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Do Oral Contraceptives Improve Vocal Quality? Limited Trial on Low-Dose Formulations

From the Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Medical School, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv; and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sapir Medical Center, Kfar-Saba, Israel.

Address reprint requests to: Ofer Amir, PhD, Sheba Medical Center, Department of Communication Disorders, Tel-Hashomer 52621, Israel; E-mail: oferamir{at}post.tau.ac.il.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of low-dose monophasic oral contraceptives on female vocal quality.

METHODS: Acoustic voice parameters of six women who use oral contraceptives and six women who do not were evaluated repeatedly during the menstrual cycle. Frequency and amplitude variations were measured using a computerized voice analysis program. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed to test differences between groups for each acoustic voice parameter.

RESULTS: Vocal stability among the women who use oral contraceptives was significantly better than among those who did not use oral contraceptives (P < .05). Specifically, amplitude and frequency variations between successive vocal cycles were smaller in women using oral contraceptives in comparison with the control group (.24 dB versus .37 dB and .86% versus 1.27% for amplitude and frequency variations, respectively).

CONCLUSION: Contrary to the reports of adverse effects that high-dose pills have on voice, low-dose oral contraceptives show a favorable influence on voice in young women.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				O. Amir, T. Biron-Shental, and E. Shabtai Birth control pills and nonprofessional voice: acoustic analyses. J Speech Lang Hear Res, October 1, 2006; 49(5): 1114 - 1126. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]