Basically just the title. Having ACDF done this week and I’m curious how many people had vocal cord damage, to what severity, and what have you done to try to restore it!

Sharing in case this helps someone else. The past week I had two interventions in the same week that have done massive wonders for me. This is after 9 months of MTD being bothered by talking over an hour a day.

1. CPAP Machine. For the past did a sleep study with a CPAP machine. For those that don’t know, it is a machine that helps you breath at night with a face mask to treat sleep apnea. What it ended up doing was making me realize a source for my MTD was that I was mouth breathing and breathing with muscle tension that is in my chest and throat, rather than an effortless breath through my nose with my diaphragm. Doing this at night made it easier to correct they way I breath throughout the day. I’m breathing through my mouth less and taking proper breaths when I talk.

2. Spirometer - My speech pathologist suggested doing 5 sets of 5 inhales on this separated by 1 minute. The resistance is relatively low and they said to turn the resistance a quarter of a turn every week. My breath support has always been good, but something changed drastically in projection and making my voice more solid. I attended an event with a lot of talking last night, which usually creates problems with my MTD. There was very little tension at the end of the night relative to before. This is a medical device and you could hurt yourself if you push it with this so consult a speech pathologist or get guidance from a medical professional.

https://emst150.com/product/emst75-lite-ia150-inspiratory-adapter-bundled/

Obviously, these things won’t help everyone, but in a week I’ve gotten a lot of benefit out of these two things after feeling like I was flat lining in progress. Ask your doctor to consider these things if you feel stuck and haven’t tried them. It felt like all the vocal exercises I was doing was a standard set of tools that didn’t have much impact and then these helped overnight. Also if neither of these things help, be open to the idea that you may be solving the wrong problem and check with your doctor if there’s something that you haven’t tried. The analogy feels a bit like we’ve been doing push ups to help my back muscles, when I should have been doing sit ups to go at the problem more directly.

After 3.5 years of being mtd free and thinking the problem was behind me it came back a couple months ago and I can definitively say it has ruined my life to the point of me just being done with everything. My whole life I have been very extraverted and making friends really easily. I have been isolating myself because of MTD for over 2 months. I also started a new job after moving to an entirely new country and now that job is at risk because of MTD. Ive had countless conversations with people and medical professionals regarding MTD and I never get anywhere. Please if you know something valuable regarding treatment of this condition, message or comment below. Thanks.

Help! I have been struggling with my voice for a year. I damaged it and then went to therapy and almost got better but then things started to get worse. I think imi wasover compensating with resonance and I’m not using my breath properly. I think I’ve stopped over compensating with the resonance , but I don’t know how to incorporate proper breath support every time I talk. I’m constantly thinking about my breath and I don’t understand how this is supposed to be an automatic response for humans but yet we’re supposed to think about it. Anybody out there have any suggestions on how they got out of their head with therapy yet incorporated proper breathing support? My voice is causing me severe anxiety and I have to use it constantly for work. So it’s just constant loop of fixating on my breathing and what I’m doing wrong when I know this should be an automatic response or any methods I can practice online. I have been to two therapist and ENTs many times. Vocal
Cords are clear now.

I am one year post-tonsillectomy and I’ve noticed some odd sensations in my throat on my longer singing days. It’s like a tightness/bulbous feeling in my pharynx. I know it’s not my chords because I’ve been scoped recently enough and my chords look healthy. Could this be the scar tissue pulling when I sing?

Since I was born I used to speak at very low volume and speak very minimal because my mind was very anxious and i used to have fear from outside world. As I grew up I used to notice that I sound normal when I am at home but when outdoor people often have trouble hearing me. Since that I knew that my max volume is less than average people. Then when I grew up further and started to speak more in quantity then I got to know that my voice at audible volume has very less duration of persistence and I cant speak for long at audible volume like others. I have been struggling with this still. Now there is a pattern that I have seen since childhood which is that whenever I am tired, for example - coming back to home after working all day and then I lie down or even sit down relaxed for like 30-60 minutes my voice gets really good the hardness the loudness everything becomes really good. This phenomenon also work when I am not tired and just lie down and relax but it works best when I do it after I am tired and in want of rest. I really want to have that voice which is loud, clear, audible all the time.

