What’s the latest thing to hit the plastic surgery scene to keep women appearing (or sounding) younger? A voicelift! Huh? That’s right, some women are having surgery to rejuvenate their vocal cords — ‘voicelifts’. Our vocal cords, or ‘vocal folds’ are part of the larynx, a structure made of muscle and cartilage located at the top of the trachea, or windpipe. We are born with our larynx high up in the throat, but the larynx gets progressively lower as we age, and, as this happens, our voices deepen.  Also influencing this change is the number of glands in our body decreases with age, including those around the larynx and vocal folds. Glands are where mucus is produced; when it decreases, this impacts on the voice and can make it sound crackly. Dr Epstein from The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London says, ‘Male and female voices lower with age, and from about 65, the cartilage in the male larynx gets very thin and male voices become higher, reedy and tremulous. Women don’t  suffer in this way — our voices just get deeper.’

When undergoing a ‘voicelift’, fat is taken from the stomach and grafted on to the vocal folds to plump them up and enhance voice performance. It’s commonly used for cosmetic purposes and can cost up to $25,000, but is also used for those that are recovering from throat cancer.