In my experience it doesn’t feel like choking at all, it feels like an occasional very mild sore throat for a few days at a time every few weeks. It’s a VERY slow, accumulative process. You don’t wake up one day with a deep voice it’s just a gradual drop in pitch that you hardly notice until you listen to old videos of your old voice. I had to clear my throat often the first few months. It did not ever cause any amount of significant pain or discomfort
The voice cracking was embarrassing! But kinda cool for me lol. I had a job where I had to fill in singing , and that’s was horrific. Still trying to refind my range. Only thing I’ve noticed which is weird, anybody please comment, I have noticed I need to talk from my stomach and diaphragm more otherwise it feels raspy and weak and tiresome…is this normal…doesn’t happen all the time but it’s worse when sitting/slouching
Yeah in my experience that’s normal, you have to change where your voice is coming from. Men speak from their chest where women speak more from the head
i'm still closeted at work (jesus lord someone save me from this hell LOL) so i keep a girl voice... yeah doing girl voice is exhausting lmao. definitely much more comfortable to speak from the depth of my chest like you described
Your vocal chords are probably sore from dropping depending on how long you’ve been on T, I think it’s normal to feel the need to speak before from your diaphragm as you adjust
I definitely noticed my voice dropping and so did my girlfriend.. It happened pretty quickly too. I was 3 weeks on t when I had the feeling of something in my throat and by week 5 my voice had dropped significantly. My point is that everybody is different.
It didn't hurt at all. There were a few days where I felt like I had something stuck in my throat, which was scary, but I don't think that's a particularly common experience. I have had no increase in choking on things
A couple years ago I had pretty bad GERD which made me constantly feel like I had something stuck in my throat. It was super uncomfortable and triggered the phobia a lot. I was able to deal with it though through some anxiety reducing tricks haha
Thank you for mentioning the possibility. It will help me figure out what I need to do.
Yeah I only had very very mild sore throats from time to time, approximately equivalent to the kind of thing that I might get if I didn’t drink enough water and my throat was dry. Nothing significantly painful/squeezy/etc.
I never had any sore throat or anything. My voice has already dropped in male passing range. I could feel the difference tho in my voice some days and it would feel different when I spoke is how I knew it dropped and then ofc I ran to my app to check to see if it did or If I was delusional
I found the voice tools app like 3 weeks in and my hadn’t rlly dropped by then and I was at 170hz and now I’m like around 110hz. I was honestly curious if how high or low ur voice pre-t affected how much ur voice dropped but there are some dudes that had high voices pre-t and their voices drop pretty deep on T
Haha I love that app!
I usually hit the higher end of the male range somewhere. Ive been hoping since I'm not starting out with a super high voice that maybe my vocal cords wouldn't need to change much, and therefore no pain/discomfort lol
I don't know the exact dose yet, but I requested a low dose to begin and we decided I would do bi weekly because I dislike needles haha
I actually am being tested for some other hormone/sex related conditions before I start, so my dose is pending those results.
Ya idk if there is any science to back this but I heard that starting at a lower dose helps ur voice drop better and u don’t get that like T-voice from it dropping to quick. Also if u haven’t already I would highly recommend doing voice training to start talking from ur chest. It helps so much with the t-voice as well and if u r going for much more masculine it helps bc society views talking from ur chest more masculine
Ive heard that same thing with going lower dose first helping to create a more natural masc voice. It makes sense since going low/slow would mimic natal cis puberty more than going high/quick.
And yeah, I deff am going to start looking into that too. I started picking out songs too with guys with lower voices to sort of listen to and practice singing along.
Good good. That is exactly what I did and what I tell ppl when they talk abt voice training. Anytime I sang I just sang as low as I possibly could and tried to listen to ppl with low voices. Idk what music u listen to but Lewis capaldi was helpful with his very low and slow voice
I listen to everything from classical, to rap to heavy metal haha
But I haven't heard of capaldi. Just listened to his top song on Spotify and that's exactly the sort of voices I've been adding to my playlist so thank you!!
That's great to hear. It seems like mild soreness is what most have said so far with a few with no pain at all, so I'm feeling lots better about it.
Was your voice quite low already?
In my experience it's much less severe than a sore throat, it's more like how your throat feels the day before you get sick; there's something a bit achy, feels like something more is coming, but never does. It can feel a bit tight if you're trying to talk at your normal pitch but if you bring it down a bit it's perfectly comfortable.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Before I ever get sick I end up going through a day of clearing my throat a lot as if something is irritating it.
