Plastic surgery for your breasts? How passé. Whether you’re looking for better sex or hoping to look like a 25-year-old porn star, now you can get your vulva plumped and sculpted too. As demand for these once secret procedures has picked up, so have concerns about the safety of permanently rearranging sex organs for a beauty fad that may be fleeting.
Between 2005 and 2006, there was an increase of more than 20% in cosmetic gynoplasty. Alarmed at this trend, the New York–based group New View Campaign organized a demonstration this week outside the office of a cosmetic surgeon who performs the procedures. The group says doctors are preying on women’s “self-critical anguish” with untested techniques and Internet-fueled ideas about what’s normal.
“Say No to Designer Vaginas!” read a sign at the event, which included a protester dressed as a vulva before undergoing a labiaplasty (surgical reduction of the inner vaginal lips) and another who personified after. The number of labiaplasties in the U.K. apparently doubled from 2002–2007.
It’s hard to know how many women choose this surgery and regret it later, probably because it’s such a private thing and generally inspired by embarrassment. But the spirited discussion on this Australian website
shows the vacillating opinions about what is attractive and whether you should alter your body to achieve your ideal.
In September 2007, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a statement “advising against” cosmetic genital surgery, saying that women who consider them “should be informed about the lack of data supporting the effectiveness of these procedures as well as their potential complications, including infection, altered sensation, dyspareunia (pain), adhesions, and scarring.”
Other sex-health professionals agree. Jennifer Bass, of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, told ABC News earlier this year: “This is a medical procedure, it is invasive, it involves inserting something into the vagina. It has never been tested, and it has never been approved by the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration].”
Next page: A doctor defends the new surgeries
Comments (23)
I wanted to see a photo of the demonstrators costumed as a vulva. Seemed like the more interesting part of the article.
Men have implants now to ensure erections and this has a lot to do with self esteem but we have people complaining when women seek to alter their vaginas for functionality or self esteem. Either reason is a choice of the woman involved and not some protestor. Individuals who feel compelled to force their personal opinions on other people indicate through their behavior that they have serious psychological problems that should be dealt with. People should be allowed to live their lives and make decisions about their lives without external interference.
How can you say that this may be a fleeting fad? A clean looking vagina will always be in, no one wants all that looseness hanging down. And if anyone tells you differently their lying to you.
please spare us the heart felt, i love what i have bs. Congrats on your self image, but anyone who cares will always care. Its the same argument for high heels – once the first women puts them on – all the other women must bear the discomfort to stay attractive.
Where were all the protesters when I was getting circumcised as an infant? At least these girls are choosing their surgery. Babies can’t give consent!
With all these surgeries that make women more comfortable in their bodies why hasn’t anyone thought of the men? I mean women are on their way to making themselves surgically perfect. Why can’t I get some surgery to make my penis bigger?
Serious now. I’m a little self conscious about the size of my ween. And I bet a lot of other men are too. Where is the cosmetic surgery that makes my ween bigger?
Why can’t people just be happy with what they have?
Oh, Warren. If you feel that you need to see it then search for it yourself. I’m sure you’ll find many grotesque pictures of mutilated body parts.
Steve
Oh, Steve. If you’d just relax a bit and read what I actually wrote, then you’d probably be able to poop just like the rest of us. I wanted to see a photo of the demonstrators dressed up like before and after, not the actual thing. Guess that’s where your mind went, though.
Sorry Warren, I’m a moron.
Steve
I am speechless….lol
At the risk of an awful pun, this sounds remarkably shallow.
OMG! The Australian link reads like a run-away nightmare! It sounds like far, far too many teenage girls thinks she’s “ugly down there(!)” and would almost give up a “tit” to get carved on to “fix it”! And I’m sure some greedy “Dr.” is going to take those girl’s money! Bad, bad, bad.
To Warren and Steve…uhmm…never mind!
If women want to have this done, let them. Why are people protesting this? If you don’t like it, don’t have it done, simple. Live and let live.
Warren, you beat me to it: The vulva costumes are now pictured.
Just one question: WHY would someone choose to have that done? Really, get over yourself! Next thing you know; we’ll be trading eyes because we don’t like our eye color.
At least these women are choosing to have themselves altered. When I gave birth to my first child, in Louisiana, the OB, without asking, tightened my vagina after the episiotomy as a “favor” to my husband, nudging him in the ribs while he told him about it, with a wink. (My husband was a resident at the hospital…I guess the “husband stitch,” as it was called, was another perq like the free DVD of the sonogram).
We were not pleased. I’d been small enough beforehand. Sex was painful for six months afterward.
I agree that these women choosing to have their girlie bits surgically altered is sad, but at least it’s voluntary.
Well…if you’re not happy with the way God made you I’m sure he’ll be happy to take some pointers from a plastic surgeon. (note sarcasm)
I get plastic surgery for reconstruction (ie sickness, soldiers, etc.) but I don’t get this stuff. Even if it makes you feel better about yourself it’s not going to save your relationships ladies…everyone falls apart over time that’s a fact of life.
a great costumes…
Big inner lips are a bonus–please don’t have them cut them! Makes oral sex much more fun….
Uh, was’ up? Did I say something wrong?
When I had it done the doctor sewed me up way to small and now I have half my vagina “blocked off”. its seriously irritating but I dont know if cutting it open will make it any better, of course it looks better but if your unhappy with something then maybe you’ll always be unhappy, jus dont tell anyone;. everyone loves my vagina
I have been wanting this procedure done for quite some time, to each their own. I have no reason not to. I have pain down there from being large in the female region and I am not ashamed of doing this procedure.
“A clean looking vagina will always be in, no one wants all that looseness hanging down. And if anyone tells you differently their lying to you.”
What kind of stupid statement is that? I do love women which have visible lips, this is very sexy. They look much more attractive to me than “clean” ones where nothing is left.
Do you really think its sexy to have a woman looking like a child because everything was cut away?
How much fun is it to have sex with somebody who is uneasy with her looks and has problems enjoying herself because she wants to be “perfect”, whatever that is.
I also like big boobs, but that’s doesn’t mean I can’t have great sex with a woman which is flat chested. It’s about the atmosphere the fun, how she behaves and looks, “the chemistry”.
No I really think it’s stupid to have a check list and say that’s sexy or gross.
Clean looks? What kind of adjective is that, are you sure you are talking about having fun with your partner? It’s not about a business meeting. Really, I don’t understand this and especially not people claiming they know what looks good and deny everything else as ugly.
Your taste is most definitely *your* subjective ideal.
AMan~ Thanks for your comments! They are refreshing…