The voice is one of the most visible markers of gender identity, and having it align with each person’s lived gender profoundly influences their psychological well-being. A new study published in 2026 in the journal Journal of Voice proposes a comprehensive protocol for assessing how the voice changes and what impact that change has on quality of life during the first six months of hormone therapy in transgender people.
The team, made up of researchers from Sapienza University of Rome, combined two complementary approaches. On the one hand, it carried out an objective acoustic analysis of voice parameters using specialized programs such as PRAAT and the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program. On the other, it administered a self-assessment questionnaire, the Transgender Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, designed to measure quality of life in relation to the perception of one’s own voice.
The results indicate that integrating these objective and subjective measures allows a comprehensive assessment of the vocal transition process and highlights the efficacy of hormone therapy. The responses to the self-assessment questionnaire coincided with the efficacy (or lack thereof) of the hormonal treatment, which reinforces the value of listening to each person’s own experience as a complement to instrumental analysis.
The work also adds an interesting nuance: the comparison of objective parameters between transgender men and cisgender women suggests that differences in mouth and tongue articulation may be observed even before starting hormone therapy in people assigned female at birth. This is preliminary evidence pointing to the possibility that some vocal features may be present prior to treatment.
Overall, the study underscores the usefulness of a multidimensional approach in the clinical follow-up of transgender people during hormone therapy, combining instrumental measurement with subjective perception. The authors note that validating these protocols in larger and more diverse samples will allow care to be refined and better accompany the process of vocal affirmation.
Bibliographic reference:
Caruso G, Paoli ED, Giliberti C, Vestri A, Lombardo F, Longo L. Evaluation of Vocal Changes and Quality of Life in Transgender Patients Undergoing Hormonal Treatment. Journal of Voice, 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2026.07.047 · PMID: 42603773.
View the publication: DOI 10.1016/j.jvoice.2026.07.047 (Journal of Voice, 2026).
