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New wave of cosmetic surgery: Vaginal rejuvenation
Columbia News Service ^ | 4-20-2005 | Vivek Kemp

Posted on 04/25/2005 12:52:14 PM PDT by kingattax

NEW YORK - First she had her breasts done. Then 12 years and two kids later she changed something else, something more private, much more private.

Her vagina.

Lu Henderson, a real estate investor from Los Angeles, noticed that her enjoyment of sex diminished after she gave birth for the second time. Then three years ago, while she was in a fancy health club, she overheard a conversation about a surgery that could help. And last month she decided it was time to commit.

"It's the most amazing thing I've ever done," said Henderson, 34, about her surgery. "I really do just feel more feminine."

Henderson is one of a growing number of women who have turned to cosmetic surgery to reverse the ravages of time and birth through a surgical procedure called vaginal rejuvenation.

The process, which tightens vaginal muscles and reduces the size of a woman's labia minora, is designed to increase sexual gratification and reduce forms of incontinence.

The actual procedure of tightening the muscle tone of interior vaginal walls is nothing new; women have been receiving such corrective surgery since the 1970s for medical reasons. But the outpatient surgery is the latest thing for the nip-tuck set.

The recognized grandfather of the industry in the United States is Dr. David Matlock, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Los Angeles.

Matlock put rejuvenation into the public sphere in the late 1990s, when he founded the Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute of Los Angeles. Since then, he has been the subject of multiple articles in magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan to Playboy.

Such coverage has been the best commercial for the surgery, Matlock said.

"Sex sells, and the media has an integral part in selling it," he said. "Women will come in and say, 'I want to look like this,' while they hold up a Playboy."

Yet some plastic surgeons feel that being saturated with images of sex leads to a false notion of normality.

"Part of this is the mainstreaming of pornography," said Dr. V. Leroy Young, a plastic surgeon in St. Louis. "People see images of naked women on magazines and movies and that becomes a reference point of normal."

However, Henderson said health concerns drove her decision as well.

She said that when she gave birth, the incision made on her perineum, the muscle and tissue between the vagina and the anus, never healed properly. She suffered many bladder infections as a result, she said.

"At first I went to just get that fixed," Henderson said.

But when the doctor examined her, he told her she had vaginal relaxation, which causes interior muscles to go limp.

Never mind the motives for the surgery, the result is great sex.

"I wasn't doing it for anybody but me, but my fiance benefits from it," said Nelly, an executive assistant for an investment firm in Los Angeles who requested that only her first name be used.

Both Henderson and Nelly said men are easy to please in general, and that vaginal rejuvenation is truly for the enjoyment of women.

"Let's be honest," Henderson said, "guys aren't really picky; they could care less. It was really more for me."

But rejuvenation isn't only the realm of mothers and grown women.

Many teenage girls seek the help of doctors in reducing the size of their labia, in an offshoot procedure called labiaplasty.

Matlock has operated on a 14-year-old who was accompanied by her parents and her younger sister. "Mothers are in 100 percent support," the doctor said.

Speaking about the physical development of the young teens, Matlock said, "These are mature young ladies. If they weren't I wouldn't do it."

But some doctors like Young think some colleagues may be going too far. He performs labiaplasty on occasion, but said he's not necessarily a fan of the surgery or its cousins.

"This is not something I promote," the doctor said. "If the labia minora is too large they can become irritated with clothes and swimsuits, but it's easier to just get a different swimsuit."

A new set of clothes would definitely be less expensive. Rejuvenation comes at a price, costing anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000. Young said he was not sure if the recent popularity of vaginal rejuvenation would last.

"We don't understand very accurately what's driving this," he said. "We're still in the unknown area with this, is it a fad or a longer lasting trend?"

If this is a fad, it's not going away anytime soon. The industry is too lucrative and growing too fast, according to doctors.

Last year Matlock earned $1.4 million and said the demand is too much for him to handle alone.

At his center in Los Angeles, Matlock says he has trained hundreds of ob-gyns, including 40 doctors from the United States and many more from Asian Pacific countries like Korea, to perform the surgery.

"The women are driving this," Matlock said.

