Loss of Voice

You open your mouth — and there is nothing. No sound, no tone, only air passing through the larynx without taking shape. You clear your throat, you try again, you whisper — and even the whisper takes effort. Your voice, which was simply there yesterday, is absent today. Not hoarse, not thick, not scratchy — simply gone.

Medically there are explanations for this: an inflammation of the vocal cords, a virus, overuse, more rarely a nodule or a paralysis of the vocal cord nerve. The vocal cords — two fine muscle bands in the larynx — are meant to vibrate when air flows between them. When they no longer do, no voice is produced. That is the physical level. And on this level, everything a doctor examines is right and important.