By Angela Bonavoglia
At a “first-ever” conference on what they hope is a growing field, surgeons showed an appalling indifference to how women experience sexual pleasure.
Some 150 gynecologists, urogynecologists and plastic surgeons met last month to observe, in bloody still shots and loops of video, the signature ways that the fathers of vaginal cosmetic surgery—and they’re all men—carve, burn, cauterize, and stitch the female labia, clitoral environs, vaginal canal, and other points south. They cut in order to create supposedly longed for “designer” vaginas and thereby “enhance sexual gratification.”
Those physicians were gathered for the “first-ever Global Symposium on Cosmetic Vaginal Surgery.” It was the opening salvo in a worldwide effort by the symposium’s sponsor, the nascent International Society of Cosmetogynecology, to set standards for and promote this “new subspecialty.”
Actually, cosmetogynecology is not a real subspecialty (yet) nor is vaginal cosmetic surgery all that new. Fourteen years ago, the star of the symposium—gynecologist David 90210 Matlock—began aiming his lasers at women’s genitals, performing and promoting his “Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation” techniques, which he trademarked and refuses to publish.
Since then, we’ve seen a blizzard of popular press; an explosion of websites for cosmetic vaginal surgery, complete with explicit “before” and “after” vulva shots; and well earned criticism, most notably, from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
I decided to head for the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando after perusing the symposium’s agenda online and discovering a presentation entitled: “The Great Controversy: Does Vaginal Rejuvenation Enhance Sexual Gratification?” Following more than a decade of female genital slicing and dicing, I was stunned that they might not know the answer to that question. After 11 hours of presentations by 20 male physicians from five countries (Chile, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and the U.S.), I can tell you with confidence: They don’t have a clue.
“Will it be a Rim or a Barbie?”
In a world where internet porn, Brazilian waxes, and celebrity flashers are ubiquitous, it’s not surprising that one of the most spotlighted procedures of the day was labiaplasty. That’s surgery to reduce the inner (minora) or outer (majora) vaginal lips because they are, to quote the doctors, “too large, loose, floppy, bulky, excessive, uneven, redundant, or overpigmented.”
California urogynecologist Red Alinsod—who believes he is the busiest aesthetic vaginal surgeon on the West Coast—proudly presented his signature labiaplasties. They include the “Rim,” wherein he leaves just the edge of the inner labia, and the “Barbie,” wherein he cuts the entire inner labia off.
A few of the presenters acknowledged that no data exist on whether a labiaplasty will burst during childbirth—a major issue since many of the women having labiaplasties are younger, including patients under 18. But not a single speaker raised the issue of the potential impact of labiaplasties on female sensation or sexual stimulation.
Asked for a comment by email on this missing question, Leonore Tiefer, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at NYU and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a sex therapist, wrote me: “In the opinion of most sexologists, the labia are part of the arousal structures of the genitals and their loss impairs sexual experience.”
Matlock and his disciples (most of the presenters) insisted that for a labiaplasty to provide “a complete aesthetic look,” some of the skin around the clitoris has to be excised. Yet, this can be the cruelest cut, leaving the woman to experience pain, not pleasure, when the clitoris swells and she is sexually aroused.
So inconsequential is this issue that the physicians, including several presenters, who conducted a soon-to-be published, first ever, U.S. multi-center study on outcomes of cosmetic vaginal surgery did not separate out the women who had a “clitoral hood reduction,” much less attempt to assess the impact of that procedure on pain during sexual arousal.
“Vaginoplasties Save Relationships”
The other spotlighted procedure of the day’s proceedings was vaginoplasty—surgery to tighten the vagina and supporting structures, often done in combination with related procedures.
The message from New York City gynecologist Robert Jason was that surgery for a vagina that is “all stretched out…helps and saves relationships.” He heartily agreed with his mentor, Matlock, who in his morning remarks told of a husband delighted with the result of his spouse’s vaginal rejuvenation procedure because it was “like having the same wife, but a new woman.” Jason added his own arguments for the surgery, to wit, “It’s cheaper to keep her,” and “breasts catch a man, but a tight vagina keeps him.” He wondered when a man goes “after a younger woman, is it that she’s more beautiful or is it because of this?” And of course, if it is because of “this,” then (a) it’s understandable, and (b) surgery is the answer. The case he made had little or nothing to do with the woman’s sexual pleasure.
