If you've followed someone taking testosterone on social media, then you are probably very familiar with the phrase "this is my voice [blank] days on T." Folks love documenting the process of voice changes because it can be so exciting and affirming to track voice masculinization.

The problem with these videos is that they are biased towards people who had no issues adapting to their new voice. People who struggle to adapt are less likely to post their results, which can create the perception that it's not normal to struggle.

I'm here to tell you that if you find adapting to your post-T voice challenging, that is okay! Lots of people do. You are normal and you are not alone.

I have seen many students just like you who have to retrain their brain to use their new voice. To help you get started, here are two exercises for adapting to your new voice on testosterone.

Full-range glisse

The first exercise is a glisse through the full range of your voice. Start where you're comfortable and slowly glisse high and low. This exercise is good for experimenting and teaching your brain about where registration events (also called breaks) now occur. I like to start in head voice and on ah glisse down to chest voice and go as low as possible. If that's not comfortable or possible for you, start in a comfortable place and go up and down. Change the vowel to see how it changes the exercise.

Alternating head voice and chest voice rapidly

The trickiest part about voice changes on testosterone is that registration events change places. Your brain is used to changing how you phonate at a specific spot in your voice, and T changes where that spot is. Relearning your registration events is crucial to your comfort. An exercise I love for learning about this is to flip from head voice to chest voice rapidly on an "ah" vowel. This exercise is not very pretty (it sounds like an ambulance siren), but it is fun. If you're unable to go fast, go slowly at first. If you're struggling to make a head voice sound, try changing the vowel or the pitch, and be patient with yourself.

You'll find examples of these exercises in the video above. A big thank you goes out to Peter Fullerton, who taught me these exercises.