203 lines
9.7 KiB
HTML
203 lines
9.7 KiB
HTML
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<div class="archive-header">
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<div class="archive-info">
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<strong>📄 Archived:</strong> 2025-08-17 21:16:36 UTC
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</div>
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<div class="archive-source">
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<strong>🔗 Source:</strong> <a href="http://lena.kiev.ua/voice/">http://lena.kiev.ua/voice/</a>
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</div>
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<script>
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// Archive metadata for cache management
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window.archiveData = {
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url: 'http://lena.kiev.ua/voice/',
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archivedAt: "2025-08-17T21:16:36.988738+00:00Z",
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timestamp: 1755465396988
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};
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</script>
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<hr>
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<h1>Shortcut to female voice</h1>
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<html><body><div><body id="readabilityBody">
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<center><h3>Shortcut to female voice</h3></center>
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Voice therapists and speech pathologists tell MtF transsexuals that
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MtF voice change requires long training. They are financially interested
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to insist that there are no shortcuts, and/or don't know a shortcut
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because it's not in their books. I know a shortcut, and explain it here.
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To grasp it is much faster and cheaper (free :) than going to a
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speech therapist, but requires some effort to reread several times.
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Popular books repeat each idea multiple times in different words.
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Here I don't repeat, so you'll need to reread this page
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until you fully understand every sentence. Then don't skip steps.
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<p>
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<a href="http://heartcorps.com/journeys/voice.htm">Melanie Anne Phillips</a>
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is right that what she calls "resonance" is the most important
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(a man and a woman can sing the same note, i.e. with exactly same pitch,
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but you still can hear that one voice is male and another female).
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But Melanie doesn't explain correctly how she changes her resonance (timbre)
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because she just changes it while not understanding how she does that.
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</p><p>
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Adam's Apple is a projection of
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_cartilage">thyroid
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cartilage</a> - the largest part of
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larynx">larynx</a>
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(which sometimes is called "voice box").
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Anterior (frontal) ends of
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_folds">vocal folds/cords</a>
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are attached to thyroid cartilage on the inside. Trachea (the tube from lungs
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to larynx) is flexible and extensible a little, like a vacuum cleaner hose.
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Pharynx (the tube from larynx to oral cavity) is soft and flexible.
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Larynx is suspended in the neck from horseshoe-shaped
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoid_bone">hyoid bone</a>
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at the juncture of neck and head. Larynx and hyoid bone together
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are suspended with three groups of muscles: the first group of muscles
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pulls larynx downwards (towards clavicles); the second group of muscles
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pulls larynx upwards and forwards (towards chin tip); the third group
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of muscles pulls larynx upwards and backwards. Larynx can be shifted
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with these muscles in various directions. By will too.
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</p><p>
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</p><center><img src="larynx.png"/></center>
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<p>
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</p><center><img src="stylo-hyoid_ligament.jpg"/></center>
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<p>
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There is a common misconception among singers and their teachers
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about "head resonance" vs. "chest resonance". Indeed there is
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a very important (for us) distinction, but the resonance
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really is not in the chest cavity. Place your hand on your upper chest
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at the center, say "mmmm...". If you feel how your chest vibrates
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then it's because the first set of muscles (between larynx and clavicles)
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are strained, so taut muscles conduct vibration from vocal folds attached
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to the larynx to chest bones. It only seems that the chest resonates,
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really it just vibrates. The resonance important for us is in the
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vocal tract from vocal folds to lips. Chest vibration is a sign
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that you do it wrong regarding voice feminization because that
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first set of muscles besides conducting vibration also pulls larynx down
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lengthening the vocal tract. The resonance important for us depends
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on vocal tract length (longer tube resonates on lower frequencies,
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so the voice sounds masculine).
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For voice feminization you need to shorten your vocal tract
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by pulling your larynx upwards and backwards
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(the crucial bit about "and backwards" - thanks Rachael on the
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<a <="" a="" href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/voicets/">[voicets] group</a>).
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As a useful side effect, that also hides Adam's Apple from sight.
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</p><p>
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Understanding of this paragraph is optional:
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<br/>Frequency of vibration of vocal cords is called pitch, or
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fundamental frequency (F0), or glottal pulse rate (GPR).
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It's like vibration of a guitar string.
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Vocal tract length (VTL) determines frequencies of formants -
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resonances in vocal tract, like resonances in acoustic guitar body.
