Daily Mail
November 16, 2013
Thousands of women and girls have undergone procedures for ‘designer vaginas’ in the past five years because internet porn is distorting perceptions of what is normal, doctors have warned.
In the past decade, cases of genital cosmetic surgery have risen five-fold and more than 2,000 women are now having the procedure on the NHS each year.
Over the past five years more than 250 such procedures were performed on girls under the age of 14, NHS figures show.
But experts warned this was merely the ‘tip of the iceberg’ since private cosmetic surgeons are not required to contribute records for official figures.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) today proposed restrictions on the procedures in both NHS and private clinics.
The most common kind of female cosmetic surgery is labiaplasty, in which the size of the patient’s labia minora is reduced. This can be done on legitimate medical grounds, as a treatment for women with concerns about hygiene, difficulties during sex, or discomfort during exercise.
But Dame Suzi Leather, chairman of the Royal College’s ethics committee, said the recent rise in cases had been ‘fuelled in part by the mass media and inaccurate advertising’.
‘Some women are requesting it solely for cosmetic reasons and these decisions are not always being made on an informed understanding of the normal variations that exist, but influenced by images from popular culture and the pornography industry,’ she said.
‘We need to inform women that everyone is unique and that variation in appearance is normal in the vast majority of cases.’
Thomas Baldwin, a philosopher who also sits on ethics committee, added: ‘The misapprehension arises from the prominence of just one type of “neat” genital appearance, the type to be found prominently depicted in pornography.’