Throughout the presentations, I found myself holding my legs together as tight as I could and having to restrain myself from gasping at the bloody messes being created between women’s legs. Yet, there was nary a sound of dismay in the room. The audience just sat, watched and listened.
But when Alexander Krakovsky, MD, gave the one presentation on male genitals, “Penile Triple Augmentation: State of the Art in Phalloplasty,” and the screen filled with bloody cut and mangled penises to increase length or girth, everything changed. Male voices on my side of the room erupted into audible “aaahhhhs,” moans, and groans, accompanied by much seat shifting and this plaintive question from a row behind me: “How painful is that?”
Show Me the Numbers
The speakers maintained that women were banging down their doors for these procedures—and even more worrisome, increasingly, for corrections of botched procedures. While I found an unattributed stat “in the tens of thousands” for America and a handful of other countries (in an article on Matlock’s website), in fact, no dependable U.S. statistics exist.
The American College of Plastic Surgery collected statistics on “vaginal rejuvenation” for two years and found there were so few procedures (800 in 2004 and just over 1,000 in 2005) that they were not worth tracking; the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported not quite 3,500 vaginal rejuvenations in 2008; and even though gynecologists are major practitioners of these procedures, ACOG collects no statistics.
Whether the number of these aesthetic cosmetic surgeries will truly skyrocket, or whether the vast majority of women will continue to say, WTF? remains to be seen. But as a very self-satisfied Matlock told me at the cocktail party at the end of the day, this branch of medicine, which he believes is where breast implants were 20 years ago, “ain’t goin’ away.”
The next meeting of the International Society of Cosmetogynecologists will be in Las Vegas, in September.
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33 Comments
OMG. WTF?!?
Thank you so much for bringing this travesty of a practice to light. Basically, these scalpers are practicing female genital mutilation sanctified by the hippocratic (hypocritical) oath and a clean white lab coat. I hope the major medical organizations take heed and call them on it, and that state licensing agencies step in to stop it.
But, alas, nothing at all will happen until women get parity in this nation, become educated, or consider themselves feminists and use their power. Until we get more state legislators, executives, lawyers, justices, corporate leaders, and public education system administrators (the top are mostly men in this country, believe it or not). Until women trust, respect, and empower themselves. We have a long, long fallopian tube to travel still.
This is just fancy and expensive FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION – re-shaping the human female’s genitals to uphold some male ideal of what a woman’s genitals should be, without regard to her humanity, her pleasure or her health and safety. Even though it is promoted by the porn industry, segments of the cosmetic procedure industry, and offered for the pleasure of husbands and boyfriends it is no different in spirit than the crude and often fatal damaging mutilations performed on women and girls in some societies to make them marriageable – procedures defended as “tradition” and approved by religion in those societies.
This is nothing more then women submitting themselves to once again gratify men, and be damned if it affects their pleasure or health. I fell sickened by the thought that women would fall for this nonsense!
Wow. Fantastic article.
this is nothing new. clitoridectomy used to be big business in the USA… paid for by blue cross blue shield until 1977 and only outlawed in 1996.
a lot of your mothers, grandmothers and aunts may have been circumcised… the cranky ones. they got me. i am revising my book on the subject at this time: The Rape of Innocence: FGM & Circumcision in the USA.
medical school is big business. to keep itself in business, it needs to graduate lots of doctors. with a glut of doctors, competition is stiff, so new ‘necessities’ have to be invented. doctors, as businessmen, have to drum up a ‘need’ for their services.
boys have been victim to this sexual cutting machine all along… yet they’ve never studied how circumcision affects adult sexuality.
as far as i can tell, male circumcision petty much ruins sex for both male and female, but that big circumcision wheel just keeps rolling and making males feel that there is something ‘wrong’ with them… and there is. the most sensitive part of their anatomy – the brain of their penis – has been removed. rather than feeling the whole range of possible sensations, they can only feel friction and pressure, so they then ‘need’ a tight vagina to feel anything at all.
and if there is something ‘wrong’ with intact male genitalia, then isn’t there something ‘wrong’ with female genitalia too?
sexual incompatibility is a byproduct of genital cutting… a war of the sexes designed by surgeons’ knives.
as long as males are circumcised, there is a danger of women being circumcised too.
the primary med school teaching is not “do no harm”, it’s “all’s fair in love, war and business and don’t criticize any medical procedure that can make your fellow MD money.”
