When you go through puberty, your voice deepens. 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.
Between the ages of 18 and 21, your voice stabilizes because the vocal folds and larynx have reached their full growth. While there can be some changes into your 30s, most people's voices are finished with physical changes due to hormones by the age of 21 or so.
Everyone's timetable is different, so some voices might start to change earlier and some might start a little later. Generally, a guy's voice will start to change somewhere between the ages of 11 and 15 — although it can be earlier or later for some.
You may physically stop growing at the end of adolescence, but your singing voice and vocal apparatus can continue to develop in early adulthood. A lot of vocal training and advancement can happen during your 20s, and this can change the sound and quality of your voice.
In the early 20s, a healthy voice — like the rest of the body — typically shows a thrilling combination of strength and flexibility. Sadly, this peak of range and agility typically declines slightly by the later 20s to early30s, when the voice is considered to be fully mature at a biological level.
Puberphonia (also known as mutational falsetto, functional falsetto, incomplete mutation, adolescent falsetto, or pubescent falsetto) is a functional voice disorder that is characterized by the habitual use of a high-pitched voice after puberty, hence why many refer to the disorder as resulting in a 'falsetto' voice.
The cartilage in the voice box is very sensitive to testosterone. As this cartilage receives testosterone, sent from the testicles, it grows larger and thicker. At the same time, the vocal cords grow 60% longer and become thicker. Now when they vibrate, they do so at a lower frequency than before.
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.
Dried-out mucus membranes in your vocal folds can cause a decrease in vocal endurance. That's because your vocal cords need to wiggle and stretch to create each sound-producing vibration.
Researchers estimate approximately 3% to 9% of people in the United States deal with aphonia. But some healthcare providers think the actual number is higher, as many people do not seek medical help when they lose their voice.
Puts' Scientific Reports study found that men with lower formant frequencies—a deeper resonance in their voices—tended to be taller, larger, and stronger. (That's partly because longer vocal tracts and larger vocal folds generate lower, more resonant voices.)
A boy's voice typically begins to change between ages 11 and 14½, usually just after the major growth spurt. Some boys' voices might change gradually, whereas others' might change quickly.
In men, these differences could be chalked up to testosterone. During puberty, testosterone helps boys build broad shoulders and big muscles. It also helps lower their voice. Sex hormones may also account for a woman's sexy voice and curvy figure, Hughes says.
The deepness of a voice is primarily determined by the length and thickness of the vocal cords. Longer and thicker vocal cords produce lower, James Earl Jones-like pitches. So, if you want a deeper voice, you just need to thicken and lengthen your vocal cords.
The only permanent and confirmed ways to deepen your voice are hormonal therapy and surgery, and those are a bit over-the-top for people who just want a slightly lower pitch.
Testosterone will cause a thickening of the vocal chords, which will result in a more male-sounding voice. Not all trans men will experience a full deepening of the pitch of their voice with testosterone, however.
Many things can cause vocal cord inflammation and swelling. These include surgery, respiratory illness or allergies, GERD, some medicines, exposure to certain chemicals, smoking, alcohol abuse, and vocal abuse. Nerve problems. Certain health conditions can affect the nerves that control the vocal cords.
What you might be experiencing is called puberphonia, which essentially is the habitual use of a high pitched voice after puberty. Our vocal folds stretch to make pitch higher and contract to make pitch lower.
It used to be thought that voice pitch in mammals relates to body size, but that is no longer believed top be the case. McElligott pointed out that you can have big men with higher-pitched voices, or smaller men with lower-pitched voices, so pitch is not always an indication of body size.
If you sound like a child, it is most likely that you are not using enough diaphragm support to release your singing voice in a relaxed mode; instead you constrict your throat more, in order to squeeze out your voice.
Puberphonia is also called “functional falsetto.” Normally during puberty, the male voice lowers by approximately one octave, while the female voice lowers by one to three semitones. However, if this natural change does not take place, the person has functional falsetto. This condition occurs more frequently in males.
Why do some men squeak? Simple. High-pitched voices exist thanks to vocal cords that aren't as long, strong, or ready for good vibrations as others, Ingo Titze, Ph. D., executive director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, told Fatherly.