| Jennifer, I'm not an MD, just a singer with lots of colleagues and students who've been through your problem. What you're experiencing is the reason that many European opera houses have "respect days." According to Brodnitz, as many as 70% of menstruating singers experience some vocal changes in the few days before or the first day or two, of their period. Current research indicates that the changes are at the cellular level. The hormonally caused changes in the reproductive organs are mirrored in the mucosa of the vocal folds. So, if you *can* sing, do. If you can't - don't. You might want to speak with your laryngologist and gynecologist about this menstrual voice change if it continues to be a problem. If you are regular and can schedule solo performances around the "iffy" days of your cycle, perhaps you should. If you're irregular you might want to discuss "the pill" with BOTH doctors as a way to make your cycle, and thus your vocal difficulties, more predictable. If the pill is an attractive option, please do discuss it with both docs. Better safe than sorry. Cindy Donnell Warning to all you guys out there - this is about a female monthly problem,
so you may want to skip to the next message.
Over the last three months my voice has majorly changed for the better. I've
finally developed good resonance, breathing, and for the first time have a
nice chest/head mix (I'm a soprano). Probably because this is so new, last
month for the first time I noticed a massive effect on my voice for about 4
days starting just before my period. I lost some resonance, and my nice
mixed notes almost completely vanished (about middle C to E a third higher).
As upsetting as it was, at least it was only temporary. However, this month
it has started again (just had a coaching and made some really ugly sounds
at the bottom and could barely hear myself in places I normally drown out
the piano). I am singing in a competition in two days (yay, there are some
I'm not too old for yet :o) so I'm getting quite worried because this
problem lasted 4 days last time. I'm singing Un bel di which has a couple of
bars of low Db's that demand a good mix or they completely disappear, and
less resonance probably means I'm going to get one of those "you shouldn't
be singing something that's too big for your voice" comments. Plus it's
really hard to be fully expressive when my dynamic range has just been
halved.
Is there anything I can do to fix this quickly? I know we discussed this on
Vocalist a few months ago, but the archives are gone *sniffle, whine*. I'm
willing to try just about anything.
Jennifer
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