Outcome Measures and Demographic Representation of Voice Studies of Transgender People: A Scoping Review

The LGBTQ+ population, specifically transgender individuals, tend to be overlooked in many healthcare services. One significant healthcare service is gender-affirming voice services, which is performed by a Speech-Language Pathologist. The purpose of this study is to perform a scoping review of voice production studies in transgender individuals with a focus on outcome measures and demographic characteristics. Search terms were identified and then applied across three different databases. The results of these databases were cross-checked for duplicates. A criterion was established, and studies were screened by reading the title, and abstract. Relevant articles were uploaded to RefWorks and lastly scanned by reading the article in its entirety. Articles were finally examined for trends relating to the research questions. Of 414 articles found, only six met the criteria. Four studies measured fundamental frequency and three measured listener perceptions. The participants ages ranged from 15 to 80 years old (average age: 33.65). In regard to gender, 123 transwomen and 0 transmen served as participants. The results of the scoping review indicate that there is almost no data that exists relating to voice studies of transgender individuals. The studies tended to focus on the acoustic measures and there was little to no data on non-acoustic measures such as pragmatics. A majority of studies tend to focus on participants aged 18 years old or older. All studies were focused on transwomen and there is little data that exists on transmen