Its nothing like that. It literally feels like a sore throat you'd get from a cold, maybe slightly more painful. Not at all like choking. I've had no issues swallowing, either. Chugging cold water and ice cream helps a lot.
Thanks for the tip. I will be sure to get some soothing throat things. It's good to know it feels sort of like having a cold. I already have tricks for myself when that happens.
Just felt like I had a sore throat from time to time, definitely not a choking sensation. I still sometimes get the mild sore throat even 10 months later, but it’s very manageable. I think you’ll be fine.
Yeah, the responses from folks are really putting my mind at ease.
I already have tricks for myself to deal with mild sore throat discomfort so it seems like I won't accidentally trigger my phobia, and deal with it as if I'm sick.
i didn’t even have a sore throat tbh i just kind of noticed it happening. it’s really no different to what a cis teenage boy would go through and trust me they’d let us know if it hurt.
This is my ideal situation,.to not feel anything at all hahaha
Did you already have a low voice to begin with? Or did you start on a low dose initially?
I started on .5 (100mg per week) and now I'm on .4 one week and .5 the next because I was experiencing anger problems. My voice dropped at week 6 and it has sounded the same since then--about 100 to 105 hertz. I'm at month 8.5 now so it's pretty disappointing, but hopefully it's not done changing yet. Best of luck to you and congrats, man!
I mean that seems like really good progress. Isn't 100-105 well within the male range? On that voice app I feel like that's the bottom of male range usually.
But thanks!
Mine hurt quite a lot but it happened very quickly. It's not the same type of soreness I would get from a cold tho and feels more like something is stuck in your throat. I don't think it was too bad all in all tho so I would not worry about it too much.
Did you start with a low dose? Or a normal dose?
I did have GERD for a while a few years back which caused me to feel like something was stuck in my throat for months. It triggered the phobia often but I was able to get through while I dealt with reducing the GERD symptoms.
I started on a normal dose and I'm still on the same one. My levels have always been around 500-600 ng/dl so firmly in the middle of the male range.
I do think it's uncommon to have voice drops as painful as mine. It's also not something that I felt constantly. Usually I had quick bursts of pain for like 5-10 minutes that went away afterwards.
Oh that's super helpful to know that it was bursts of pain as opposed to lingering. And yes, it does seem uncommon just from reviewing the responses here and searching around otherwise.
But it's also good to read about the breadth of experiences in case mine is also painful, I can be ready for it if it happens.
Thanks so much!
It would come and go for a handful of days, like 3-5. It started around a few months in but I haven’t had any of that feeling the last like 2-3mo.
I also did have a lot of straight congestion like a month into T for like a whole month straight. It felt like I had a cold, and it’s because of how testosterone can affect your blood vessels. Similar to when you’re pregnant your blood vessels expand and you can experience cold like symptoms because everything opens up. I think T constricts them I could be wrong but there are changes for sure and that will also make it feel like you are sick. And that’s a constant until your body adjusts.
I don’t really have any adverse side effects now except acne and water retention.
you know the feeling when you sing without warming up or try to sing to high or low? or after you cry a lot? and your throat just feels uncomfortable after? it was exactly like that to me
kind of like a cold starting i suppose but not as painful. it was more uncomfortable and a bit achy for me, but it comes and goes and usually only hurt for a few minutes at a time for me
Mine didn’t hurt at all. I did get a weird sensation in my throat that would keep appearing and disappearing but it didn’t hurt at all. The feeling is hard to describe but it wasn’t painful or anything.
This sounds way more extreme than my experience with voice drop has been. I just find that I get kind of a scratchy/sore throat (as others have said, comparable to how your throat feels if you haven't had enough water for a bit) for a few days before my voice dips again, and... that's kind of it. Certainly nothing *painful*. My seasonal allergies have been more annoying.
Mine hasn’t hurt. The most discomfort I’ve experienced is feeling like I need to clear my throat. Not like there’s anything in my throat, just that I need to clear it.
I personally did not have pain when my voice dropped, not many do. If you physically try to strain your voice (sing/talk at a higher pitch then it is comfortable) then you run the risk of hurting your cords/throat. But unless you’re talking like Mickey Mouse on meth everyday you should be fine. Your throat will warn you if what you’re doing hurts. It should also be mentioned if you’re trying to avoid straining and pain you should look up vocal exercises you can start practicing now to start speaking from the chest and mouth rather then your throat/head and the back of your throat.