As far as Henderson is concerned, she is content with her body for the time being. But she's comforted by knowing that she can have more cosmetic procedures if she wants them.

"I'll have maintenance done," she said. "As I age I think I'll get Botox, or collagen injections for my lips.


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To: Petronski

Reminds me of the old "Grandma's goose grease" joke.


121 posted on 04/25/2005 1:41:48 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: All
I was picking a bourbon at my favorite package store named Beaver Liquors and I overheard this same procedure being discussed. Deja Vu or what
122 posted on 04/25/2005 1:41:53 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire, but I swear I didn't see it in my rearview mirror.)
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To: kingattax

I wonder if she tried the exercises before she got the surgery.


123 posted on 04/25/2005 1:42:04 PM PDT by Vicki (Re-Vote or Revolt in Washington State. Send the Feds)
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To: SpottedBeaver

LOL....are you related to "stripedsquirrel" ?


124 posted on 04/25/2005 1:42:39 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: Mears

> This is one old broad who can't stop laughing at this.

I'm not laughing. Sounds waaaay too much like certain practices in the Islamic world to me.

Only difference here is, who's requesting the "work" get done. And the anasthesia, I suppose...


125 posted on 04/25/2005 1:43:20 PM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: TheBigB

You debated pinging the reptiles?

This thread SCREAMS Reptile Ping!


126 posted on 04/25/2005 1:43:44 PM PDT by Dashing Dasher (Hunting is women's work!)
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To: kAcknor
Quarters. Even to the doctor I'd say quarters.....;)

Uhhhh.....yeah, that's the ticket. Quarters. For my wife....Morgan Fairchild. Whom I've seen naked.

127 posted on 04/25/2005 1:44:33 PM PDT by brewcrew
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To: Xenalyte
You gotta watch out for those Moro Islamists... they could get crazy!


128 posted on 04/25/2005 1:45:57 PM PDT by t_skoz ("let me be who I am - let me kick out the jams!")
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To: kAcknor
Oh for the good old days of a brand new dad asking: "Take a 'cupala extra stitches will ya doc?"

LOL. Absolutely true.

129 posted on 04/25/2005 1:46:05 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: Dashing Dasher

what about the "amphibians" ?


130 posted on 04/25/2005 1:46:32 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: Constitution Day
"Last year Matlock earned $1.4 million and said the demand is too much for him to handle alone."


131 posted on 04/25/2005 1:46:38 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Rebelbase

ROFL


132 posted on 04/25/2005 1:47:59 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: martin_fierro

LOL!


133 posted on 04/25/2005 1:49:14 PM PDT by 7.63Broom (The Left- Poison for America's Soul)
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To: Dashing Dasher
Are you craving a nice piece of fruit now? How about peanuts, auntie?

( :-D

134 posted on 04/25/2005 1:49:51 PM PDT by Pharmboy ("Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God")
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To: rface

I wonder if Dick is waiting for his women to have a toe rejuvination surgery?


135 posted on 04/25/2005 1:50:03 PM PDT by Cheapskate (America , -- -- -- -- Yeah!)
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To: Nita Nupress
Is this a blond thing.

Will it still smell like an aquatic animal?
136 posted on 04/25/2005 1:50:23 PM PDT by razorback-bert
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To: TheBigB
a beaver clever bump.


137 posted on 04/25/2005 1:50:25 PM PDT by Fierce Allegiance
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To: ShadowDancer
If that's the only place your femininity is concentrated lady, you might as well just pack it in.

I would guess that "packing it in" is what lead to the need for this surgery, to begin with.

138 posted on 04/25/2005 1:50:29 PM PDT by MortMan (Quiet reflection does not involve a mirror.)
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To: pissant
Yep, I've signed up for the post surgery testing stallion.

Yep, you're a stallion, just like every other guy in the world.

139 posted on 04/25/2005 1:51:12 PM PDT by judgeandjury
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To: martin_fierro

That picture is absolutely hilarious.

That said, how stupid do you have to be to be the individual walking around in the thing?


140 posted on 04/25/2005 1:51:16 PM PDT by day10 (Rules cannot substitute for character.)
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