"My labia were very long, dark and stretchy. They looked disgusting. I was embarrassed by them."
The quote comes from a woman in an animated documentary, Centrefold, about intimate surgery. In the film, three women tell how an operation to reduce their labia minora affected them.
Increasing demand
According to the BBC, more than 2,000 vaginal plastic surgeries were performed in England last year, which represents a fivefold increase over the past five years. Experts believe that the number of unreported cases is high. The numbers also appear to be increasing in Norway.
Dr. A. Kalaaji is a plastic surgeon at Oslo Plastic Surgery, where they have experienced a sharp increase in demand for intimate surgery.
- "Women come to the clinic every week requesting surgery in the external genital area," Dr. Kalaaji tells tv2.no, which confirms the trend.
The plastic surgeon only needs to look back a year before much more time passed between requests.
Focus on appearance
Siv Gamnes is a sexologist and general manager of Sex and Society, the country's largest center for sexual and reproductive health. When asked whether young women are concerned about their appearance down below, she answers without hesitation.
- Oh yes! Without a doubt!
Gamnes has worked as a sexologist for 20 years, and clearly believes that this is a growing trend. Initially, the idea is that young women (up to the age of 25) should come to the center's gynecologists with complaints and symptoms, but according to Gamnes, many just want to check whether they look normal underneath.
- "Some people want to be referred to a plastic surgeon to improve the appearance of their genitals," she says, without being able to quantify how many people actually go through with it.
Exposed genitals
Gamnes believes this is about the body focus in our society.
- The criteria for what constitutes a good-looking body are clearly defined. Most young people have a perception that it includes muscular guys with six packs and skinny girls with big boobs. When it comes to body hair down below, it seems like it's more abnormal to have it than to remove it," Gamnes tells tv2.no.
And then the genitals are exposed, with all the wrinkles and distortions that entails.
Porn sets the standard
- Many people think that the standard is that the inner labia should be hidden by the outer ones and that the genitals should be hairless, closed and look neat and tidy. This is not the case! It's very common for the inner labia to be outside the outer ones and for one inner or outer labia to be larger than the other," says the sexologist, who believes that porn has unfortunately helped to set the standard for how we think we should look.
This model hides something many people find disgusting
Meet girls under 18
At Oslo Plastic Surgery, the typical patient undergoing intimate surgery is an adult woman with a partner and children. This is often something they have been thinking about for a long time, but didn't realize it was something that could be done until now.
But there are also other groups that come for consultation.
- "I meet girls under 18 who come with their parents and want surgery," says Dr. A. Kalaaji, adding that these are rejected.
Many are rejected
The plastic surgeon says that many women who request intimate surgery are rejected. This often applies to women who want a "designer vagina" or who have too high expectations of the result. Dr. Kalaaji needs to see a deviation before he allows women to lie down on the operating table.
- What is a deviation?
- In some women, the labia majora are too large, too small or asymmetrical. There may be asymmetry between the sides of the labia minora, or they may be too large, which can cause discomfort during intercourse or create hygiene problems. Some people experience clitoral drooping or asymmetry in the folds surrounding the clitoris. All of this can be both cosmetically and physically bothersome, and many suffer from this.
But it can be difficult for most women to know what is 'normal'. One of the women in the movie says:
"I don't know what's normal or what's the perfect shape. But from what I've seen in magazines, the perfect vagina is small. The inner labia do not protrude from the outer ones," says one of the women in the movie.
- Vagina important for self-esteem
According to the NHS, there are no guidelines for the size and shape of a normal female genitalia.
Dr. Kalaaji emphasizes that there is no such thing as a "perfect vagina" and that it's all about how a woman feels about it. However, there's no doubt that many women want this kind of surgery for cosmetic reasons.
- It's all about harmony. Why should we only be concerned about the face and breasts? The intimate area can also be important for a woman's self-esteem and self-confidence, and be something that her partner is concerned about," says Dr. Kalaaji.
- Still hate them
But will there be harmony after the operation? Not all the women in the film were equally happy after the procedure. One of them says:
"It was the one thing in my life that made me depressed. I was really looking forward to the surgery. I thought it would be the end of all my problems. I thought it would look amazing - like a little designer vagina."
It didn't quite work out as the woman had planned. Even though her labia have become considerably smaller, she is still not satisfied:
"I still hate them. It looks like a big, fat pig's nose peeking out through a pair of curtains."
Read the full story (tv2.no)
