Young girls are being driven to feel insecure about the appearance of their genitals, leading to sharply growing numbers of the plastic surgery procedure
22-year-old Nina had a labiaplasty as soon as she turned 18. “But I’d wanted it for ages,” she says. “I knew I wanted it done since I was 12.”
If you’re unfamiliar, labiaplasty is a plastic surgery procedure to alter the appearance of the vulva, generally by reducing the size of the labia minora so that they don’t protrude below the labia majora. Often women seek out the procedure for practical reasons – in some cases protruding labia minora can cause chafing and discomfort, especially during exercise – but many do it for cosmetic reasons too.
“There’s a so-called ‘ideal’ genital appearance that hasn’t changed for some time, where there is no protruding labia minora tissue beyond the labia majora,” says Dr Gemma Sharp, an associate professor at Monash University who has extensively researched female genital body image concerns. “The issue is that most women have genitals which do not look this way.”
Nina’s decision was predominantly driven by insecurities about the appearance of her genitals. She recalls developing these insecurities at the age of ten; while watching Kidulthood, a British teen film released in 2006, she noticed one of the characters claimed to only sleep with women who had “neat” vulvas. “I remember thinking, ‘shit, I don’t think I have that’,” Nina says. As she got older and began to watch porn, her preexisting anxieties only got worse. And so as soon as she turned 18, Nina flew from the UK to a clinic in Lithuania and forked over £1,300 to have the surgery she’d been dreaming about since childhood. “I felt on top of the fucking world,” she says.
Nina isn’t alone. In recent years, the number of women seeking labiaplasties has rapidly risen: in 2017, it was reported that labiaplasty was the “fastest growing cosmetic procedure”, with the number of surgeries at the time rising 45 per cent year-on-year globally. Notably, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons began collecting data on the number of labiaplasty surgeries carried out every year for the first time in 2022, owing to the sudden uptick in women seeking out the procedure. In 2023, the association recorded 680 labiaplasty surgeries taking place in the UK.
Sujatha Tadiparthi is a leading plastic surgeon with extensive experience in carrying out labiaplasties. She explains that while the majority of patients in her clinic seek out the surgery for “comfort reasons, rather than to alter the way it looks”, she can understand why labiaplasty is becoming more common across the board. “There’s definitely more awareness that this is a procedure that’s possible,” she says. “I guess that can prompt you to start thinking about your own anatomy and wondering what’s ‘normal’ and what isn’t.” This chimes with Dr Sharp. “Labiaplasty is considered much more of a mainstream surgery now compared to in the 2010,” she adds.
Many women feel insecure about their vulvas. An Australian study published by Women’s Health Victoria (WHV) last week found that one in six women are anxious or embarrassed about how their labia looks – notably rising to one in four among Gen Z respondents. A further 31 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds associated their labia with negative words such as “weird”, “disgusting”, or “ugly”.
23-year-old Abbie* had a labiaplasty two years ago, shelling out £3,500 for the procedure at a clinic in Manchester. While Abbie had the surgery partly due to the fact her protruding inner labia made it uncomfortable to wear certain clothes, like Nina, self-consciousness was also a large factor in her decision to go under the knife. “I started feeling insecure about it as early as primary school or early high school,” she explains. “There were comments made by boys, and even family members. I was always embarrassed about it – I thought there was something wrong with me.” She adds that she never saw much “representation” of vulvas that looked like hers. “I thought it was normal to have a Barbie-looking one.”
Dr Sharp points out that homogenous portrayals of genitals in popular culture, mainstream pornography, and on social media can result in young women feeling that if their vulvas don’t conform that they’re somehow ‘abnormal’. This isn’t surprising: most recently, a viral TikTok video of a girl flaunting her new manicure (and simultaneously flashing her ‘outie’ vulva in the background) triggered a wave of harmful comments about larger labia. “We need to do more to address genital appearance concerns from developing at younger ages,” Dr Sharp says. “Unfortunately, genital body image is not covered in positive body image programs nor is it covered in sexual health education classes in schools. So, we are pushing for this topic to be taught to all young people as a standard part of the curriculum.”
@gabygabss Your partners should love you for how you are. No one should want to change you! My insecurities down there amplified when i was told this, but i realized there were so many other people out there who would think i was perfect AS I AM 🫶 the first person to that is yourself #selflove #bodypositiviy #bodypostive #roastbeef #outiegang ♬ original sound - Zoe
Tadiparthi also stresses that labiaplasty is far from a quick fix for a more deep-seated issue. “Every surgery has risks, and with labiaplasty there isn’t huge room for manoeuvre. Surgeons have to be very careful and know what they’re doing,” she says, adding that some techniques are riskier than others. She reports that she’s seen complications following procedures carried out by other surgeons where too much of the labia minora is removed, and stresses that it’s vital anyone seeking a labiaplasty goes with a “reputable surgeon who has experience” and would recommend counselling for any women struggling with body image issues.
In an ideal world, no woman would feel compelled to surgically alter the appearance of their genitalia for aesthetic reasons alone. But the fact remains that we don’t live in an ideal world, and so it tracks that today’s young women – many of whom grew up listening to chat about “designer vaginas” or watching plastic surgeons fuel patient anxieties on reality TV shows like Embarrassing Bodies – are seeking out cosmetic labia surgery in unprecedented droves.
Cheeringly, though, there are signs that we could be inching towards a world where women feel more positive – or, ideally, completely neutral – about the way their genitalia looks. As Abbie has grown older, she’s discovered spaces on social media where creators speak candidly about the appearance of their vulvas. “I found pages on Instagram that spoke about that sort of diversity, and I started to feel better about it,” she says. “I am still happy I got my labiaplasty done, but I wish that I didn’t feel like I had to do it in the first place.” She adds that she has a daughter now, and hopes that things will be different for the next generation of young women. “I will be teaching her from a young age that it’s completely normal [to have larger labia minora], because I don’t want her to have the same insecurity as I did,” she says. “I don’t want her to feel like she has to get this surgery when she grows up.”
*Name has been changed