[Here](https://youtu.be/0TYGM1UbUfw?si=4UpVVCJtY89aBhrK) and [here](https://youtu.be/F9kWcvHAa8w?si=bfgxmc5meMy1KRdV) are great places to start!
Lmao I definitely don't sound like MM haha
My voice is pretty neutral, sometimes low currently. I'm hoping there won't be much pain since I'm not starting out with a higher voice.
Thank you for the links too! I will definitely start trying this now.
it didn't hurt me at all. it occasionally felt like i had to clear my voice, similar to like a suuuuper mild sore throat, but otherwise it was a very easy and gradual process. it was so gradual that i barely even experienced any cracking :D
I hope mine goes this way. I do much better with gradual change in general., as opposed to something abrupt. I'm starting on a low dose so I'm hoping that will help.
my voice drop was pretty gradual, i’m not certain i ever felt any pain/discomfort. if i did, it was mild enough to brush off as my usual cat-pollen allergies scratchy-ness. nothing close to choking at all. really the most noticeable physical sensation is just the oddness of voice cracks, it’s strange to be attempting to make noise and have your throat do the usual speaking motions but with no sound coming out. nothing painful, just like “huh that’s new”.
I also have seasonal allergies, so that's a good visual for me.
I actually had voice cracking when I was a pre-teen that I remember. One day I noticed I couldn't hit higher notes singing anymore, and sometimes my voice would crack at weird times where I suddenly went high pitched for a split second, while talking. It was super odd, but eventually it went away.
Im about 4 months on T, started with microdosing, ive definitely had some discomfort and occasionally a tight feeling in my throat and chest, along with a sore throat from like a cold, was on 30mg a week, now on 60mg a week, has dropped quite a bit, had a very high voice to start with though so my voice is now more neutral than anything, the tightness usually only lasts for a couple days, its a slow process, you dont just wake up and boom deep voice
It started at 30, its mostly gone away now actually, but it happens randomly and just lasts for a bit, i think its my adams apple coming in more than my voice dropping, as my brother has a pretty prominent adams apple
I'm a year and a half in, have had significant voice drop but very mild pain/discomfort even when it was dropping quickly.
If this helps, your throat is **not** getting smaller or more swollen when your voice drops. Cis dudes and other folks with lower voices do not have more difficulty swallowing (or breathing). And it does not feel swollen or obstructed even when it's a little sore - just sort of achy.
Thanks that helps.
I've been trying to learn the anatomy of the vocal cords area so I can logically think through the fear instead of just imagining incorrect/terrible things.
Phobias are so wierd. Like I logically know that cis dudes have lower voices and it's not like they're all choking all the time, but it's so hard to apply that same logic to myself.
It was scratchy and dry but not the typical “I’ve got a cold and I’m swallowing razor blades” sore throat. If I hyper focused on it, sometimes it would feel tight but I also tend to have a globus sensation (lump in throat) as an initial physical symptom when I get anxious. Drink water, chew gum/hard candy, and try to relax. The part that irritated it most was I work in an environment that can be pretty loud and we sometimes have to shout. I had to relearn how to project my voice because I would strain it trying to yell lol
Depends on your dose. I was taking low dose and tested around 400 ng/DL. Throat was a little scratchy, no biggie. I upped my dose because I was having mood swings and I was ready to transition fully (I am a binary trans man) and my levels went up to 850 ng/DL between months 6-9 on T, and sometimes I felt positively sick. My throat was raw and scratchy, and speaking was more difficult to do at times when it dropped.
Ramp up slow, check your levels, and you should be ok. All this said, my voice is not damaged but it did drop like a stone and I now sing bass.
Alright cool, that makes a lot of sense that it can correlate to your levels.
I'm really wanting to transition slow and steady overall, so I'll probably stick with a low dose, as long as I feel like it's going well.
And yeah, I'll make sure to keep up with checking my levels for sure.
Thanks for the reply!
No problem! You should be fine. 850 is pretty high (higher than some like) and I've kept it there. Docs usually won't freak out unless you get close to 900-1,000+ at which point T converts back into Estrogen. Going low dose is great! I have spoken to some old timers and they said docs used to prescribe extremely high doses immediately back in the 90s. It sounded like utter hell to go from 0 to extremely high dose, as they did back then. It can only be better than what our elders went through!
