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A surgeon has shared the life-changing results of transformative voice-deepening surgery on a man who said he has been left embarrassed after being continually mistaken for a woman, especially when speaking on the phone.
Dr Kursat Yelken is a professor of ear, nose, and throat diseases, and has been helping people permanently alter the pitch of their voices over the last 15 years, seeing roughly 100 to 150 patients each year.
He trained and served as a fellow at Harvard Medical School before setting up his clinic in Istanbul.
Patients who wish to deepen their voice undergo surgery to relax their vocal cords, whereas those who wish to heighten their tone have their cords tightened.
Dr Yelken has gained over 4,500 views after sharing a video boasting the results of his latest voice-deepening procedure on a 26-year-old American who travelled from the US to visit his clinic.
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During the video, the patient’s voice can be heard before the surgery: “I’m here for voice masculinisation surgery so people don’t mistake me for a woman,” he says.
Dr Yelken describes the patient’s voice as somewhere between a male and female vocal range, close to the ‘male upper limit.’
To perform the surgery, the Turkish doctor makes a small incision along the lower part of the neck.
He says, “A diamond-shaped cartilage island is made on the thyroid cartilage and pushed back, which allows vocal cords to become relaxed and produce a deeper voice. The decrease in the voice pitch is directly related to the amount of cartilage relaxation.”
Dr Yelken describes talking with his patient throughout the surgery, listening to their voice as it changes throughout, and going back and forth between tones before finding the right one for the patient.
“During surgery, I tried several different voice tones and finalised the procedure when we found a satisfying deepness level. The procedure is completed when the right pitch of the voice is decided upon by both parties,” he explains.
In the same clip we hear the patient show off his post-procedure voice, which is noticeably deeper merely a few hours after surgery.
The patient was reportedly incredibly happy with the results.
“This patient had a dramatic change in his voice after surgery,” Dr. Yelken says, “When we made a follow-up video consultation a couple of months after, he said his whole life, including social and work life, has been changed.”
At his clinic, Dr Yelken also offers treatment for voice diseases, voice therapy and singing therapy.
This comes a year after Former Arsenal captain Alexandre Lacazette was reported to undergo vocal cord surgery after a viral interview where his voice sounded unrecognisably high.