Posted on 05/25/2007 10:18:53 AM PDT by EnigmaticAnomaly
One of the world's most prestigious health journals has lashed a fast-growing trend in the United States and Britain for "designer vaginas," the tabloid term for cosmetic surgery to the female genitalia.
The fashion is being driven by commercial and media pressures that exploit women's insecurities and is fraught with unknowns, including a risk to sexual arousal, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says.
Known as elective genitoplasty, the surgery usually entails shortening or changing the shape of the outer lips, or labia, but may also include reduction in the hood of skin covering the clitoris or shortening the vagina itself.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the practice is spreading fast in the United States as well as in Britain, but the picture is unclear, the BMJ says.
Not only is there a disturbing lack of data about the phenomenon, there has been negligible assessment about surgical after-effects -- and almost zero reflexion as to whether a labial "problem" exists in the first place, the BMJ says angrily.
In 2004-5, 800 "labial reductions" were conducted by Britain's state-run National Health Service (NHS), more than a doubling of the figure of six years earlier. Other operations were carried out by the private sector, although the full figures are unknown.
The authors of the article, London gynaecologist Sarah Creighton and clinical psychologist Lih Mei Liao, conducted their own small-scale probe into why women sought this surgery.
"Our patients sometimes cited restrictions on lifestyle as reasons for their decision," they say.
"These restrictions included inability to wear tight clothing, go to the beach, take communal showers or ride a bicycle comfortably, or avoidance of some sexual practices.
"Men, however, do not usually want the size of their genitals reduced for such reasons. Furthermore, they find alternative solutions for any discomfort arising from rubbing or chaffing of the genitals."
Patients who sought genitoplasty "uniformly" wanted their vulvas to be flat and with no protrusion, similar to the prepubescent look of girls in Western fashion ads, they found.
"Not unlike presenting for a haircut at a salon, women often brought along images to illustrate the desired appearance," say Creighton and Liao. "The illustrations, usually from advertisements or pornography, are always selective and possibly digitally altered."
Plastic surgery to the labia carries risks, for this zone carries nerve fibres that are highly sensitive and are a key pathway of sexual arousal, the article warns sternly.
"Incision to any part of the genitalia could compromise sensitivity," it says.
The BMJ piece suggests genitoplasty is a classic example of where commercial, media and social pressures artificially create a problem, fuel concern over it and then put forward a solution for it.
"There is nothing unusual about protrusion of the labia," it says.
"It is the negative meaning that makes it into a problem -- meanings that can give rise to physical, emotional and behavioural reactions, such as discomfort, self-disgust, perhaps avoidance of some activities and a desire for a surgical fix."
I look like Brad Pitt in the dark..............
ping
Muffin Madness...
lol...
Just wondering...What’s the difference between this and genital mutilation, besides anesthesia?
I’m all for it, there is nothing worse than when it is all mangled down there!
BWAHAHAHAH!
Thos cat lips could use tightening. It's awfully big in there.
This is elective. But so are “piercings”.
There is no obvious logical end to it, especially if you have "the [absolute] right to 'control' your own body."
“Ah, women,” you muse out loud, in the middle of your sister’s bridal shower. “I love them, for all their quims and fancies.”— Peter Bowler, The Superior Person’s Book of Words.
Stupid? It’s insane, that’s what it is. People have too much faith in unnecessary medical procedures. One needs to only have an incision made, and stitches applied, to know how irreversibly distorting a surgery can be, to the natural structure of the part that was altered. Nerve endings are severed or dislocated, hair follicles get re-arranged, and a thin scar on which the sensory systems are impaired, almost always remains. Even top-notch care and procedures cannot restore things perfectly. The body takes its own course on healing, and this part of surgery can barely be controlled.
SPL?
According to her chart,this woman was having this surgery at the insistence of her boyfriend because,as the result of her having already had a couple of kids,he couldn't "obtain satisfaction" (again,trying to be delicate) without this "tightening up".
She had the surgery......courtesy of the taxpayers of the state in which she lived.She was on welfare at the time.
one is the product of a sick 8th century culture, the other is a product of a sick 21st century culture.
Read my lips....no pics necessary.
Meadow Muffin :))
For the likes of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan etc for when they flash it for the cameras ;-)
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