Surgery to make you sound more manly or girly

[Larry1]

Would you have surgery to change your VOICE? Rise in Chinese people undergoing radical procedures to sound deeper or more high-pitched

Chinese people undergoing surgery to make voices masculine or feminine
Surgery is usually offered to people undergoing a sex change
However it is known to carry the risk of losing the voice altogether
Numbers of people opting for surgery has increased in recent years
Academics say people feel pressured to conform to rigid gender roles

People in China are undergoing risky surgery in order to make their voices more masculine or feminine.
Voice operations are the latest in a booming cosmetic surgery market, with doctors offering the procedures reporting that demand for the surgery has risen steadily in recent years. Several clinics now offer people the surgery - which was traditionally carried out on patients undergoing a sex change.

This is despite the known risk that surgery can cause loss of voice altogether, as well as pneumonia.
Academics say the rising popularity of these procedures shows the pressure Chinese people are under to conform to gender stereotypes. 

One person who has had the surgery is Lu Xiang, 23, who endured years of being mocked for his 'girly' high pitched voice. 'For many years, my classmates and colleagues made fun of me because of my voice, calling me a sissy,' Lu told Global Times journalists. 'I couldn't get a girlfriend either. 'Women didn't see me as a real man, and instead treated me like one of their female friends because of my girly voice.'

Lu's voice did not drop during puberty and in his job as a call centre operator, he was frequently mistaken for a woman. People also assumed he was gay because of the way he spoke. So despite the potential risks of the surgery, he decided to go ahead and have an operation which would make his voice lower.

It involved cutting a segment of cartilage from his larynx and injecting Botox into his vocal cords. Mr Alasdair Mace, an ENT surgeon at Charing Cross hospital in London, told MailOnline that Botox causes the vocal chords to become shorter and more loose, deepening the voice.

Mr Mace carries out around two ‘voice surgeries’ a month, usually on patients undergoing a sex change, or patients with a defect in their voice through birth or injury. He said Lu's case is unusual because normally females transitioning to becoming male who are hoping for a deeper voice would be given testosterone therapy which works well to deepen their voice's pitch...

Huang Yideng, a doctor from The Chinese People's Liberation Army 118 Hospital, said most people who came to him for surgery were men like Lu with a high-pitched voice but wanted to sound more 'manly'. Women with low-pitched voices who wanted to sound more 'girly also opted for the procedure.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2840719/Would-surgery-change-VOICE-Rise-Chinese-people-undergoing-radical-procedures-sound-deeper-high-pitched.html

I can certainly understand why Lu Xiang had this surgery.

On the other side, I have no problem at all with a woman who has a low-pitched voice. It kind of reminds me of the actress Lauren Bacall from Hollywood's golden age.

[Boethius]

I can understand why Lu Xiang had the surgery as well.  Men, in particular, are judged negatively if they have high voices.

[JayH]

 

[AkMike]

I can understand why Lu Xiang had the surgery as well.  Men, in particular, are judged negatively if they have high voices.

A few shots of samagonka every day for a few weeks would take care of that problem!