To T or Not to T: The Transmasculine Singing Voice on Hormone Replacement Therapy

ABSTRACT

Because testosterone-based hormone replacement therapy (HRT) naturally lowers the mean fundamental frequency range of the singer’s voice, the transmasculine voice has historically been treated as a kind of “gold standard” for gender transition—take T, wait a year and voila: a male voice. However, the process of post-pubertal hormonal changes is far more complex than it superficially appears, particularly for the voice. Research on outcomes for transitioning voices is sparse, and anecdotal narratives about poor outcomes give both professional and serious avocational singers pause. This lack of readily available evidence-based research presents a challenge both to trans singers and the voice professionals working with them: given the uncertainty of vocal outcomes, should the transmasculine singer pursue HRT? This article seeks to provide an overview of current knowledge about HRT and the transmasculine voice, contextualize existing data from a singing-voice point of view and highlight the gaps in understanding—offering insight from a transmasculine voice professional’s personal transition and professional teaching experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender voice
• trans masculine singers
• vocal pedagogy
• transitioning voice
• vocal training
• voice
• performance

Acknowledgments

Profound thanks are due to my students, who have generously shared their experiences with me. Talking about voice and transition is an incredibly vulnerable thing to do, and their bravery in sharing must be acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A transgender man. The term comes from “female to male” and has generally been replaced with “transmasculine” as a descriptor.

2. While there is one study that addresses singing tasks in transmasculine people on HRT (Azul and Neuschaefer-Rube 2019), the participants were pulled from the broader community and are not specifically identified as singers, either avocational or professional.

3. Including my own—a qualitative and acoustic analysis of my first year of vocal transition presented at the Voice Foundation, publication forthcoming.

4. Anecdotally, this is also true for emotional state, as well. For some of my clients, microdosing works well and they are happy and adjust well to being in an “in-between” state, while others report that microdosing has made them feel emotionally unstable and less functional overall.

5. Fundamental speaking frequency refers to the vibratory frequency of the vocal folds during speech, directly associated with the perceived pitch of the speaker. FSF has generally been perceived as the primary determiner for the speaker’s perceived gender.

6. The first three formants (F1, F2 and F3) are associated with tongue positioning, whereas F4 is associated more with vocal tract length and thus, associated more with perceived masculine gendered voice (Cler et al. 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felix Graham

Felix Graham, EdDCT, (singwithdrfelix.com) is a New York-based singing-voice specialist and music educator whose teaching and research practice focuses on vocal health and retraining, as well as guiding clients in reconciling their voice and personal identity. In addition to his musical work, he speaks, writes, and offers workshops on trans voice, gender, and vocal habilitation. Besides his collegiate training, he completed a clinical mentorship under the supervision of Drs. Kenneth Altman and Daniel McCabe at the Eugen Grabscheid Voice Center at Mt. Sinai, in New York City. Currently, Dr. Graham is the director of Transcend, a trans/gender-expansive classical choral ensemble, teaches voice privately, teaches as an adjunct professor of music at York College, City University of New York, and serves on the board of the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) .