gethealthy

With plastic surgery being all the rage these days, it may lead you to think you need some improvements yourself.  However, I bet the content of this post may shock some of you.  It amazing what you can have surgery for these days.

Apparently the new “in” plastic surgery is to have labia reductions.  Teenage girls and even women have been noted on websites like Scarleteen.com and Makemeheal.com complaining about their labia and conveying their desire to have surgery on them.  On Scarleteen.com you can see posting from teens who complain about their labia being too long or that they hang low, while on MakeMeHeal.com they are asking women to submit photos of their lady parts to determine if they should have them altered.

This is the odd new world of female genital cosmetic surgery, fueled by insecurity issues and a growing Western market for procedures such as: labiaplasty, clitoral un-hooding, G-spot augmentation,  and hymen reconstruction (revirginization).

The New View Campaign, a grass-roots organization, staged its first protest on Monday outside of New York City’s Manhattan Center for Vaginal Surgery. Two dozen women, from young to old, handed out cards and presented posters with the message “No Two Alike,” alongside 2 other members who wore giant cloth vulva costumes.

New View, established in 2000, as a response to the release of Viagra is trying to combat what it terms as “the medicalization of sex.”  They apose the idea that there is a physical right or wrong when it comes to sexual matters.  The groups leader, Leonore Tiefer, a sexologist and psychologist at NY University is combating the idea that there is a certain way that a woman’s gentials should look and defending those who do not want to have surgery.

Currently the number of women actually having the surgery is still very small,  about 1,000 women in America each year and 800 in U.K.  However, the numbers are growing, increasing by 20% from 2005 to 2006 in the US and in the UK they doubled from 2002 to 2007.  These procedures can cost about $5,000.  For the first time, US medical textbooks to be published in 2009, will have an entire chapter devoted to female genital plastic surgery.

Dr. Susan Kolb, a plastic surgeon in Atlanta says that for many patients it offers them control over their sexuality.  She states that many consider it a healing procedure because excessivly long labia can lead to pain during sex and exercise and is sometimes covered by insurance.

However critics state that the surgeries can be more dangerous than the advertising lets on.  The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a warning last year that women undergoing these procedures may experience side effects such as: scarring, chronic pain, and reduced sexual pleasure.  A similar statement was also released by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologiest.