Testosterone such as men use for replacement therapy warns that women would have side effects from exposure like a deeper voice.
First, what is the actual mechanism for this happening? Do the vocal cords lengthen?
And second, this is listed as a side effect for women, but if a man takes testosterone supplements for low testosterone, will his voice deepen?
If this isn’t the most pointless question in the forum, I’ll be amazed.
I’ve heard the episode of This American Life with the woman-man sex change patient/person. You would never have thought twice about it if he weren’t detailing the effects of being on the testosterone treatments. The voice was clearly male. As I understand it, the vocal cords lengthen and thicken under effects of testosterone. Some of those bodybuilding women have suspiciously smoky voices, and you can bet they don’t smoke. There can only be a few Lauren Bacall voices out there naturally.
If you give a human woman significant doses of testosterone, the voice deepens, the muscles bulk (with stressors), the clitoris grows, and the body fat drops. I assume the menstrual cycle is stopped, as even low body fat from exercise can stop that. I don’t know if the skull/face is affected, but there do seem to be some big heads and wide faces in that community.
If a man takes higher doses, he can have hyper-masculine effects, as you can see in some of the wrestlers and bodybuilders. The huge muscles, almost dangerously low body fat (although they wanted and worked for that, too), baldness, and gravely voices. I think of Macho Man Savage in the first Spider-Man movie.
Is this sort of change permanent? Are the bodybuilding women stuck with masculinized voices and muscles?
The vocal changes are permanent.
Withdrawal of artificially high testosterone will, over time, result in less muscle bulk and thinning of body and facial hair (more hair being another change, although genetics plays a role there) but to some degree increased body/facial hair is permanent. It thins, but does not disappear.
I think the clitoral enlargement is also permanent, but there’s not a lot about that out there, and I don’t really want to ask anyone face-to-face about that. Just a bit more personal and TMI than I want to get with people I don’t really know.
Thanks, Broomstick and Cardinal.
I had no idea about this stuff!
You have to be careful about no contact with children. They will prematurely enter the adult stage. One incident I read about was a man using a patch and playing with his toddler after work. The son started to develop sexually. They also caught the problem before the bone growth ended as it does in adults.
I learned that from watching House. In fact, I thought they overdid it, until I read that site that tells you if the medicine is realistic. (If someone can provide me a link to it again, I’d be thrilled.)
http://www.anabolicsteroids.com/womenfemalessteroids.html A woman who prides herself on singing can’t reach her previous range and refuses all requests after steroid courses.
http://www.personalpowertraining.net/Articles/the_damaging_effects_of_steroids_on_women.htm
“The majority of female bodybuilders, who have developed their physique using steroids, look rather gnarly, even manish. These women on develop huge and vein-striated muscles with grainy skin and a wide jaw. In addition to a change in the exterior appearance of the women, steroids tend to change a woman’s voice, making it deeper and more masculine.” (Read the article for more effects, most of which were already mentioned.)
Female Bodybuilders and Anabolic Steroids!
"It’s also very important to note that even on low doses of these particular steroids, some women will develop virilizing effects.
Most common side effects experienced by women using steroids are:
* Acne and oily skin
* Aggression
* Male pattern baldness
* Lowering of voice tone
* Disruption of menstrual cycle
* Clitoral enlargement
* Increased hair growth on face, legs and arms"
A friend of mine and I are currently receiving testosterone replacement therapy. He started last year and I started this February. He has noticed improvement in several respects, but so far the only change I’ve noticed is oily skin, especially the face and scalp . . . in addition to my already-oily skin. My voice is normally a deep bass; I’m curious to see whether it gets any lower.
I’m due for blood work at the end of May, and they may increase the dosage.