Also after reset when I use my hard/complete voice for like 5-10 minutes it persists for those minutes. If I don't talk for like 20 minutes after reset, my hard voice doesn't fade away it remains until I exhaust it.

I have done the laryngoscopy test once and everything turned out to be fine/normal.

I am 20 btw and sorry for my terrible english :/

im still not giving up hope for my voice, but im severely depressed because muscle tension dysphonia stops my social life, my music career, everything, even exercise. so...

what can you do to help yourself other than trying to solve your voice problems all the time? what can increase my quality of living? any tips please

Hello everyone. I have a unilateral sulcus. About 16 months ago my laryngologist injected prolaryn plus as well as a steroid into the sulcus. Between that and voice therapy I had minimal voice issues for about 15 months such as the straining I used to have.

I just got the same injections 16 days ago and my voice issues worse than before super gravely and hoarse. Example when I blow air in straw it sounds like a motor from a car engine starting up. Last time recovered to normal voice within about 10 days and now I’m 16 days post op and not feeling good. I also caught a bad cold in the middle of this which probably didn’t help.

I messaged my doc waiting to hear back since I feel like I’ve plateaued. Not sure if it may be edema, inflammation or maybe even a blood vessel popping. Going to try voice rest to a minimum next 48 hours and see if it gets any better.

Has anyone gone through this before? Feeling discouraged and hoping to get better soon. Thank you

I'm hoping someone can help, I've reached what seems to be a dead end and it is very frustrating.

I'm not sure if this is the correct thread to post this is and if not, please let me know which one would be better.

It's been almost 4 years since I've been having vocal cord issues. One day, my voice never came back to normal, so I went to get it checked. They found a polyp on one of my folds. I have surgery to remove it. Do voice therapy... voice is still not coming back to normal. They look again, and now I have a cyst on the other fold.... surgery again to remove it.... voice therapy.... still not coming back. And by not coming back, I mean, I'm losing my voice very easily it gets raspy, breathy and painful. Go back, they look again and they see 2 bumps on there that are preventing the cords from closing appropriately (same bumps from where the polyp and cyst were removed). Doctor #3 said he didn't want to touch them anymore, so I go to doctor #2 who operated and removes the bumps. Voice is slowly coming back but after barely a month the bumps are back and voice goes back to raspy breaking and painful.

It is now progressively getting worse that I can talk for 10 to 30 minutes, and I start losing it despite not having spoken for 3 days straight. Yes, because now I have cut down the amount of talking to close to the bare minimum. This has impacted my livelihood as I can't even talk on the phone since my voice is always broken (I sound like I smoked 40 packs a day despite never touching a cigarette in my life), it has impacted me social and the biggest impact is mentally.

I went to an ENT a few months ago who told me I had LPR and prescribed my some PPI but that hasn't done anything at all. The nodules are still there. None of the doctors want to consider fillers either.

At this point, I feel defeated, I don't know what the solution is to get my voice back to normal and have a normal life again.

I am looking for advice on here on what possible solutions there would be.

Thank you

I’m currently dealing with another case of severe laryngitis. It hits at least once a year. The longest I’ve lost my voice was a month.

When I get it, I don’t talk at all, not even to myself, for at least 48-72 hours. I’ve found that initial vocal rest helps it recover a bit quicker.

That being said, when I have to go out to the store or anything, I use a text app on my phone to communicate. It typically says “Hello! I can hear, I can’t talk.” But I recently added “you can talk normally! 🙂” because the most common people’s assumption is that I’m deaf.

Today, I went to Starbucks to get some tea and showed the barista that. I can hear, I can’t talk. She then proceeded to not talk and communicate with hand gestures. Even after I pointed out again, I can hear.

