Struggling To Be Heard? Here's The First Aid For Your Voice

Struggling to be heard? It may not be their hearing but your volume

- Susan Ince

When I enter a family reunion, relatives crank up their hearing aids. At parties, I’m often asked to repeat myself to the point of just smiling and giving up. This scares me because my mother’s puny voice eventually became so small that phone calls were torturous, then impossible.

While hearing and vision issues are prominent in many discussions of ageing, there’s often silence on how our voices age. “You may begin to see this change when you enter your 50s,” says Dr K.K. Handa, director and head of department of ENT and head-neck surgery at Medanta-The Medicity, Gurgaon. In fact, several people have difficulty speaking that is serious enough to be diagnosed as a voice disorder, with their pitches and volume dropping. Problems can start with retirement, at menopause, or even at a younger age in those who’ve used certain medications over a prolonged period (blood thinners, for instance) or have a medical condition (like thyroid). Professionals who overuse their vocal systems because their jobs require constant chatter, or speaking in a noisy setting, are prone too. Fortunately, there are ways—from easy maintenance tips to surgical fixes—that can help you avoid ‘sounding old’ or losing the ability to make yourself heard.

Too Hoarse to Talk