Pitch Changes During and After Pregnancy

One of a multitude of changes your body goes through during pregnancy is your speaking voice could get lower. These researchers looked at the pitch levels of woman during and after pregnancy.

Core pitch when speaking, known as your Fundamental Frequency, Fo, is different for everyone and depends on your sex, will change as we get older and has a strong relationship to your hormone level. Many women may notice a difference in their pitch during a menstrual cycle.

Considering the vast increase in estrogen and progesterone, previous research hadn’t found significant voice changes when women are pregnant. These researchers however revealed that there are some women who’s voice will decrease during pregnancy with some other curious results.

29 women reported a lower voice during pregnancy. Over 25% noticed a difference in their 1st trimester, 60% in their 2nd trimester and the remaining in 3rd trimester. Pregnancy had lowered their speaking voice.

The curious thing is only 1 of the 29 regained their voice to previous pitch level. Everyone else either didn’t change back or only slightly changed to normal levels. We’re not sure why pitch change in these circumstances are irreversible. Another fascinating discovery is that they found that pitch reduction is more likely to occur if you were carrying a boy. We’re not sure why and how this happens either.

So, there’s a chance that if you’re pregnant with a boy, your speaking voice may get lower.

What’s your experience? What are the consequences of a lower pitch and not regaining it back? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Clinical Characteristics of Women With Low Vocal Pitch During Pregnancy. Xeuyan Li, and Wen Xu China. Journal of Voice 2019