# The threat of "Soprano City" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116 "2009-02-16T17:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116/1 "2009-02-16T17:15:57Z")
On an episode of Night Court I recently watched, Dan is threatened with “soprano city” - i.e., castration - if he’s been fooling around with a rich man’s daughter. (and immediately thereafter, the man’s bodyguard squeaks, “He means it!”) I’ve heard the threat in other contexts as well. Would castration actually have such an effect on an adult male? Isn’t the lowness a man’s voice a result of the growth of his larynx during puberty? Will the larynx constrict if the flow of testosterone in the body disappears? Or is the threat merely poetic license? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116/2 "2009-02-16T17:47:50Z")
I’m not a doctor, nor an endocrinologist. In my opinion, adult removal of the testicles would not cause the voice to go soprano. On the technical side, testosterone is also made by the adrenal glands, and another place or two that I can’t remember. That’s how women have some testosterone. Anecdotally, listen to Lance Armstrong. He had testicular cancer, so it’s safe to assume his are gone. I met a Viet Vet who lost his testes to a mine, and his voice is not high-pitched. By the way, the loss of one testicle does not have a significant effect on masculinity. I know a man who had an undescended testicle surgically removed when he was a boy. His voice is deep, and he has two children that look like him. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116/3 "2009-02-16T17:55:58Z")
Post-op male to female transexuals do not find their voices changing, despite the lack of testicles and the female hormones that they take. Instead, they train their voices and there are surgeries to alter the voice further. If removing the testicles changed the voice, then having sex reassignment surgery would take care of that issue. It doesn’t. Whatever changes have been made to the larynx to cause a masculine voice took place during puberty and aren’t ongoing. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116/4 "2009-02-16T18:06:55Z")
Dang. Missed the edit window while looking for links. This is a first person account of the effects of castration in an [adult](http://www.geocities.com/sherrylanina/CastrationEffects.html). This is a [FAQ](http://www.tg2tg.org/forums/lifestyles/therapy/mtf-faq.htm) on what female hormones do to an XY individual: > [@](#): > > Female hormone therapy does not: > Reduce facial hair growth significantly. > Cause the voice to increase in pitch. > Change the shape or size of bone structure. However, it may cause some slight loss of bone density. So not even castration and female hormones will change the voice. Once it’s been altered by puberty, that’s it. Only through vocal training (and surgeries on the larynx which are still somewhat questionable) will it be “soprano.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116/5 "2009-02-16T18:28:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Anecdotally, listen to Lance Armstrong. He had testicular cancer, so it’s safe to assume his are gone. In Lance Armstrong’s case, this may be true, since his cancer had spread before treatment. But if it’s found early, you can usually get away with just removing one, leaving you to run on your spare. So far as I know, it’s the only human organ that’s completely redundant: A single testicle can do everything that two can, and just as well. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-threat-of-soprano-city/486116/6 "2009-02-16T18:44:15Z")
Don’t people get by fine with just one kidney, or are there some issues with it that I haven’t heard about? It seems like they make it sound like it’s not such a big deal to give one up when someone needs a donor.