Once again, an industry’s business plan for wealth hinges on making us detest who we are. Excellent article, Ms. Bonavoglia! You astutely observed that the attendees were all male. A visit to the ISCG website confirms that this wasn’t a fluke. The site talks about “the sense of brotherhood the Society imparts,” “the cosmetic and aesthetic management of women,” etc. I’ve heard of “medical management of disease” – but ISGC metaphor curls my brain. And for only $21,600.00 and two weeks of one-on-one training, a board-eligible gynecologist can become an ISCG Fellow. OMG . . .
Women need to understand that they are perfect as they are. It is very sad that there are enough women who are unhappy with their bodies to make this speciality worth while for plastic surgeons. Just as men have different shaped penises, women are all formed individually. There is someone for everyone. If a woman is “fixing her body” to please herself, that is her choice. But if she is doing it to please a man, I suggest that she find a new man, rather than disturb her own body. Wisdom comes as we age. I suspect these women are very young and not yet fully self confident.
OK, so everyone has a right to do to and with her own body as she wishes. As feminists, this is especially important to us. That said, I dare posit that these women who are “voluntarily” choosing the procedure are likely not fully informed. How could they be when the physicians themselves won’t even collect or publish quality, medically accepted, peer reviewed data?!?!!! Moreover, it is beyond frightening that those who are licensed and have taken an oath to care for the sick and to do no harm are performing — and even advocating! — these procedures, apparently without regard for the possible harm they might induce.
And as a feminist, it makes me feel *deeply ill* that it is men who are performing, promoting, AND PROFITING FROM what amounts to mutilation of women (voluntary or not) in the name of pleasing men. How far we have to go….
Ladies: Now think about the son you had circumcised. It is the same horrid thing. All this should be stopped. Web Surf: Munchausen Syndrome in Collective Transmission. These are crimes with victims in the manner of a social extension of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
What happened to the magical mystery of the slow reveal!?! What happened to the idea that sexual pleasure and sharing is nearly holy and always healthy.
Altering and/or completely bare-ing a woman’s body for an audience of one is not only poor stewardship of resources, but is clearly an indication of our sociological regression. We still allow the men to have, keep and abuse “power over” whomever they wish!
We women are our own worse enemies. It’s bad enough that there’s an entire generation of people who consider public hair a travesty.
The other day, I volunteered at a luncheon in San Francisco awarding Beatrice Chengalat for her bravery in starting and promoting the REACH program. This program serves to prevent FGM (female genital mutilation)/FGC (female genital cutting) and early marriages so young girls can continue their education and still be treated humanely in their society. There were some serious horror stories that truly chilled me.
So is FGM/FGC okay if women choose to have it done? What is really the objective here? And will this new found “vagina plastic surgery” hinder the progress in developing countries against these practices? Or just lead to another state of hypocrisy for the West and the wealthy?
The West attempts to stop hunger in other countries, and we decide to starve ourselves. We attempt to spread democratic and liberal market ideas, while we realize its weaknesses in our own societies. People wonder why I attest that peace is not the answer to the world’s problems…it simply creates a space for unnecessary suffering to filter into our lives.
This brings us back to the original, universal question of humanity…one that every woman should consider before undergoing such a surgery: What is the purpose of life? Pretty vaginas and sexual satisfaction…personally I think not. Unfortunately not everyone decides to take the same path in life.
