Reading it, you’ll see Ms. Chalker (whose book, The Clitoral Truth, ranks #293,497 in popularity on Amazon.com)  thinks labiaplasty is unnecessary and unneeded, desensitizing, overly risky and driven by exposure to the pornography industry only to please mens’ expectations.

We can’t speak for the porno industry, but to balance that viewpoint, we contacted a few board certified plastic surgeons who have performed the surgery on hundreds, if not thousands, of patients.

Bijan Daneshgar, M.D. a Beverly Hills board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist, has performed the surgery countless times in his 30 years of practice.

“Not once, has a woman come in and mentioned anything about men,” says Dr. Daneshgar. “Women ask for the surgery because overly large labia are causing discomfort or embarrassment like one ballerina who was showing through her costume.”

A slight risk for complications exists, as in all surgeries, but Dr. Daneshgar says he has had not one complaint.

“Knock on wood,” he adds.

Says Gary Alter, M.D., a Beverly Hills board-certified plastic surgeon/urologist who is author of the study on labiaplasty patients quoted in our original post:

“So what if a woman did bring in an explicit magazine showing another woman’s genitalia? Anything that helps communication between doctor and patient is beneficial.”

While anybody is entitled to an off-the-cuff opinion, take a look at some of the science physicians have done, studying the actual labiaplasty patients.

• A study by surgeons John R. Miklos, M.D. and Robert D. Moore, M.D., at the Atlanta Center for Laparoscopic Urogynecology found that close to two-thirds of women seeking labia reduction do so for reasons such as pain or discomfort.

• Writing in the January, 2006, issue of the professional journal,  Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, six M.D.s studied over nine years  the outcomes on 163 labiaplasty patients who underwent reduction of the labia minora. Results? The study showed a 93 percent rate of satisfaction. (View an abstract of the labiaplasty study.)

It’s not only U.S. patients who like the procedure.

• In Chile, 55 labiaplasty patients were asked for their opinions two months after having the procedure. Ninety-one percent said they were very satisfied while another five reported they were satisfied.

But the basic question should be: isn’t labiaplasty a matter of medical privacy best left to a woman and her physician?

Nonetheless, many women complain their elongated labia chafes and rubs in tight workout clothes and while engaging in some sports.

Others complain the condition interferes with intimacy.  So the procedure known as labiaplasty has become more common for plastic surgeons, although the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) only reports 3,494 labiaplasties in 2008, the most current year for which statistics are available.

Meanwhile, psychologists, gynecologists and others chime in that any cosmetic surgery of the female genitalia is unnecessary and fraught with needless risk.

Professional medical societies in:

• The United States,
• New Zealand,
• The United Kingdom
• Germany

have slammed the procedure because of a lack of studies and alleged high complication rates.

Many feminists say there is no universal standard of beauty for labia, and that most women who want the operation get the idea in the first place from sexually explicit magazines, showing professional models who have surgically enhanced genitalia.

Now, a recent two-year study on 407 women labiaplasty patients between the ages of 13 and 63 indicates patients appear to be happy with the procedure. Gary Alter, M.D., a board certified plastic surgeon and a board certified urologist, performed a procedure known as the Alter V technique on all 407 women.

The surgical technique removes a V-shaped piece of tissue from the most protuberant portion of each labium and then sutures the edges together. Most of the study subjects came to Dr. Alter, complaining of discomfort and aesthetics.

Results? According to the article, printed in the December 2008 Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, a professional journal for plastic surgeons, 98 percent of the patients report they would have the surgery over again.

Seventy percent reported increased self-esteem while 71 percent reported improved sex lives. The study found four percent of subjects reporting complications.

Meanwhile, in Germany, psychologist Borken Ada Hagen and gynecologist Heribert Kentenich report in the German journal, Obstetrics and Gynecology, that the labiaplasty procedure has become the third leading cosmetic plastic surgery – right after face lift and breast augmentation – in the Teutonic nation.

Read more about German labiaplasty (or, Labienreduktion as it’s known there.)

Not to worry! The link is in English. Danken sie guete!