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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: kingattax
I'm sexist??? Look at your posts today!!!!!

(one eyebrow raised...)

181 posted on 04/25/2005 3:12:46 PM PDT by Fam4Bush (This tagline is as living and breathing as the Constitution...)
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To: Kenny Bunkport

Now Ms. Henderson's has meaning.

Or,

How Ms.H got her groove retreaded.


182 posted on 04/25/2005 3:12:56 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: kingattax

I thought that's what Polygrip was for.


183 posted on 04/25/2005 3:13:01 PM PDT by Crawdad (I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no class.)
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To: kingattax

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."




14 year olds are mature young women?

As for the ADULT woman...she is about as mature as the 14 year old. When will these women ever realize they can have implants, outplants, tucks, suction, botox, injections, outjections or whatever in the hell else they can come up with but...THEY ARE STILL GETTING OLD like everyone else. They will look worse however, becuase the older woman will look natural while all thise others who get the "fix" to look young and feel good will begin to look like sagging old hags.

This is absolutely mind boggling. What price vanity.


184 posted on 04/25/2005 3:15:07 PM PDT by cubreporter ( hav)
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To: rface
I heard Dick Morris state that Hillary Clinton was going to get this procedure done

Funny, I heard just the opposite.

185 posted on 04/25/2005 3:16:43 PM PDT by TN4Liberty (American... conservative... southern.... It doesn't get any better than this.)
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To: TN4Liberty

that would make more sense


186 posted on 04/25/2005 3:18:19 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: b4its2late
Hey, they sewed Joey Buttafucos chitwood back on didn't they? I guess anything is possible......

That would be John Bobbit, who had his Oscar Mayer wiener whacked by his jealous wife, Lorena.

Nothing happened to Joey Buttafuoco. It was his wife who got shot by Amy Fisher, and ended up looking like the female version of Jean Chretien.

187 posted on 04/25/2005 3:26:36 PM PDT by El Conservador ("No blood for oil!"... Then don't drive, you moron!!!)
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To: kingattax
This reminds me of a recent salary increase request:

The Penis, hereby requests a raise in salary for the following reasons:

I do physical labor. I work at great depths. I plunge head first into everything I do. I do not get weekends or public holidays off. I work in a damp environment.
I don't get paid overtime. I work in a dark workplace that has poor ventilation. I work in high temperatures.
My work exposes me to contagious diseases.

Sincerely,
The Penis

Reply:
Dear Mr. Penis:
After assessing your request, and considering the arguments you have raised, the administration rejects your request for the following reasons:

You do not work 8 hours straight.
You fall asleep on the job after a brief work period.
You do not stay in your designated area and are often seen
visiting other locations.
You do not take initiative, you need to be pressured and stimulated in order to start working.
You leave the workplace rather messy at the end of your shift. You don't always observe necessary safety regulations, such as wearing the correct protective clothing.
You will retire well before you are 65.
You are unable to work double shifts.
You sometimes leave your designated work before you have
completed the assigned task.
And if that were not all, you have been seen constantly entering, and exiting, the workplace carrying two suspicious looking bags.

Sincerely,
The Management
188 posted on 04/25/2005 3:34:06 PM PDT by Apercu ("Rep ipsa loquitor")
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To: pissant

Yowser! What a Beauty..
Kennianne is the winner of the FREE REPUBLIC BEAUTY PAGEANT.....


189 posted on 04/25/2005 3:37:55 PM PDT by missyme (Don't let the door hit ya in the ?)
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To: Apercu

LOL


190 posted on 04/25/2005 3:44:42 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: kingattax

 

This is the best I could do without getting into some serious trouble...

191 posted on 04/25/2005 3:57:46 PM PDT by Fintan (Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.)
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To: kingattax; Xenalyte
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."

Probability of Henderson and Nelly ending up divorced and alone: 100%. But hey, at least they won't have to supersize their dildos.

192 posted on 04/25/2005 4:12:44 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War (Proud Member of the WPPFF Death Cult - We're coming after YOU next!)
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To: TheBigB

Wow I could have saved her so much money with an alum crystal vaginal insert. Does wonders for tightening things up after birth. Otherwise, plastic surgery on one's nearest and dearest is a sad lowpoint in society.


193 posted on 04/25/2005 4:19:56 PM PDT by cyborg (Serving fresh, hot Anti-opus since 18 April 2005)
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To: kingattax

How odd, mud flap removal, go figure.


194 posted on 04/25/2005 4:28:58 PM PDT by delln
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To: ASA Vet
Replacing her every five years with a younger model would be cheaper than surgery.

20,000 dollars ? You haven't priced out the cost of the divorce and the cost of the next wedding .... this is a bargain for a new cooter.

195 posted on 04/25/2005 4:47:09 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Nations do not survive by setting examples for others. Nations survive by making examples of others)
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To: Dashing Dasher

Chiquita's b*stard son?


196 posted on 04/25/2005 4:49:32 PM PDT by Pharmboy ("Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God")
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To: Fintan

LOL.


197 posted on 04/25/2005 5:18:29 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: Kennesaw

That would make quite a tagline!

Honestly, I fail to see how (as the article implies and many posters appear to agree) one makes the correlation between the external size of the labia minora, and the internal muscle tone or "size" perceived by a male partner.

Incidentally, there appears to be a much cheaper way of achieving the same result:
http://tinyurl.com/cdn88 (Patent on exercise device)


198 posted on 04/25/2005 5:21:06 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: 1riot1ranger; albee; Argh; beaureguard; bedolido; Bella_Bru; beyond the sea; CholeraJoe; ...
In case you aren't already here (and many of you are) . . . Salacious Ping List ping!
199 posted on 04/25/2005 5:29:50 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I am at Dr. Venture's lab to right that which is wrong and to repair the torn curtain of time itself)
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To: kingattax
The recognized grandfather of the industry in the United States is Dr. David Matlock, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Los Angeles.

I'll bet he's up to his elbows in work...;^)

200 posted on 04/25/2005 5:36:43 PM PDT by randog (What the....?!)
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