Testosterone and Vocal Fatigue
A common issue that many trans men, transmasculine, and nonbinary people struggle with is vocal fatigue. Their voice quality declines and gets progressively hoarse after speaking for a long period of time.
Two common reasons for this:
squeezing the throat and using unnecessary muscle tension
inefficient breathing habits
This might look like having the chest expand and the shoulders rise on an inhale, running out of air midway through a sentence, or not being able to project your voice
Here are a few exercises to help and a link to a video demonstration
Exercise #1 – Yawn Sigh (AH, OH, AY)
This exercise relaxes the vocal tract by moving the larynx down and opens the throat.
Step 1: Open your mouth, keeping your tongue low
Step 2: Gentle inhale
Step 3: Sigh on easy & relaxed AH sound
Exercise #2 – Hissing on S Sound
Step 1: Breath in for 3 seconds (place hands on belly and feel belly expand on the inhale)
Step 2: Exhale on a smooth and controlled SSS sound for 6 seconds
If this was easy, you can try inhaling for 4 seconds and exhaling for 8 seconds