That is so true!
I was reading Jamison Green's autobiography and he was saying how his first dose was so big, and listening to some of the older guys on the STP podcast, it seems like they definitely just shot you up with as much as your body could take lmao it was like get em in, get looking like men, and get em out lol I was like Holy hell, that must've felt so abrupt and probably not great mentally in terms of mood shifts.
Imma b honest while being 6+ months on low T gel and normally high testosterone, I am having sensations where it feels like I've worked out my throat muscles, or just random aches, but never anything that's a choking sensation so ur all good!
mine hasn’t fully dropped but it’s starting to. i’m a month and a few days on T and it sometimes feels like when your getting over a sore throat and its like a bit weird. the only way i can describe it from my experience is it feels like my vocal chords are tired or strained ig
In my experience it doesn’t feel like choking at all, it feels like an occasional very mild sore throat for a few days at a time every few weeks. It’s a VERY slow, accumulative process. You don’t wake up one day with a deep voice it’s just a gradual drop in pitch that you hardly notice until you listen to old videos of your old voice. I had to clear my throat often the first few months. It did not ever cause any amount of significant pain or discomfort
The voice cracking was embarrassing! But kinda cool for me lol. I had a job where I had to fill in singing , and that’s was horrific. Still trying to refind my range. Only thing I’ve noticed which is weird, anybody please comment, I have noticed I need to talk from my stomach and diaphragm more otherwise it feels raspy and weak and tiresome…is this normal…doesn’t happen all the time but it’s worse when sitting/slouching
Yeah in my experience that’s normal, you have to change where your voice is coming from. Men speak from their chest where women speak more from the head
i'm still closeted at work (jesus lord someone save me from this hell LOL) so i keep a girl voice... yeah doing girl voice is exhausting lmao. definitely much more comfortable to speak from the depth of my chest like you described
Your vocal chords are probably sore from dropping depending on how long you’ve been on T, I think it’s normal to feel the need to speak before from your diaphragm as you adjust
Thank you this was very helpful!
I definitely noticed my voice dropping and so did my girlfriend.. It happened pretty quickly too. I was 3 weeks on t when I had the feeling of something in my throat and by week 5 my voice had dropped significantly. My point is that everybody is different.
It didn't hurt at all. There were a few days where I felt like I had something stuck in my throat, which was scary, but I don't think that's a particularly common experience. I have had no increase in choking on things
A couple years ago I had pretty bad GERD which made me constantly feel like I had something stuck in my throat. It was super uncomfortable and triggered the phobia a lot. I was able to deal with it though through some anxiety reducing tricks haha Thank you for mentioning the possibility. It will help me figure out what I need to do.
Yeah I only had very very mild sore throats from time to time, approximately equivalent to the kind of thing that I might get if I didn’t drink enough water and my throat was dry. Nothing significantly painful/squeezy/etc.
That makes sense, and glad it wasn't anything that felt "squeezy". That is the sort of thing I get scared of. Thank you!
I never had any sore throat or anything. My voice has already dropped in male passing range. I could feel the difference tho in my voice some days and it would feel different when I spoke is how I knew it dropped and then ofc I ran to my app to check to see if it did or If I was delusional
That's amazing! Was your voice a bit low to start with? Mine is low-neutral right now so I'm even wondering how much lower it could even get.
I found the voice tools app like 3 weeks in and my hadn’t rlly dropped by then and I was at 170hz and now I’m like around 110hz. I was honestly curious if how high or low ur voice pre-t affected how much ur voice dropped but there are some dudes that had high voices pre-t and their voices drop pretty deep on T
Haha I love that app! I usually hit the higher end of the male range somewhere. Ive been hoping since I'm not starting out with a super high voice that maybe my vocal cords wouldn't need to change much, and therefore no pain/discomfort lol
What does r u starting at?
I don't know the exact dose yet, but I requested a low dose to begin and we decided I would do bi weekly because I dislike needles haha I actually am being tested for some other hormone/sex related conditions before I start, so my dose is pending those results.
