From Soprano to Alto

Puberty is a remarkable time. Growth in body, maturity, and character are just a tip of the amazing ice berg that is happening in a teens body. I take particular delight in watching the signs that herald the change in my son from boy to man. From his platinum blonde mustache to his deepening voice, the transformation is nothing less than miraculous.

Of course I share and identify with the changes my daughters experience, but I never imagined that I would share in the changes of my son. Particularly in the deepening of my voice.

It now makes perfect sense why I can't reach those high notes that I once hit with alacrity. Yet, for the longest time, I wrote it off as simply a sign of aging, or perhaps not singing as much as I used to.

PCOS is a complicated disease that involves problems with the endocrine system and female reproductive system. It makes a strange kind of sense that the very same androgens responsible for the changes in my son are also the culprit for the changes in me. On the one hand, it's sort of funny, on the other hand, it's a trifle bit humiliating. Once I realized that there is a physiological reason for virilism, it did lessen my embarrassment.

Once again, it's a small symptom that can easily be dismissed. So I went from a high, girly voice to a sultry, sexy voice; is that really such a thing to get all worked up over? I mean, it's just a symptom of aging or peri-menopause, or so I told myself. Ah, but the trick is to take all the seemingly trivial changes and look at them as part of a whole. Which, when I think about it, isn't possible as I'd dismissed them and never thought to bring them up to a doctor.

Related Links

• Is my deep voice due to polycystic ovaries?
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
• Vocal changes in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome.