How can a woman have an Adam's apple?

I don’t know when it started, but more and more girls like to call themselves “tomboy” and regard their manly behavior or personality as fashionable and avant-garde. This is just an external manifestation of behavior. If one day, these fake men suddenly find that they have grown a big Adam's apple, how will they react?

What is Adam's apple?

The Adam's apple refers to the cartilaginous protrusion in the human throat, which is the middle connection between the left and right thyroid cartilages. The Adam's apple itself has no practical function for the human body, but the thyroid cartilage plays a protective role in the laryngeal cavity. As for the difference in size of Adam's apple between men and women, it is due to different levels of endocrine hormones.

At the beginning of puberty, the Adam's apple of women does not increase significantly, but that of men increases rapidly under the action of androgens. The thyroid cartilage located in the neck protrudes forward, causing the anterior-posterior diameter of the larynx to increase by nearly one-fold, and the voice becomes a deep masculine tone.

This is the physiological process of Adam's apple development. By understanding this process, we can understand why there is no obvious difference in the pronunciation of boys and girls before puberty, that is, the voices of boys and girls are very similar. After puberty, the anterior-posterior diameter of the male larynx becomes larger and produces a deep male voice, while the anterior-posterior diameter of the female larynx becomes smaller and produces a high-pitched female voice. Just like some musical instruments, the sound from a smaller diameter tube is shriller, while the sound from a larger diameter tube is deep. The principle is the same.

Causes of protruding Adam's apple in adult women

If an adult woman has a prominent Adam's apple, it needs to be taken seriously. Because there may be changes in a part or organ of the body, there are two specific reasons for a woman's Adam's apple to be prominent:

1. Endocrine imbalance: Excessive secretion of male hormones and insufficient estrogen in women's bodies will cause masculine characteristics such as a prominent Adam's apple and a hoarse voice. Tumors in parts of the body such as the ovaries may lead to insufficient estrogen secretion.

2. Thinness: The body is too thin, with less fat and muscle in the neck, and a prominent Adam's apple. This situation mainly occurs in slim women around 20 years old.

In addition, simple genetic factors can also cause a woman's Adam's apple to be prominent. For example, if the Adam's apple of the parents is relatively swollen, it may cause a woman's Adam's apple to be prominent, so genetic factors are also a reason.

Women with Adam's apples should consider thyroid enlargement

If a woman has an Adam's apple, she should consider whether it is due to ovarian factors leading to insufficient estrogen secretion, and she should also check whether her thyroid gland is healthy. One of the most common reasons why women have Adam's apples is due to an enlarged thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is "H"-shaped, divided into two lateral lobes and an isthmus connecting the lateral lobes. The two lateral lobes are located on the anterior and lateral sides of the lower larynx and tracheal neck, and the upper end reaches the middle part of the thyroid cartilage, so they are the closest neighbors of the thyroid cartilage. During puberty, some girls' thyroid glands will slightly enlarge, making the front neck area look a little full, which is often mistaken for Adam's apple.

The size of the Adam's apple is not important for normal male and female characteristics

Women with prominent Adam's apples need to undergo a series of examinations. But does it mean that some young men who do not have prominent Adam's apples also have problems? Doctors say that as long as they have a deep voice, a beard, well-developed muscles, and a normal penis and testicles, then it is not pathological. Therefore, when a young boy finds that his Adam's apple is not prominent or a young girl finds that his Adam's apple is prominent, as long as other sexual characteristics are normal, these are usually physiological phenomena and there is no need to worry. However, if there are changes in other sexual characteristics, you should go to the hospital for examination in order to get timely diagnosis and treatment.

Some scholars have conducted investigations and studies and found that some adult men with less obvious Adam's apples, some of whom are very strong track and field or gymnastics athletes, have normal male sexual characteristics, most of them are married and have children, and their endocrine examinations also show no abnormalities. Through investigations into the personal life histories of these people, experts found that some of these men had been engaged in high-intensity physical training since before puberty, while others had a history of too frequent masturbation when they first began to develop. This may have led to a massive consumption of male hormones during puberty, resulting in the thyroid cartilage failing to protrude forward fully and making the Adam's apple less obvious.