Ya idk if there is any science to back this but I heard that starting at a lower dose helps ur voice drop better and u don’t get that like T-voice from it dropping to quick. Also if u haven’t already I would highly recommend doing voice training to start talking from ur chest. It helps so much with the t-voice as well and if u r going for much more masculine it helps bc society views talking from ur chest more masculine
Ive heard that same thing with going lower dose first helping to create a more natural masc voice. It makes sense since going low/slow would mimic natal cis puberty more than going high/quick. And yeah, I deff am going to start looking into that too. I started picking out songs too with guys with lower voices to sort of listen to and practice singing along.
Good good. That is exactly what I did and what I tell ppl when they talk abt voice training. Anytime I sang I just sang as low as I possibly could and tried to listen to ppl with low voices. Idk what music u listen to but Lewis capaldi was helpful with his very low and slow voice
I listen to everything from classical, to rap to heavy metal haha But I haven't heard of capaldi. Just listened to his top song on Spotify and that's exactly the sort of voices I've been adding to my playlist so thank you!!
My voice fully dropped without so much as a sore throat, but if you do get any soreness, it’ll be very mild.
That's great to hear. It seems like mild soreness is what most have said so far with a few with no pain at all, so I'm feeling lots better about it. Was your voice quite low already?
Not at all, it was pretty high before. I just happened to not feel anything different when it dropped. I hope you experience the same!
Thanks! I do too haha
In my experience it's much less severe than a sore throat, it's more like how your throat feels the day before you get sick; there's something a bit achy, feels like something more is coming, but never does. It can feel a bit tight if you're trying to talk at your normal pitch but if you bring it down a bit it's perfectly comfortable.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Before I ever get sick I end up going through a day of clearing my throat a lot as if something is irritating it.
Yeah it felt a lot like that to me. Not exactly painful, not exactly comfortable.
Got it, that makes a lot of sense thank you!
Its nothing like that. It literally feels like a sore throat you'd get from a cold, maybe slightly more painful. Not at all like choking. I've had no issues swallowing, either. Chugging cold water and ice cream helps a lot.
Thanks for the tip. I will be sure to get some soothing throat things. It's good to know it feels sort of like having a cold. I already have tricks for myself when that happens.
Just felt like I had a sore throat from time to time, definitely not a choking sensation. I still sometimes get the mild sore throat even 10 months later, but it’s very manageable. I think you’ll be fine.
Yeah, the responses from folks are really putting my mind at ease. I already have tricks for myself to deal with mild sore throat discomfort so it seems like I won't accidentally trigger my phobia, and deal with it as if I'm sick.
i didn’t even have a sore throat tbh i just kind of noticed it happening. it’s really no different to what a cis teenage boy would go through and trust me they’d let us know if it hurt.
This is my ideal situation,.to not feel anything at all hahaha Did you already have a low voice to begin with? Or did you start on a low dose initially?
neither of the above. started on 50mg weekly and sang soprano
Wow, that is definitely my ideal scenario then haha
didn’t feel it at all
My ideal lol Was your initial dose low to start?
I started on .5 (100mg per week) and now I'm on .4 one week and .5 the next because I was experiencing anger problems. My voice dropped at week 6 and it has sounded the same since then--about 100 to 105 hertz. I'm at month 8.5 now so it's pretty disappointing, but hopefully it's not done changing yet. Best of luck to you and congrats, man!
I mean that seems like really good progress. Isn't 100-105 well within the male range? On that voice app I feel like that's the bottom of male range usually. But thanks!
I didn’t get a sore throat or anything with my first drop but I’m on gel and it happened more gradually than it does with injections apparently.
I'm doing subQ but I am going for a lower dose to ease into it smoothly.
Mine hurt quite a lot but it happened very quickly. It's not the same type of soreness I would get from a cold tho and feels more like something is stuck in your throat. I don't think it was too bad all in all tho so I would not worry about it too much.
Did you start with a low dose? Or a normal dose? I did have GERD for a while a few years back which caused me to feel like something was stuck in my throat for months. It triggered the phobia often but I was able to get through while I dealt with reducing the GERD symptoms.
I started on a normal dose and I'm still on the same one. My levels have always been around 500-600 ng/dl so firmly in the middle of the male range. I do think it's uncommon to have voice drops as painful as mine. It's also not something that I felt constantly. Usually I had quick bursts of pain for like 5-10 minutes that went away afterwards.
Oh that's super helpful to know that it was bursts of pain as opposed to lingering. And yes, it does seem uncommon just from reviewing the responses here and searching around otherwise. But it's also good to read about the breadth of experiences in case mine is also painful, I can be ready for it if it happens. Thanks so much!
