Recently mom, age 72, has been ill. I took her in for a cat scan yesterday because it looks like gallbladder. Anyway, past year or so, I had been noticing a voice change to a higher pitch and less steady tone. Since she has been sick and weak, her voice has changed even more as described above, I was just wondering what causes the higher pitch, wavering voice. She is overweight, has high blood pressure, and heart arrhythmia, and high cholesterol issues.
Mom has medical conditions that can impair voice/breathing, such as obesity and heart issues physically impairing breath, as well as energy and muscle use needed to speak.
If there has been any type of neurological impairment or stroke, it can change a voice.
When there is voice impairment, check if there is a bit of deficit in swallowing ability.
Might also want to check if there might be a polyp or other growth on the vocal cords.
A Doc who knee-jerk answers "aging" when there is sudden onset to any condition, is out of line--unless they do not care if there is something wrong at that age!
Sudden onset, or else, being able to point to a certain fixed time that a condition started happening, means something went haywire that ought to be checked into.
"Aging" creeps up slowly over time, so that most often, one cannot point to a specific start time for it.