Testosterone Sharpens Adam’s Apple at Puberty as Studies Tie Deeper Voices to Sexual Selection
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Jul 5
Testosterone Sharpens Adam’s Apple at Puberty as Studies Tie Deeper Voices to Sexual Selection
1 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jul 5
Summary
Male puberty reshapes the Thyroid cartilage into a sharper angle, making the Adam’s apple visible while lengthening the vocal folds and vocal tract behind it.
A 1999 study documented that testosterone-driven shift, which helps explain why boys’ voices drop by roughly an octave while girls’ voices deepen only slightly.
Research increasingly links that remodeling to sexual selection: a 2016 primate study found stronger voice dimorphism in more competitive mating systems, and a 2022 review said vocal-tract formants predict body size better than pitch.
A 2018 paper challenged the idea that low male voices reliably signal size or strength, arguing the throat changes may partly reflect broader androgen-driven growth rather than a trait selected on its own.
Women also have thyroid cartilage; the difference is degree, with estrogen producing a smaller pubertal change and leaving the feature far less prominent.