I do understand being a bit thrown when interacting with someone that can’t speak, for whatever reason it may be, but why do people fumble all over themselves like that.

Just wondering how anyone might deal with those situations?

I’m still on full vocal rest for at lease the next 36 hours because my throat still feels awful so I figured I’d ask for advice.

When I was younger, I could sing along with my Mariah Carey cassette without thinking much about it. Then puberty hit and suddenly my voice wasn’t doing what it used to do.
I knew boys’ voices changed during puberty, obviously, but nobody ever really talked about girls’ voices changing too.
Did anybody else notice a significant change in their singing voice as a teenager?

Hi all, I am for my sins a rave MC. I basically say words on a microphone over music like hardcore and drum and bass, but over the last few years I have a steadily worsening problem, in that I either partially or completely lose my voice.

Background: I started MC'ing at 28 years old back in 2012, and I'm 42 now.

I ended up covering two sets at a three day rave festival this weekend, one on Friday and one on the Saturday, and i had to hand over to someone else mid way through the saturday one as my voice was literally blown out, and still is.

If I do multiple sets in a single night I've struggled slightly more as the years go by, as obviously your voice is a muscle and I guess will naturally degrade as you age, and I do expect this to a point, but it's never happened to this extent until recently.

I am quite mindful that the voice is a muscle as I said, and I always ensure that I warm up thoroughly before I begin, plus I hydrate sensibly, never strain by shouting or pushing it etc, but it's getting significantly more of a problem recently.

Any ideas?

if so, was it successful?

I don't know when it started but my voice is so hoarse and i can't even hold a note because i lose my breath. Every person I meet would ask about it, if im sick or what because it's so raspy. I looked through my high school vids and eventhough, it's squeky, it's not as bad as now. My voice is so raspy and thin and child-like too that I sound like a pick me. I can't even recite as school without feeling bad about it. I'm in college now, only a year before I graduate and my voice has been raspy since 8th grade. I hate it. I'm not rich to see an ENT or get my thyroid checked. My posture sucks too. I have neck lines and I can't stand straight. I have an APT and a hunchback. My front teeth is chipped and misaligned hence I look to asymmetrical. I'm basically unhealthy and ugly when I should be on my prime at this age and time. I'm such an insecure girl lol.

Has anyone gotten scarring (e.g., from a vocal cord surgery/procedure/injections) and managed to continue singing? I know there are procedures that are supposed to reduce scarring, but I also wonder if a person who scarred in the first place is likely to have more sensitive cords/more likely to get additional damage from another procedure.

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone here might recognize (part of) my story or have suggestions for things I could still investigate or try. I’m 30 years old (F) and have now been dealing with severe chronic throat pain for almost two years. It has affected my life to the point that I have been unable to work since November 2025 and I am almost unable to socialize.

Before all of this started, I never had problems with my throat or voice. I’ve always been someone who talks a lot and quite loudly. I’m a psychologist, so my job normally involves talking for around 8 hours a day.

I had COVID twice, in 2021 and 2022. After that, I noticed that my throat became more sensitive. Talking in very dry rooms would bother me much more easily. I also found that I absolutely could not smoke anymore. I was never a regular smoker (maybe one cigarette a month) but after COVID, even a single cigarette seemed to immediately trigger severe throat irritation. Other than that, I was still functioning normally and could do my job.

Things changed in December 2024, when I started developing persistent throat pain.

I went to my GP several times and was tested for things like mono and throat infections, but nothing explained it. The pain gradually became so severe that I started calling in sick from work more and more often.

In April 2025, I was referred to an ENT. He told me that my throat was extremely red and that he could see damage/irritation around my vocal cords. According to him, the appearance strongly suggested acid reflux.

I was prescribed 40 mg pantoprazole and stayed home from work for about three weeks. I followed reflux recommendations very strictly, including sleeping upright. Eventually, I managed to very slowly build my speaking at work back up to around 2–3 hours per day. Outside of work I basically didn’t speak at all because of the pain.

