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Young girls complexed by their genital anatomy or more mature women wishing to restore this part of their body which they consider “damaged”: they are several thousands each year to have recourse to “intimate surgery”, which nevertheless involves risks.
“It’s a surgery that has the wind in its sails, a taboo is lifted“, assures AFP Aurélie Fabié-Bulard, president of Sofcep (French society of aesthetic plastic surgeons).
According to her, surgery of the labia minora – labiaplasty or nymphoplasty – which consists in reducing their size, considered too big, is particularly in demand.
“Some patients report functional discomfort, others want to correct a purely aesthetic aspect“, specifies Ms. Fabié-Boulard.
On the dedicated forums, the testimonies are legion: “I am 23 years old and I would like to have a nymphoplasty. In addition to being unsightly, it sometimes happens that my labia minora become a nuisance when I wear underwear that is too tight or again during my sexual intercourse”, writes for example one of them.
In 2019, 4,772 nymphoplasties were performed in France. And the demand is growing, according to the experts.
Porn codes
Adriana Guzman, aesthetic plastic surgeon, specializes in “intimate surgery”. “All kinds of patients come to see me; some, quite young, around their twenties, discover their intimacy and an anatomy that they do not consider harmonious“, she says.
According to her, the influence of pornography, if never brought up in consultation, “necessarily plays“.”Many young women believe that this artificial anatomy is normal“, deciphers Ms. Guzman.
“It is always the excesses of pornographic codes that impose a certain +look+“, confirms Rosa Carballeda, sexologist doctor, vice-president of the postgraduate interdisciplinary association of sexology.It started with full hair removal, now +you have to+ have lips of the right size, or with the right shape“.
The impact of social networks and influencers is also tangible.
Recently, the “stars” of reality TV, Maeva Ghennam and Sarah Fraisou, followed by several million subscribers, shocked by respectively promoting an operation intended to “rejuvenate the vagina” and capsules to fight against its relaxation.
“Scandalous” remarks, denounces Brice Gurriet, gynecological surgeon in Marseille, who harm a surgery for which there is a real need, still very underestimated.
Not just women
A booming specialty, “vaginal restoration” is aimed at a large number of women who have, for example, the after-effects of childbirth (urine leakage, pain, loosening of the perineum, etc.) or cancer treatments, he explains.
“99% of women who come to see me for this type of surgery often suffer for years“, he asserts. Gold “we tend to think that the woman of 40 or 50 who suffers, it’s normal, + she’s getting older +“, he laments.
Intimate surgery isn’t just for women. Every year, hundreds of men (513 in 2016, according to the latest figures available) undergo penoplasty, intended to enlarge or lengthen the penis. An operation performed by only 10% of cosmetic surgeons.
As with women, these procedures are not without risk. “It is not trivial, but like any surgical procedure“, assures Adriana Guzman. “Normally everything is fine“.
But sometimes, the result is bad, with poorly positioned scars and ultimately greater discomfort after the operation than before. Infection, necrosis, loss of sensitivity, chronic pain… These complications, which remain rare, cannot be excluded.
Julie, 35, an engineer in the Toulouse region, testifies to this. Always complexed by “lips too big“, she had the operation for the first time about ten years ago. Judging the result to be asymmetrical, she returned to the pool table five years ago. “This time the surgeon has + removed too much +, made stitches too tight and a lump has formed under the skin“, she says.
Since then she hasconstant dull pain“. And “no longer want anyone to touch her“.