Can a Woman's Menstrual Cycle Affect Her Voice?

Contrary to popular belief, a woman’s voice does not change with the menstrual cycle, according to a new study. This study shows that the voice remains steady during the various hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle, and does not become very high or shrill during any part of the cycle. This is in stark contrast to the result of another study that showed that a woman's tone of voice raises at the approach of ovulation in her cycle.

Researcher Neal S. Latman, PhD, associate professor of biology at West Texas A&M University, says that the difference in the result is because of the subjective measurements of three or four parameters in the earlier studies. These studies analyzed single vowel tones when people actually speak in sentences, she adds.

In the new study presented at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting in Washington, D.C, researchers analyzed 175 voice samples provided by 35 women participants. The participants kept a track of their menstrual cycles, and recorded voice samples during two menstrual cycles. All of them recorded the same question, which was the voice rich and did it contain a variety voice characteristic. The question:  “Yesterday, did the kindergarten children watch television after breakfast?” All voice samples were analyzed using a voice analysis software that measured eight different voice parameters including voice breaks, fundamental frequency, and shimmer.

The results showed that all the voice parameters remained the same during the different menstrual changes in women. In addition, the voice characteristics also remained steady in all participants during the different menstrual cycles.