher body mass index tend to report fewer vocal symptoms, such as throat clearing and dryness in the throat, which may be related to adipose tissue regulation of estrogen production in postmenopausal women 10 . Therefore, investigating the role of estrogen in vocal fold maintenance post menopause is essential to interpret vocal changes following menopause.…”