Food for thought…
thats horrible i’m so glad i’ve got a beautiful smart woman in my life who isn’t like shallow misinformed women kicking down doors of surgeons who are probably better golfers than surgeons
Why is it that some women are being lied to (again) and feel that they MUST look like a six year old in thier crotch? THAT’s perversion on the part of the doctors who do this surgery…there is nothing wrong with labia that hang out- it’s supposed to!!! Are we so ruined by child pornography that some men expect thier grown women to have child-like genitalia? Sick, sick, sick…
Gosh! can this FGM stop. It is sad to note that the practice is no longer a cultural practice but a medical procedure done on demand (by the women) and enhanced by the medics.
Stop it!
the sadest part of this is that all of these perpetrators are men, am just wondering how a man can know what exites a woman durng sexual intercourse, these are just but men chivunism who wuld want to deminish women and take us back to the dark old days. a woman`s genital organ is not an object for trailing.
THIS IS FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION! ENOUGH SAID.
This is just another way to make grown women look like little children.
If women will starve themselves until their ribs protrude and their hips/butts disappear in an effort to look “sexy”, cutting off there genitals (not to mention all the hair that surround them) is simply the next step.
The only natural thing about an adult woman’s body that is acceptable in our society are her breasts. And those must be of a certain size, shape as well as situated “correctly” on her body by under-wire bras and breast lifts to be seen as beautiful. Then there is the pressure to wear a mask of makeup because our faces aren’t good enough… anyone with a brain would realize that real women are truly hated by the media and a large part of the population.
This report of genital mutilation makes me sad… and mad. It seems to have begun with the porn industry, and proliferated due to the acceptance of porn today as casual entertainment. I watched a porn star’s “bio” in which she described having had what I’d call vulva enhancement (I forget what she called it.) Clearly cosmetic, though. I was so confused and curious I rented one of her porm films. And sure ‘nuf, the labia minor were reduced, color pigmentation changed to pretty and pink (and of course, anus bleaching).
I agree that the creep element is to make women look like little girls. That, and of course, for the “money shots” and gazillions the porn industry makes. But it will escalate as long as women aspire to these jobs that can make them millionaires… as few other jobs for women do. There’s no shortage of chauvinistic porn entrepreneurs and sadly, young women who devalue themselves enough to submit to genital mutilation. And now doctors have joined in this hideous surgical practice for the big money, too. Hippocratic oath mean anything? Guess not. Female sexual satisfaction has always been a crap shoot, me thinks, and inequity among women abounds (and why I’m certain God’s not a woman). Nobody in the medical profession gave a damn but they’re quick to promote mutilation without a thought to a woman’s sexuality. Not surprised, not a bit.
Wow! Why have we not arrested Red Alinsod and his fellow vaginal mutilators !?!
Oh yeah… because these women CHOSE (even PAID!) to have the procedure. God bless America where we still have the freedom to choose (admittedly frivolous and likely painful) surgery if we darn well please. When you call this voluntary exchange of services a “genital mutilation” you are insulting the countless women who ACTUALLY endure forced mutilation.
You folks feel free to tell a woman what she SHOULD and SHOULDN’T do with her body… but when you tell her what she CAN and CAN’T do with her body, who is really taking her impinging on women’s rights?
I had labiaplasty with a clitoral hood reduction, I was 19 at the time.
My labia was huge, in my opinion, as it stuck well below where I thought it should. It hurt to ride a bike, walk in jeans, cross my legs, my underwear would always slide over to one side, leaving me uncovered. Not to mention because it stuck out and was constantly rubbing against my clothes I had to wear a tampon when I was not on my period or else my underwear would get wet and it was extremely uncomfortable. It caused sex to be on my mind 24/7 though I was not sexually active.
Besides this, I felt like it was so ugly like there was a hump where there shouldn’t be. When I would wear pants I was so self conscious because I assumed that was where everyone was looking, especially when wearing a bikini.
I could never concentrate as I was always in pain or uncomfortable.
The hood also came out so far I felt like a boy. I had never had sex so I didn’t understand how I could get any pleasure from having sex when it hung so low and far away from my vagina. Instead my mind wandered towards women (I don’t like nor am I attracted to women) but it got pleasure from friction, which men cannot provide.
I was able to please myself and the sensation was unbelievable and incredible.