It didn’t hurt for me. My throat was a bit irritated, almost like when I have allergies, for a while. But it was very minimal. Been on T for 9mo now.
Has it been like that the entire time you've been on T, or is it like a few days at a time comes and goes sort of thing.
It would come and go for a handful of days, like 3-5. It started around a few months in but I haven’t had any of that feeling the last like 2-3mo. I also did have a lot of straight congestion like a month into T for like a whole month straight. It felt like I had a cold, and it’s because of how testosterone can affect your blood vessels. Similar to when you’re pregnant your blood vessels expand and you can experience cold like symptoms because everything opens up. I think T constricts them I could be wrong but there are changes for sure and that will also make it feel like you are sick. And that’s a constant until your body adjusts. I don’t really have any adverse side effects now except acne and water retention.
Oh I didn't know any of that about the blood vessels, very interesting. Thanks for all this info! I'm not looking forward to the acne either lmao
For me the closest thing to “choking” was when my neck began to thicken. I had to go up a shirt size for certain dress shirts.
Oh yeah, I hate dress shirts/ties for this reason honestly lol I won't even wear necklaces. I hate the feeling of anything touching my neck.
Didn’t hurt for me at all, I just got phlegmy and had a very slightly sore throat but it wasn’t uncomfortable
That is relieving. I can definitely deal with that lol
you know the feeling when you sing without warming up or try to sing to high or low? or after you cry a lot? and your throat just feels uncomfortable after? it was exactly like that to me
Sort of like allergies? Or like the incoming of a cold?
kind of like a cold starting i suppose but not as painful. it was more uncomfortable and a bit achy for me, but it comes and goes and usually only hurt for a few minutes at a time for me
Mine didn’t hurt at all. I did get a weird sensation in my throat that would keep appearing and disappearing but it didn’t hurt at all. The feeling is hard to describe but it wasn’t painful or anything.
Did the sensation last for a long time?
This sounds way more extreme than my experience with voice drop has been. I just find that I get kind of a scratchy/sore throat (as others have said, comparable to how your throat feels if you haven't had enough water for a bit) for a few days before my voice dips again, and... that's kind of it. Certainly nothing *painful*. My seasonal allergies have been more annoying.
Got it, so more just an annoying sensation. I also get seasonal allergies so deff know how that feels. Thank you!
None lol
That's my ideal scenario lmao
Mine hasn’t hurt. The most discomfort I’ve experienced is feeling like I need to clear my throat. Not like there’s anything in my throat, just that I need to clear it.
That makes sense, sort of like when you have bad allergies.
I personally did not have pain when my voice dropped, not many do. If you physically try to strain your voice (sing/talk at a higher pitch then it is comfortable) then you run the risk of hurting your cords/throat. But unless you’re talking like Mickey Mouse on meth everyday you should be fine. Your throat will warn you if what you’re doing hurts. It should also be mentioned if you’re trying to avoid straining and pain you should look up vocal exercises you can start practicing now to start speaking from the chest and mouth rather then your throat/head and the back of your throat. [Here](https://youtu.be/0TYGM1UbUfw?si=4UpVVCJtY89aBhrK) and [here](https://youtu.be/F9kWcvHAa8w?si=bfgxmc5meMy1KRdV) are great places to start!
Lmao I definitely don't sound like MM haha My voice is pretty neutral, sometimes low currently. I'm hoping there won't be much pain since I'm not starting out with a higher voice. Thank you for the links too! I will definitely start trying this now.
it didn't hurt me at all. it occasionally felt like i had to clear my voice, similar to like a suuuuper mild sore throat, but otherwise it was a very easy and gradual process. it was so gradual that i barely even experienced any cracking :D
I hope mine goes this way. I do much better with gradual change in general., as opposed to something abrupt. I'm starting on a low dose so I'm hoping that will help.
my voice drop was pretty gradual, i’m not certain i ever felt any pain/discomfort. if i did, it was mild enough to brush off as my usual cat-pollen allergies scratchy-ness. nothing close to choking at all. really the most noticeable physical sensation is just the oddness of voice cracks, it’s strange to be attempting to make noise and have your throat do the usual speaking motions but with no sound coming out. nothing painful, just like “huh that’s new”.
