I want to identify a few reasons why someone might be interested in doing voice masculinization training. Of course, these reasons all presume someone is trans, and they're interested in masculinizing their voice. But why might they do so through voice masculinization training?

1. You might be planning to take testosterone, but you don't have access to it now.

There's a lot of reasons why someone might not have access to T. They might be too young, requiring their parent's permission and unable to get it, or there might be a wait list to see an endocrinologist. There are lots of reasons why someone might want T, but not be able to get it.

Even if you are planning to go on testosterone, a lot of people think it's a good idea to do voice masculinization training in advance because of the reasons that I outlined in my last Behaviour vs. Physiology post. Just changing the physiology of the voice is not always enough to get a satisfactory result when it comes to voice masculinization. The combination of testosterone and training can be a really, really powerful one.

2. You might never want to go on T.

There are a lot of reasons why someone may not want to take testosterone. It could be that they only want some aspects of T and not others, and the cost benefit analysis just doesn't work out for them. Or they might have a contraindicated medical condition or they might just not be interested in taking medication for the rest of their lives. There are a lot of reasons. It's really, really personal, and the decision to take T is yours and yours alone.

But, if you do want to have a more masculine voice and you're not interested in taking T for whatever reason, voice masculinization training can be the answer for you. As I've said before, there's a lot that we can do just by modifying the behaviour of our voice.

3. You might be on testosterone and find that you're still using vocal behaviours from your pre-T life, and the result is a voice that you're not 100% satisfied with.

I see this all the time: people who have been taking T for a little while or a long time and they're interested in seeing if their voice is able to do something that they're not sure of yet. Are they able to use it in a more masculine way?

There's really no path towards your masculine voice that is the one sure path. You could do training and then T, or just do voice training, or do T and then training. Everyone's path is unique and everyone's path is totally fine. You could do none of those things! Really, the choice is yours, but I just wanted to share some of these paths because I think its important to talk about all the unique and wonderful ways that a person can be trans masculine and on their voice journey.

Keep your eyes peeled for my new course that will be coming out soon called Masculinize Your Voice Without Testosterone!