Labiaplasty

Labiaplasty Description

Labiaplasty (sometimes spelled labioplasty) is a plastic surgery procedure involving the labia, any of four folds of tissue of the vulva (female external genitalia).

As with other procedures, like plastic surgery of the nose (rhinoplasty), labiaplasty may be undertaken for functional reasons, aesthetic reasons, or a combination of the two. The procedure can involve creation or reshaping of the labia. Labiaplasty is sometimes performed to revise conditions such as large inner labia, as well as to repair the area following disease or injury, especially from childbirth. A hoodectomy may be performed to expose the clitoris in order to address sexual dysfunction such as clitoral phimosis or lack of orgasm.

The procedure is frequently performed to reduce the size of one or both sets of labia.

Labiaplasty is an outpatient procedure usually performed under local anesthesia. After surgery, women may experience some mild discomfort and swelling, which usually disappears completely after 1-2 weeks.

Labiaplasy Pros & Cons

Labiaplasty evokes strong emotional responses (both pro and con) far more often than more common procedures like rhinoplasty. There is considerable controversy regarding surgery on some patients, notably women who are worried that their labia are not "normal." Many feminists feel that desire for the procedure is driven by media images of "ideal" genitalia, especially those deemed ideal in the pornography industry. Some have likened the procedure to other forms of genital modification and mutilation.

Transsexual procedure

In the case of transsexual women, labiaplasty is frequently the second part of a two-stage vaginoplasty, where labia and a clitoral hood are created. This is often performed a few months after the first part of the procedure. In some cases, labiaplasty is an elective procedure to improve appearance after a one-stage vaginoplasty.

Transgender

Transgender is an overarching term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth.

Transgender is the state of one's "gender identity" (self-identification as male, female, both or neither) not matching one's "assigned gender" (identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic sex).

Defintions are set forth below, but the precise definition for transgender remains in flux.

"Of, relating to, or designating a person whose identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender, but combines or moves between these" (Oxford English Dictionary, Draft Entry 2004)

"People who were assigned a gender, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves."

"Non-identification with, or non-presentation as, the gender one was assigned at birth."

A transgender individual may have characteristics that are associated with a particular gender, identify elsewhere on the gender continuum, or exist outside of it as "other " or "third."