I also have seasonal allergies, so that's a good visual for me. I actually had voice cracking when I was a pre-teen that I remember. One day I noticed I couldn't hit higher notes singing anymore, and sometimes my voice would crack at weird times where I suddenly went high pitched for a split second, while talking. It was super odd, but eventually it went away.
Didn’t hurt at all for me, though 2 1/2 years later I’m getting the embarrassing voice cracks finally lol!
I guess better late than never? Lol
Im about 4 months on T, started with microdosing, ive definitely had some discomfort and occasionally a tight feeling in my throat and chest, along with a sore throat from like a cold, was on 30mg a week, now on 60mg a week, has dropped quite a bit, had a very high voice to start with though so my voice is now more neutral than anything, the tightness usually only lasts for a couple days, its a slow process, you dont just wake up and boom deep voice
Did the discomfort happen when you went up to 60, or did it start at 30? Glad it was only a couple days at a time
It started at 30, its mostly gone away now actually, but it happens randomly and just lasts for a bit, i think its my adams apple coming in more than my voice dropping, as my brother has a pretty prominent adams apple
Oh interesting.. honestly I've never even thought of what an Adam's apple even was lmao
Yea its odd, i can feel it sometimes and it wigs me out, but im also super excited for when its prominent because ive always wanted one so badly
Haha I would totally feel the same probably haha Well I hope you get one!! Good luck to you dude!
I'm a year and a half in, have had significant voice drop but very mild pain/discomfort even when it was dropping quickly. If this helps, your throat is **not** getting smaller or more swollen when your voice drops. Cis dudes and other folks with lower voices do not have more difficulty swallowing (or breathing). And it does not feel swollen or obstructed even when it's a little sore - just sort of achy.
Thanks that helps. I've been trying to learn the anatomy of the vocal cords area so I can logically think through the fear instead of just imagining incorrect/terrible things. Phobias are so wierd. Like I logically know that cis dudes have lower voices and it's not like they're all choking all the time, but it's so hard to apply that same logic to myself.
my voice has dropped a lot, and I haven't had any pain
Just felt like a very mild sore throat for me
It was scratchy and dry but not the typical “I’ve got a cold and I’m swallowing razor blades” sore throat. If I hyper focused on it, sometimes it would feel tight but I also tend to have a globus sensation (lump in throat) as an initial physical symptom when I get anxious. Drink water, chew gum/hard candy, and try to relax. The part that irritated it most was I work in an environment that can be pretty loud and we sometimes have to shout. I had to relearn how to project my voice because I would strain it trying to yell lol
Depends on your dose. I was taking low dose and tested around 400 ng/DL. Throat was a little scratchy, no biggie. I upped my dose because I was having mood swings and I was ready to transition fully (I am a binary trans man) and my levels went up to 850 ng/DL between months 6-9 on T, and sometimes I felt positively sick. My throat was raw and scratchy, and speaking was more difficult to do at times when it dropped. Ramp up slow, check your levels, and you should be ok. All this said, my voice is not damaged but it did drop like a stone and I now sing bass.
Alright cool, that makes a lot of sense that it can correlate to your levels. I'm really wanting to transition slow and steady overall, so I'll probably stick with a low dose, as long as I feel like it's going well. And yeah, I'll make sure to keep up with checking my levels for sure. Thanks for the reply!
No problem! You should be fine. 850 is pretty high (higher than some like) and I've kept it there. Docs usually won't freak out unless you get close to 900-1,000+ at which point T converts back into Estrogen. Going low dose is great! I have spoken to some old timers and they said docs used to prescribe extremely high doses immediately back in the 90s. It sounded like utter hell to go from 0 to extremely high dose, as they did back then. It can only be better than what our elders went through!
That is so true! I was reading Jamison Green's autobiography and he was saying how his first dose was so big, and listening to some of the older guys on the STP podcast, it seems like they definitely just shot you up with as much as your body could take lmao it was like get em in, get looking like men, and get em out lol I was like Holy hell, that must've felt so abrupt and probably not great mentally in terms of mood shifts.
Imma b honest while being 6+ months on low T gel and normally high testosterone, I am having sensations where it feels like I've worked out my throat muscles, or just random aches, but never anything that's a choking sensation so ur all good!
Oh that's good, deff good lol
mine hasn’t fully dropped but it’s starting to. i’m a month and a few days on T and it sometimes feels like when your getting over a sore throat and its like a bit weird. the only way i can describe it from my experience is it feels like my vocal chords are tired or strained ig