Finally, I went into my dad’s room crying because I could not understand what was wrong with me. I told him I felt like a boy, how I didn’t understand why in my spinning class I was in soo much pain while all the other women were not.
A long time ago a female obgyn said some men like larger labia, but i didn’t like it so I pushed my dad to take me to see the dr. who had performed the surgery on tv.
I had the operation and for months was EXTREMELY sexually frusterated. It felt bent and like the feeling couldn’t go all the way through. I HATED it. The night before my surgery though I thought this could be the last time I can make myself feel this good. And I was right, but at the time I didn’t care I just wanted it gone, cut, flat.
Eventually it stopped feeling bent and loosened a bit. It hasn’t felt the same and will never feel the same. I have a boyfriend now who I am sexually active with and think how much I wish I hadn’t gotten the surgery because I know he would be able to please me the way the OBGYN was trying to tell me from the beginning. It bothers me.
But at the same time, I can wear whatever I want, my underwear stays intact, I can be at work speaking to customers and not thinking about how much pain I am in down there because the trim on my loose fitting slacks are too tight. I don’t constantly have to “fix” myself. It’s nice.
So I don’t know.
Yes I believe the doctors have NO clue about sexual stimulation from a woman. A clit being open and close to the vagina just gets irritated during intercourse and feels raw. Though I was told it makes for better sex. I don’t have much sensation in my labia now I don’t really like for it to be touched, it is more painful than pleasurable. Whereas before it was the complete opposite.
For my sexual life I regret the surgery. For my educational, professional, and life besides being turned on or horny, I do not.
Thank you for the valuable information, really useful for me.
I am from the US and have four children. My first three were born in the US. When I had my last child I was not living in the US and am still living abroad. I had the baby in a local private hosptal. The facility was clean and the staff was extreamly nice, and they advertised that their docters had been trained at a very repituable school in the US. However, during the birth I was given a long episiotomy cut which reached down the side of my leg. The female docter took a very long time stiching me back up. At the time the epidural was in effect so I did not feel what was happening and did not have a good view either. I thought she was spending extra time sewing due to the size of the episiotomy. After she compleatd her sewing she informed me that she had tightened my vaginal wall as well as vaginal opening as was standard procedure. She also informed me that I if I wished to have more children (which I do) I would have to have them by cecerian. I was feeling extreamly week after this birth as was glad my husband was with me because at my first trip to the bathroom I got dizzy and could not hold myself up as my legs collasped. I was in extream pain when the epidural wore off to the point where I could concentrate on nothing else. I requested pain medication from the hospital staff which I did not request after giving birth to my other children. It barly worked at all. I was still in pane and even cried a few times because it got so bad. The extream pain continued for another week and a half followed by a milder pain for another week. I could not walk normally for a few weeks after this procedure and was glad my grandmother had come to help me with my other kids because there is no way I could have cared for them myself. Me and my husband did not attempt to have intercorse for the prescribed six weeks postpardom, but when we did we found that my husbands penus did not fit. I was extreamly embarrased and scared of further complications if I were to go to a docter about the problem, so I suggested that we keep trying and maybe we could stretch it out a bit. So, we did continue trying with the help of lots of lubricant and eventalluy got it in, however it was deffinately painful. My husband was very hessitant, but I insisted as I did not want to go to a docker and have the problem made worse. When discussing what it felt like to my husband he said it felt great to him, but he felt bad that this happened to me and wanted to make sure I wasn’t in pane. He’s been very concerened about if it is painful to me as I told him I wanted to continue trying. I was hoping that with time it would get better and have tried to keep from him how uncomferterable and even painful this is for me, however it has not improved much. It has not only phisically effected me, but has weared on my emmotions and self esteem as well. I cannot feel pleasure. We do not make love as often now because of the problem and my good husband being sympathetic even though I try not to let on. I miss the closeness I get from being with my husband as well as the happiness I get from knowing I am desired and just feeling normal. I am making a trip back to the US in a few weeks to visit family and hoping to get this corrected while I am there, but I don’t know if I should see a gynocologist or plastic sergion about the problem. I was hoping someone would have some advice for me. I am very concerned that it gets fixed properly and am worried that I might get overcut when the docter fixes it. Although there are many aspects to a marriage this has been a big issue for me to deal with. I have tried to keep my worries somewhat to myself as not to worry my good husband too much, but it has effected my self esteem and has made me feel a little less of a woman on top of how it has physically effected me.
