O desafio da voz do transsexual homem-mulher : auto-percepção em comparação com avaliação de ouvintes leigos

Abstract

Objective: This study analyzes male-to-female (MtF) transexuals' perception of their own voices and gender identity in comparison to naïve listeners' auditory perception. Study design: crossectional descriptive. Methods: 31 transexuals were first submitted to vocal acoustic assessment. Then, they had their voices recorded and, finally, answered to the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) protocol. Some questions of this protocol were selected because they were considered as the main issues transexual people go through. After that, 50 naïve listeners were exposed to their voices and rated them as male, female or undefined. The results of the VHI scores and the judgments about their voices were correlated using normality test Kolmogorov-Smirnov and, then, Pearson coefficient at significance level of p<0,001. Results: According to the vocal acoustic assessment, the average is 29,8, the average fundamental frequency is 172,40 Hz. 10 subjects reported having undergone laryngoscopy and 3 other subjects reported having undergone thyroplasty. Positive and significant correlation was found on voices rated as male (r=0,656 to the selected VHI questions and r=0,640 to the total of the test) and female (r= -0,669 to the selected VHI questions and r= -0,632 to the total of the test); however, to voices rated as undefined the correlation was not statistically significant (r=0,137). Conclusion: the transexuals' voice self-perception is directly related to the naïve listeners' judgments as male or female. However, new studies with the population rated as undefined are requested, with a bigger sample