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Imagine that you change volume of guitar body - the guitar
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will sound different with the same notes played on the same strings.
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Don't confuse formants with harmonics/overtones.
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Human ear works like a spectrograph. Formants are peaks of
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spectral envelope on a spectrogram. Formants, GPR and VTL
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are terms of phonetics. Speech therapists traditionally don't study
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recent advances in phonetics concerning importance of
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VTL as well as GPR for male vs. female voice perception.
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So they lead the long (paid) way around
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with various exercises instead of the shortcut.
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</p><p>
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Larynx is pulled upwards and backwards with three pairs of muscles.
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Their names: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylopharyngeus_muscle">
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stylopharyngeus muscle</a>,
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digastric_muscle#Posterior_belly">
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posterior belly of the digastric muscle</a>,
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylohyoid_muscle">stylohyoid muscle</a>.
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Study pictures on three pages linked from this paragraph.
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You need to understand where these muscles are.
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Then imagine where they are in your neck.
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</p><p>
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More pictures (I highlighted names of relevant parts in yellow):
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</p><p>
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</p><center><img src="larynx39.jpg"/></center>
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<p>
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</p><center><img src="larynx32.jpg"/></center>
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<p>
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</p><center><img src="larynx33.jpg"/></center>
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<p>
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</p><center><img src="Gray957.png"/></center>
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<p>
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</p><center><img src="Thyroid_Cartilage_lateral.jpg"/></center>
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<p>
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1. Place your fingers of your throat lightly, swallow, feel how
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Adam's apple goes up, then down. Look at it in a mirror (or from a side
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using a web-camera).
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<br/>2. Swallow again, try to delay its descent.
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Try to feel inside your neck (not with fingers) the muscles
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which pull Adam's apple upwards during swallowing.
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<br/>3. Learn to pull your Adam's Apple upwards and backwards.
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<br/>4. Then learn to do that during speech. It's the shortcut.
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</p><p>
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Besides delaying larynx descent after swallowing, another trick
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"to get it" is imagining that you direct sound of your voice
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through palate towards nose tip.
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</p><p>
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One more way: those muscles are contracted while gargling
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(for much longer time than during swallowing).
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</p><p>
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Pulling your Adam's Apple upwards and backwards
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makes the resonance of your voice female.
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But you'll notice that doing that also makes raising pitch easier.
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</p><p>
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Dr. James Thomas' FemLar (feminization laryngoplasty) surgery
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nowadays consists from 1) cutting off
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a vertical strip at the center of thyroid cartilage and
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anterior parts of vocal folds, stitching the remnants together
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(that raises pitch and eliminates Adam's Apple),
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and 2) thyrohyoid elevation (don't confuse with cricothyroid approximation) -
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he ties thyroid cartilage to hyoid bone.
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The 1) was invented by a Thai surgeon Somyos Kunachak,
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but only Thomas does the 2) after Patty studied phonetics
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and explained about VTL on the [voicets] group and to Thomas.
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After FemLar vocal folds are not as taut as after
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cricothyroid approximation (CTA), so they don't stretch
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and pitch doesn't lower back after few years.
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But the FemLar surgery besides leaving a scar is very risky:
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one cough during the first month can tear the stitch,
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a vocal fold comes loose and you lose the voice altogether;
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uneven length of cut folds can cause air leak between folds;
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voice becomes weaker and can become less intelligible.
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Thyrohyoid elevation pulls larynx up, but you can pull larynx further
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by will without surgery.
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</p><p>
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Testosterone causes growth of vocal folds and thyroid cartilage,
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male vocal folds are longer and more massive. Less known fact is
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that male larynx descends further than female. I suspect that
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testosterone lengthens stylohyoid ligament. Besides,
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average male skull is larger than average female skull,
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so for female VTL you need to pull larynx (with Adam's Apple)
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(upwards and backwards) further than its usual female position.
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</p><p>
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In order to learn how to make your voice female, you need to reread this page
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until you fully understand every sentence. Then don't skip steps.
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</p><p>
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Discussion about all this - on the
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<a <="" a="" href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/voicets/">[voicets] group</a>.
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</p><p>
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<a href="../EV/">Inexpensive DIY MtF HRT</a>
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</p><p>
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<a href="../#eng">Lena</a>
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</p><hr/>
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This page has been accessed
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<url-minder-ignore>257482 </url-minder-ignore>times.<br/>
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Last updated on January 1, 2023.
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