Retouching the lips of her vagina to match the beauty standards in force: is the new craze of American teenage girls. This a worrying trend.
It was the American Society of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery that sounded the alarm: in the United States, in 2015, 400 young girls aged 18 and under had a labiaplasty, against 222 in 2014. Either an increase of about 80%.
Labiaplasty (ou lymphoblastic) is a cosmetic surgery operation that generally concerns older women: it involves reducing the size of the labia majora or labia majora, which can for example become deformed after childbirth.
This intervention is far from benign: it requires general anesthesia, the postoperative pain is significant for about 10 days and it is necessary to go without sexual intercourse for a month. Not to mention the possible complications (infection, poor healing, nerve damage, etc.) and the cost: between € 1,000 and € 4,000.
Worrisome figures that cosmetic surgeons cannot explain themselves well: questioned by our colleagues at the New York Times, these first evoke bikini waxing, an increasingly widespread practice among adolescent girls. “The fact of waxing with a razor or wax draws the eye much more to the shape of the lips and can cause complexes in young girls. »In 2013, an Ifop survey revealed that 45% of women under 25 were followers of full hair removal …
Hair removal, leggings, and pornography
Another explanation: tight-fitting clothes … and especially leggings very close to the body. To avoid an unsightly “camel-toe” (read: the shape of the lips that stands out through the fabric), would teens be willing to step onto the operating table? Last hypothesis: the influence of pornography. “While surfing the internet, young girls are exposed to perfect sexes, with perfectly symmetrical shapes. Suddenly, they feel abnormal. ”
Faced with the importance of the phenomenon, the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians has just published new recommendations for physicians: they will now be invited to inform patients about the risks involved … and to propose non-alternatives. surgical.