Most of us have dealt with the effects of hormones on our voices,
either personally or vicariously.
Why do hormones affect our voices?
Hormones have many jobs in our bodies. They’re neurotransmitters, and as part of our epigenetic advent calendar (as it were) they trigger changes in our bodies as we age. They also help us relax, respond to stress, and regulate our metabolism, blood pressure, blood sugar, and sleep.
If you’re reading this, you're primarily interested in voices, and hormones have big effects on the voice.
Keep reading for the blog ⬇️ or watch the video! ⬇️
Adolescents
Most of us are familiar with the role of hormones in growing adolescents. As we move from childhood to tween-hood, a flood of hormones sets off changes in our primary and secondary sex characteristics. Primary sex characteristics are what we need to make more humans, and secondary sex characteristics are things like body hair, changes in muscle mass, and voices.
You heard it here. Voices are secondary sex characteristics. The connective tissue of your vocal folds has receptors for hormones that cause the structure itself to change during adolescence, and continue to make the voice react to changes in hormone levels during menses, menopause, and stressful times.
When an adolescent voice is primarily affected by testosterone it tends to happen over a very short timeline, typically between two and 12 months. You can reassure these clients that although things feel very strange right now, their voices will settle into a new identity in short order.
Conversely, a voice primarily affected by estrogen can take anywhere from a year to three years to change into the teen voice that the singer will have until approximately age 25. That transition involves less of the stereotypical drama, but takes longer.
The main side effect during this time is the presence of a little bit of edema in the vocal folds. The result of that is that there won’t be a nice, clean adduction and the sound will be soft and airy.
Hormone-stimulated edema can also affect women’s voices before and during menses. Just before and during our periods we may experience our voice as being thick, sluggish, airy, or generally uncooperative.
Menopause
During menopause our natural estrogen levels begin to diminish. We still have androgen receptors, and our bodies are still making testosterone. So along with the other symptoms of menopause, we experience more vocal muscle mass, which translates into the ability to sing lower lower pitches, and adds a different kind of a richness to our voices. Some people transition through menopause with little or no impact on their voice. Most of us do not. Our voices can feel heavy, act strangely, and sound unfamiliar or unpleasant to us.
(A couple of things about that: individual experiences vary tremendously. If you’re interested in learning more about the effects of menopause, please follow Dr. Mary Clair Haver on the socials and get your hands on a copy of Singing Through Change by Boss, Frazier-Neely, & Bozeman.)
If you'd like to know more about managing the change in your voice during menopause, watch my video A Facelift For Your Voice.
Stress and your voice
There are receptors for cortisol on virtually every cell in your body. Cortisol plays a role in nearly all the systems in your body, and if you want to learn more there are far more learned sources than this. What we need to know is that, when it comes to voices, chronically elevated cortisol levels will almost certainly have a negative impact on a singer's ability.
How we can help
Inform and reassure
In my opinion, the most powerful thing we can do for our clients is to inform and reassure them. We’re the voice pros, and it’s our job to stay up on the available information and share it when it’s relevant.
This is particularly important for our younger singers. When they hear and feel their voices sounding, feeling, and behaving differently it's very concerning to them. They just haven’t been around for very long; they don't know that this happens to everybody.
When the owner of an estrogen-influenced voice hears themselves going from the clear tone of their child voice to this kind of fuzzy sound (I call it Angel Voice) they're usually concerned and self conscious about that. They think there's something wrong with them.
We also know that many women just stop singing when we go through menopause. We imagine we’ve lost our voice to menopause, and feel helpless to do anything about it. Please reassure and empower any of your clients who are experiencing menopause or perimenopause. We can sing and find the joy in our voices through these changes!
Education about voice care
Sure...it's old news to you. But don't overestimate what your clients and students know! Talk to them about hydration, sleep, and awareness.
Not everyone has a voice that responds negatively to dairy products, caffein, or seasonal changes, but some people do! Help your singers raise their awareness about the things that affect their voice, and give them ideas about how to reduce those effects.
Consistency
Whether a singer is 13 or 73, stressed or feeling PMS, consistent voice use can only help with any frustrating symptoms. A singer doesn’t need to create hours a day for singing, but they do need to have a pocketful of ideas for voice use that can be exercised in short bursts, while doing other things, or on the go. Help your clients find ways to work healthy voice use into their already-busy schedules. Think of this as a way to nurture the voice and the singer!
Be reassuring, give them the information, and let them know how it is. Be that person for your clients and students!
Meredith Colby is the author of Money Notes: How to Sing High, Loud, Healthy and Forever, and the creator of NeuroVocal Method, an approach to coaching for popular styles based on brain science.
Meredith teaches privately online to professional & adult singers, and voice teachers & coaches from all over the world.
You can get information and book individual sessions or classes from this site.
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#meredithcolby blog post about #hormones and the #singingvoice. This post highlights how hormones effect #singers in #adolescence, #menopause, and #menses, as well as the effects of #cortisol on the voice. This article suggests how voice pros can support and educate their #voicestudents and #coachingclients when or if they're struggling with hormone-related #singing challenges.
This post contains #freedownload of an original #ebook about #bandsingers, #singersongwriters, and how voice professionals can help them. Meredith is a #voicecoach, a #vocalcoach, and a #voiceteacher from #chicago. She helps #voiceteachers and #vocalcoaches teach for #popularstyles and #microphonestyles by teaching privately, supplying helpful content, and offering a #certificationclass in #neurovocalmethod.
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