The Vocal-Vaginal Connection

by Stacy Ramesower, Writer for Baby Chick

Adapted, with Additions In Italics, by Cate Frazier-Neely, Co-Author of Singing Through Change: Women’s Voices in Midlife, Menopause and Beyond

Did you know that your vagina and your voice are intimately connected?

The relationship between a person’s vagina and voice is at once subtle and obvious. Beginning with the fact that “cervix” comes from the Latin word for neck, the vagina and the throat are remarkably similar structures, each supported in function by a hammock-like set of diaphragmatic muscles which also happen to move in tandem with respiration.

We also know from the clinical studies of Dr. Jean Abitbol, a French ENT and Phoniatre and Dr. Beatrice Abitbol, a Gynocologist, that hormonal changes and fluctuations throughout a person’s biological lifespan affect both their vocal fold tissue and vaginal tissues. Dr. Jean took smear tests of singers’ vocal folds at different stages of the menstrual cycle and then sent them down the hall to his wife, Dr. Beatrice, who did cervical smears. When they put the two sets of slide images together they couldn’t tell which was which—the vocal folds or the vagina. This showed that the larynx is a target organ for reproductive hormones and those hormone fluctuations and changes. As a matter of fact, when Abitbol’s singing patients complained that their voices felt “off” during their monthly menses, he at first poo-pooed them. It was his wife who said “Hold on, there may be something to this….”

Another similarity between the vagina and the throat are that they are pathways into the body from the outside world, and instruments of self-expression in relationship.

The creative acts of singing, speaking, orgasm and childbirth are all powered by rapid and rhythmic muscular pulses. The vagina and the voice are inextricably linked: To be disconnected from one will shut down the other. The separation of these regions of experience may be a cause for increased emotional stress, physical discomfort and psychological dissociation.

Based on the study of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system structures, we know that the body is responding hormonally at all times to external AND internal stimuli. Most of the time we are unconscious of the internal processes, but many of those internal processes are influenced by our individual perceptions of our environment. This totally affects our physical body and may be especially true if we are highly sensitive or neurodivergent.

Nervousness, uncertainty or anxiety are almost always embodied in ways that mess up the harmonious cooperation among all the diaphragms in the body. I have been working with this concept for about 15 years now. Both the pelvic floor and the throat/soft palate are two of a number of diaphragms that make up a crucial pressure system in the body to move air in, around and out of our bodies.

The common physical thread between the vagina and the throat is the vagus nerve, which is the largest nerve in the body, connecting the brainstem to the sacral nerve plexus. 80-90% of the vagus nerve is sensory, meaning that is responds to movement and pressure-based stimulation, not just electrical signals. “Vagus” means wanderer – the nerve wanders through the body.

Previously, it was thought that this main nerve didn’t reach the pelvic floor but we know now that it does. In fact, it ‘wanders’ up through the cervix, pelvic bowl and uterus. It then carries nerve impulses from those regions through the abdomen, digestive system, an opening in the thoracic diaphragm, boogies through the chest cavity, splits into two pathways to shimmy through the larynx, up the neck and into the brain. And wanders back down. Vagina to Voice and back.

The respiratory diaphragm is supposed to massage (AHHHH) the vagus nerve with each and every breath and exhale, and the quality of the massage is determined by the quality of the breath.

I’m going to bypass the usual advice and directions on breathing, because while much may be accurate, the information and illustrations don’t necessarily lead to better, more efficient breathing for life, and therefore for singing. (and when the vocal folds aren’t working due to some injury or issue, the breathing can’t work well because of the relationship of that throat diaphragm to the rest of the diaphragms in your body. ) If the breathing you are doing does not automatically activate the soft palate, even when not singing or speaking, you may be interested in practicing Bukayo breathing or certain kinds of yogic breathing that have been around for thousands of years. Body work, massage, mindful stretching, Bowen Body Work, Alexander Technique, Feldenkreis, etc., are all ways to reeducate your body into more efficient and healthier breathing patterns.

The physical response to unease is often to “armor” until we learn first become aware of our patterns and begin to develop new responses. This excess tension in the respiratory diaphragm and pelvic floor restrict oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output, creating a kind of “starvation” response in the muscles and fatigue throughout the body. Sensitivity of the peripheral nervous system is diminished, the vagus nerve doesn’t receive its lovely massage, and the body, as an alive sensory renewable resource, literally shuts down. We become “disembodied.” As a result the voice becomes disconnected from our adult body–childlike, shrill, whiny or constantly loud or soft.

The pelvis and sexual organs are the real seat of “appetite” in the body. We need food to survive, we need sexual expression to thrive….The voice is the messenger of our choices, desires, needs and boundaries. If we are not able to honestly vocalize our own experience–either because of fear of another’s reaction or our own lack of sensitivity to said experience–we cannot get our true needs met. We also won’t be able to sing with honest expression.

So use your voice! Tell the truth, let yourself be heard and sing! Sing and/or dance your heart as a daily practice. Singing your favorite song not only has the immediate psycho-emotional benefit of reminding you of pleasure, (unless you are locked in the “perfection” game,) but the rhythmic stroke of the diaphragm engendered by more active vocalization is stimulating the entire sensory body. Practice humming, especially when you’re enjoying something. In our book, we tell the story of a professional musical theater performer who had a rare condition when young: She couldn’t pee, and this was before there was informed help. She said that she would feel full but nothing would void. She discovered that if she hummed while sitting on the throne, her pee stream would start! From Voice to Vagina, indeed.

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related post:

Read my guest post, “The Impetus to Sing” on Justin Peterson’s excellent “Historical Vocal Pedagogy Blog”