Acoustic measures of female voice during the menstrual cycle

Recent studies have suggested that human female voice characteristics change in response to hormonal variations in the menstrual cycle. Some studies imply an increased perceived attractiveness during specific menstrual cycle phases to increase the chances of reproductive success. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are objectively measured acoustic variations in the female voice during different phases of the menstrual cycle. The connected speech patterns of 35 female voices were subjected to acoustic analysis during the menstrual, follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and following menstrual phase for a total sample of 175. Each recording was analyzed for eight acoustic parameters: mean fundamental frequency, jitter, relative average perturbation, shimmer, peak‐to‐peak amplitude variation, noise to harmonic ratio, degree of voice breaks, and number of voice breaks. No statistically significant differences were found between menstrual cycle phases for any of the acoustic parameters. No statistically differences were found for any of the acoustic parameters between subjects using hormonal contraceptives and those that were not using them. The results suggest that these voice parameters do not vary significantly during the various phases of the menstrual cycle. In addition, the study suggests that estrogen and progesterone are not implicated in any variations in these voice parameters.