Overview

All you ever wanted to know about the female voice but you never dared to ask by the leading world expert, Dr. Jean Abitbol! Enriched with numerous fascinating anecdotes, this exciting book covers the journey of the female voice and its development and impact on others from motherhood to old age.

And the journey is full of surprises with answers to fascinating questions.

• Does voice have a sex? Is that voice sexual or hormonal? Is it genetic or epigenetic?
• Why do female voices change less at puberty than men’s voices?
• How does a woman’s voice change during her menstrual cycle?
• Is the female biological clock still a mystery?
• How and why is the voice the target of the sexual hormones?
• What kind of treatments are we using today—from contraceptive pills, hormonal replacement therapy to alternative medicine—that affect the voice and how do they affect it?
• Is a woman’s voice damaged after the hormonal “earthquake” that takes place when she is in her fifties? Could we avoid or prevent the aging voice in women?
• What are the specific pathologies affecting the female vocal folds?
• What are the links between diet, hygiene, and exercise, and how do they affect the female voice?

Like a ship on the waves of the sea of life, the female voice, a life-space-time continuum, travels through the winds of emotion and hormonal changes brought about by aging. Dr. Jean Abitbol guides the reader through these changes, mapping the female voice’s journey through life. With his guidance, you will come to see and to understand the emotion, the power, the seduction, the force, and the charm of the female voice and how they converge to make up the female persona.

Introduction

Chapter 1. Where Does the Voice Come From?
Chapter 2. Birth of the Mother’s Voice to Her Offspring
Chapter 3. The Female Voice Instrument
Chapter 4. From the Voice to the Words: Male versus Female
Chapter 5. What Hormones Tell Us
Chapter 6. Sex Hormones and the Voice
Chapter 7. The Voice and the Hormonal Cycle
Chapter 8. Treatment of the Premenstrual Voice Syndrome (PMVS)
Chapter 9. Pregnancy and Voice
Chapter 10. The Voice at Menopause
Chapter 11. Voice Disorders and Gynecological Disease
Chapter 12. Specific Pathologies and the Female Voice
Chapter 13. The Castrato to the Diva: What is the Link?
Chapter 14. Transgender People and the Voice
Chapter 15. Madame: Keep Your Voice Fit
Chapter 16. The Female Voice and Seduction

Conclusion
Index

About The Author

Jean Abitbol

Jean Abitbol, MD is Ancien Chef de Clinique at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. An otorhinolaryngologist, he specializes in phoniatrics and voice surgery. Based on his clinical experience and research, he has published extensively on voice medicine and is recognized internationally for his contributions to voice surgery and care of the professional voice.

A lifelong student of the intricacies of the human voice, Dr. Abitbol practices otolaryngology, phoniatry, and laser voice surgery in Paris, where he is Ancien Chef de Clinique at the University of Paris. His interest in the human voice led him to develop innovative diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, including vocal dynamic exploration, a method that allows physicians to look at the vocal folds speaking or singing and, more recently, the use of three-dimensional imaging of the larynx. His research has centered on the effects of hormones on the human voice.

Dr. Abitbol has published over 300 articles in the medical literature and produced several medical movies for which he has won film prizes. He hosts an annual international seminar for physicians and voice professionals on laser voice surgery and voice care and gives conferences to teachers and singers on voice care. A popular international presenter at scientific and professional meetings, he has received many honors, the most recent of which was the prestigious Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur for which he was nominated by the Ministry of Health on behalf of the President of the French republic.

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