Of course this article only shows one side of the story. I went to Dr. Matlock in 2006 for the labia removial surgery and in 2007 for the vaginal reconstruction surgery (the tightening surgery). I did my research and found the doctor that pioneered the proceedures and I was very happy with the results. Prior to that my I lived a life of quiet torment. I was tormented frojm my teenaage years from my a large vagina with large irregular lips. Now it would be easy for people who have never experienced that to say that male chop shop capitalist genital mutilizers are taking advantage of poor woman who are manipulated my the media. But I invite you to consider the discomfort both emotional and physiological that I silently suffered before I seeked out the services that this this doctor offered. My experience has been highly personal and life changing. I am just an average person just like the rest of you. I don’t have money. I don’t dress fancy I don’t have a fancy job or car. But as a woman when you live with the feeling that I lived with you are never the same after you fine a way for it all to change.
(to the person who posted above, I would reccommond Dr. Matlock)
Well there are some cases where “Vaginoplasties” are really needed, its the case of female porn stars… and some other types of female works…
Even men have to deal with this kind of stuff..look at the amount of how to make penis bigger searches there are on google and you will have an idea.
Seems too barbaric playing around with cosmetic surgery of an intimate part and more with the natural order of things. Are we turning humans into sex objects. Pleasure is in the emotions as much as in the physical parts.
so…when a woman chooses to have an abortion, we say she should have control over her own body…but when she chooses a procedure like this, we call her a victim? The doctor that commented above was right, it’s absolutely insane to compare these procedures with female genital mutilation in underdeveloped countries where the woman is offered neither a choice nor any anesthesia, and the people who perform the procedures ARE aware of how it affects her ability to experience pleasure, as it is primarily designed to take that pleasure away completely.
btw, who said that women interested in these procedures are lacking in depth or intelligence? I am interested in enlargement of the outer labia for aesthetic enhancement because I’m an artist and I derive pleasure from the appearance of my own genitals as well as my partner’s during sex. Must we simplify everything into these ridiculous, prescribed dichotomies of Barbie doll ditz/”aware” woman with armpit hair? Or even nature/technology, for that matter?
Interesting title. Is there something more wierd than this?
I find it very interesting that this type of surgery is promoted by primarily by men and they seem to be “fixing” the women to their ideal.
Every woman, is actually ‘just normal, average women in general’ if you think about it.
The cult of youthful beauty being carried into old age has seen an explosion in ‘products’ that can be offered to women, and men, to make them ‘better’ and more ‘acceptable’.
What is wrong with them to begin with? Nothing actually. But being OK with yourself and accepting others as they are is not going to put money into a surgeon and anaethetist’s pockets, earn bucks for the hosiptal where you stay, and fill the coffers of cosemtic companies looking to cash in on how ‘ugly’ we all are.
Looking good is not about being a barbie, although the manufacturers and pushers of these cosmetic surgery products would have you believe it is …
Cosmetic surgery is usually about misogyny and self hatred. Time to grow up and realise we are who we are, and that’s OK.
It is a shame when women surgically alter what they have been given. I have yet to find a vagina that is not attractive in some way. Why try alter it for something supposedly better.
Big lips, small lips etc are all nice. Be happy with what you have and avoid surgery that could damage you totally.
Oh please – I bet most women are happy with their vagina’s, however with some cosmetic implementation, they would be much happier. If people want to spend the money, time and risk with having a cosmetic surgical procedure so be it, let them it’s their bodies and money and time and risk.
Btw – their is a reason why more than 15 millions cosmetic surgical procedures are done every year, hence.
Darci
Not much removed from Sudanese female castrations. It should be for pleasure or to reduce pain or chafing during sex. This topic really gets to me. It’s about like men designing tampons and telling women how they feel and how well they work. How annoying.