voice change and low testosterone following castration or testicular trauma

[sawyer]

Hi everyone,

A few weeks before my seventeenth birthday, I sustained a significant blunt-force injury to both testicles in a bicycle accident. At the time, I didn't inform my parents and managed it on my own with ice packs. I didn't think much of it until I began noticing changes, as both testicles had visibly atrophied, I started gaining weight toward the end of high school, and a classmate eventually pointed out that my voice seemed higher-pitched than before. Honestly, I hadn't noticed the vocal change myself until it was brought to my attention. In my first year of college, I finally got my testosterone levels tested (was ~3.2 nmol/L as I remember). The value was below the lower limit of the normal male reference range, and testicular volume was approximately 4 mL and 6 mL, respectively.

I'd like to hear if anyone has had a similar experience. Based on something I read, testosterone initially causes edema and vascular congestion in the vocal cords, followed by permanent thickening due to the accumulation of collagen and elastic fibers, changes that collectively drive deepening of the voice. My working theory is that by the time of my injury, my voice had only partially broken, and the process was still underway. When my testosterone dropped sharply afterward, the unfinished edema and vascular congestion, which had not yet matured into permanent structural changes, likely resolved, leaving my voice higher than it would have been had puberty run its full course. That said, my voice still sounds predominantly masculine overall; I’m not sure if it retains the characteristics of a male adolescent. Maybe later I will post an audio recording of my voice.

[WheelyFixed]

This is an interesting question, I don't know if there is much data to support an answer for it....

The standard answer to the voice change question is that castration doesn't change the voice - that a castrated adult stays in the same range, and that a per-adolescent's voice never changes so it stays in the high range... What I'm not sure we have much data on is what happens if one is in the middle of the transition age.

I've sent JesusA a pointer to this question and am asking if he has any data on the question about this...

WheelyFixed

[WheelyFixed]

A few hours ago JesusA sent me a response saying he has passed the question on to a couple of his expert acquaintances... Will let us know when he hears back...

FWIW, as discussed a while back, He and Richard Wasserug have been working with a youngster who was castrated at 12 due to medical error. He says the boy (I believe now a college student) recently used testosterone for a few months in order to get his voice to change, and stopped once it did...

WheelyFixed

[sawyer]

Thank you so much for this update, Wheely.

I'd also like to thank JesusA for kindly passing the question on to his expert acquaintances.

I really look forward to hearing what they say.

[JesusA]

I passed the information to a couple of endocrinologists with whom I work and who specialize in transgender issues. It took a bit of bugging, but the responses that I got are not really helpful. The more helpful one ran:

I think the vocal cord changes in most youth often occur before the age of 17. I'm not sure the accident has anything to do with it given the low normal T level.

The other response only suggested T replacement to "further masculinize" the voice.

Voice has long been seen as a major issue for transwomen. Feminizing the voice, even to a minor extent, is a major problem once the vocal cords have lengthened and thickened.

[WheelyFixed]

Thanks for at least seeing what they had to say, it sort of matches what I thought I knew from the posts of others, but definitely interesting... FWIW, I also found this article https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10. ... 11.01173.x which was an interesting bit of research. Based on that, when he had his accident at almost 17, he presumably should have been at least late Tanner - 4 or early Tanner - 5, which is adult...

I've also been swapping a few PM's w/ Sawyer where he gave me a bit more info that I'm not going to share (by his request) and I suspect that he may naturally have been at the higher end of the normal voice range both as a child and as a teen as his voice broke. In other words his voice dropped, but remains at the higher end of 'normal male adult' range...

WheelyFixed

[Evolve]

I've never heard of any instances in which castration effects voice other than if it's done prior to puberty in which case the voice would likely stay at the higher pre-pubescent voice. However, once puberty kicks in and testosterone enlarges the voice box, there is no turning back regardless of any subsequent endocrine changes. To the chagrin of many of us in the transgender community, Cher's 'If I can turn back time' tune resonates all too well regarding the voice.

[Aunuch]

A great deal of people in the trans community wish they could turn back time (me included), to avoid the awful changes that occur during puberty, that are often hard, or even impossible to revert...

Not to mention the trauma that many people get from it that you would avoid if you did manage to avoid puberty...

I for one wish I could've avoided puberty, so many awful things could've been prevented if I did... (not just counting the physical things, stuff like sex drive that, in my case, was really awful, and one of the things that disconnected me from my body the most)