Unlike other muscles, the vocal folds don't have pain receptors, explains Stephanie Misono, head of laryngology and director of the voice clinic at the University of Minnesota medical school. "For that reason pain is often a later sign [of laryngitis], which follows effort and fatigue," she says. Often the first sign your vocal cords might be struggling is when your voice feels hoarse. Professional opera singers, for example, report struggling to control of their vocal range when their vocal chords became fatigued.
