Men's voices often deepen up to an octave, while women's voices usually move about three tones lower. After puberty and well into older adulthood, some people's voices may change, but not everyone's. Men's voices tend to go up in pitch. Women's voices tend to go down.
As adults age, the vocal cords become thinner, and the cartilage of the larynx becomes harder and less flexible, altering the voice. Aging often changes the pitch of the voice, causing it to become higher in older men and lower in older women.
And, this time, scientists have looked into why women's voices seem to have gotten deeper in the last few decades. Women today speak at a deeper pitch than the generations of women before them, which researchers believe is largely because of changing power dynamics between men and women.
Your voice can carry on changing through your 20's, and even into your 30's. You may physically stop growing at the end of adolescence, but your singing voice and vocal apparatus can continue to develop in early adulthood.
Girls' voices typically change (much less drastically) between the ages of 10 and 14. Between the ages of 18 and 21, your voice stabilizes because the vocal folds and larynx have reached their full growth.
In a survey by Boulet and Oddens7 using a questionnaire filled by 48 professional voice users, more than two thirds reported vocal changes around the age of 50 years, namely huskiness, loss of the high notes, reduced flexibility and stability.
In some people, changes from aging cause the vocal fold muscles to weaken or lose muscle mass (atrophy). This can keep the vocal folds from closing all the way, making it harder to speak. This increased effort to talk causes the voice to tire more quickly.
Symptoms of Aging Voice
An aging voice shows signs that often include: Higher pitch in men. Lower pitch in women. Loss of projection and resonance.
On the flip side, losing weight may lighten your voice if you're a female and deepen your voice if you're a male. If you're not losing a dramatic amount of weight, likely, you won't notice a difference at all in your voice. If you were severely obese before the weight loss, you might notice more clarity in your tone.
As you age, all of your muscles naturally lose mass. This includes the muscles of your vocal cords and voice box that make your voice work. The older you get, the more your voice may become hoarse or "tired" feeling as a day wears on.
So it tickled me to discover my voice was referenced in a recent dating study from the University of Sussex which found that men find a lower tone more attractive.
Research confirms that deep voices give men an aura of power and sexual allure. Men with low, resonant voices are more likely to be perceived as attractive, masculine, respectable, and dominant.
The Contralto voice is the lowest among the female voices, and it is certainly more unique among females, as the typical female voices would probably either be the Soprano or Mezzo Soprano voices.
Transfeminine people can use methods like vocal therapy and vocal training apps to make their voices sound more feminine. This process can transform the voice by changing pitch, volume, resonance, articulation, and melodic intonation.
For women with a voice that sounds like a man, it could be because of the size and thickness of their vocal cords, in which case, they'll need to develop full resonance too, to make their voice sound warmer, an essential quality of a female voice.
Being overweight or obese can also have effects on one's hormones. Excess body fat results in the increased production and storage of female and male hormones. In males, this can result in a lighter or a higher speaking and singing voice, and in females, it can mean a deeper or lower speaking and singing voice.
Spoiler: There was no magic diet fad involved. She lost weight over the course of two years by consistently lifting weights and doing circuit training. “My body has been objectified my entire career,” she said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
To truly deepen your voice, you'll need to commit to daily vocal exercises that stretch your ability to speak in a lower pitch. It takes three to four weeks before you start to hear marginal differences in depth.
In the females, the elevated estrogens and progestogens have minimal effect on the voice during puberty. The importance of hormonal influence on the female voice is appreciated during the cyclical changes of the menstrual cycle.
What Causes My Voice to Change? At puberty, guys' bodies begin producing a lot of the hormone testosterone (pronounced: tes-TOSS-tuh-rone), which causes changes in several parts of the body, including the voice. For starters, a guy's larynx (pronounced: LAIR-inks), also known as the voice box, grows bigger.
Feminizing hormones don't modify the voice for transgender women. Anti-androgens and estrogens have no effect on the voice. Targets of speech therapy might include: Pitch.
Humming into straws, singing your favorite songs, reading out loud — these and other exercises can help keep your voice youthful. But you have to practice them correctly to benefit. To do that, seek out a vocal coach, a singing instructor or a vocologist, a speech language pathologist with additional training in voice.
Swallowing is a complex process that changes over time, and swallowing difficulty (dysphagia) can be associated with aging. Changes in the tongue, upper throat (pharynx), vocal cords and voice box (larynx), and lower throat (esophagus) occur with aging.