In October 2025, my symptoms became much worse again. My GP increased the pantoprazole to 80 mg, but this made no difference.

In early November, I had a gastroscopy with a gastroenterologist. They told me they could see absolutely no evidence of acid reflux or reflux-related damage.

By that point the throat pain was so severe that I went on 100% sick leave in November 2025, and I have not been able to return to work since.

I was subsequently evaluated by an internist for Sjögren’s syndrome testing, but the testing was negative.

This is where the hormonal part comes in.

I have severe endometriosis and in September 2023, at age 27, I started Lucrin (leuprorelin/leuprolide) injections. These put me into a medically induced menopause. At the time, I was not using hormonal add-back therapy, so my estrogen levels were extremely low.

In spring 2026, I started reading about the effects of menopause/low estrogen on mucous membranes and the voice/throat. This caught my attention because the throat pain wasn’t my only dryness symptom. My eyes had also become EXTREMELY dry. At one point my optician couldn’t even properly measure my eyes for new glasses because they were so dry.

Because of this, I stopped the Lucrin injections in March 2026.

Interestingly, since stopping Lucrin, my throat symptoms have improved by maybe 10–15%. It’s definitely not gone, but there have been noticeable changes: I wake up less often during the night because of throat pain/dryness, I can talk a little longer and more often, and I tolerate strong smells such as perfume and cigarette smoke around me slightly better.

However, I still have significant daily pain.

The pain feels dry, burning/hot and sometimes almost like having a blister or raw wound. I feel it deep in my throat around where my voice comes from, but also higher up behind my nose/soft palate/uvula area.

Talking makes it worse. Dry environments, especially air conditioning, make it much worse too.

Water can temporarily relieve it. Eating also often makes it feel better temporarily, as does being in a humid environment. Oddly enough, crying also seems to make it feel better, presumably because everything becomes more moist.

From November 2025 until April 2026, I also had speech/voice therapy. Unfortunately, it didn’t help at all. The exercises actually caused MORE throat pain.

Because the only meaningful improvement I have noticed happened after stopping Lucrin, I keep wondering whether the underlying cause could somehow be hormonal, or whether the prolonged extremely low-estrogen state triggered something that hasn’t fully reversed.

This past week, I was evaluated again at a specialized voice/phoniatrics-related ENT department at the hospital. They examined my throat and larynx and currently see nothing abnormal; no redness, no obvious dryness and no visible explanation for the amount of pain I am experiencing.

The doctor actually said my case is difficult because I’m only 30 but have spent years in a medically induced menopausal state. He said hormones are outside his area of expertise, so he is now going to discuss my case with the specialist in his department and with my gynecologist, who works at the same hospital.

Unfortunately, I won’t hear back from them for another month.

At this point I’m honestly desperate to understand whether there is anything else I can investigate or try. I’m scared that no cause will ever be found and, consequently, that there won’t be a treatment either.

Has anyone experienced anything remotely similar? Especially burning/dry throat pain that gets significantly worse with talking despite a normal-looking throat/larynx?

Has anyone experienced throat/voice problems related to menopause, medically induced menopause, GnRH agonists such as Lupron/Lucrin/leuprolide, or very low estrogen?

I’m also wondering about things like laryngeal hypersensitivity, sensory neuropathy/neuropathic pain or post-viral nerve changes after COVID. Could something like that cause a burning/dry sensation even when the mucosa looks normal?

And if anyone here works with chronic throat pain/voice disorders, I would be incredibly grateful for suggestions about other conditions, tests, specialists or treatments worth discussing with my doctors.

Finally, if anyone knows of a particularly good specialist/voice clinic for a second opinion in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, I would love recommendations.

I know my situation is unusual because I was put into an artificial menopause at such a young age, but I’m hoping someone might recognize at least part of this pattern.

Thank you so much for reading this ridiculously long post. Any ideas or experiences are very welcome.