Will A Tracheal Reduction (Adam’s Apple Reduction) Change My Voice And What Will It Look Like?

Q: I am interested in reducing the size of my adam’s apple as it sticks out like a bulge in my neck. In reading about tracheotomies, I wonder if there was an at-home method in which a man could try the look, feel and sound of having a more feminine adams apple appearance just for say a few weeks before taking surgery. Have you ever heard of anything like this?

A: For the sake of clarification, tracheal reduction and tracheotomies are two different completely different operations with diametric objectives. A tracheostomy makes a hole through the skin and down into one’s windpipe below the thyroid cartilage for the sake of breathing. A tracheal reduction, technically known as a thyrochondroplasty or adam’s apple reduction, reduces the protrusion of paired thyroid cartilages as they bulge out into the neck. If done properly and without removal of too much cartilage, it will not change the pitch or sound of one’s voice. (a tracheostomy will definitely affect one’s voice) If you wanted to see what a tracheal reduction would look like, that is what computer imaging does. You can get a good visual approximation of the final neck contour result. It can help one see what the change would look like on them and is the best way to ‘try it on’ before surgery. There are no non-surgical methods to try and simulate that change in neck appearance.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis Indiana