Strong demand for vagina makeover

More and more women are reportedly getting surgery on their private area in a bid to have it appear more appealing.

Dr Jan Hochritt, of Prosurgicare Services Limited, said the labiaplasty procedure has become a fairly popular vaginal surgical procedure in Jamaica. He said that he performs two to three of them per month.

"I have seen a lot of persons who are between the ages of 25 and 40, and some of them may have some requests," Hochritt told THE STAR.

A labiaplasty is surgery to reduce the size of the flaps of skin on either side of the vaginal opening. The procedure takes about 45 minutes. Hochritt said that many females who have enlarged labias experience difficulty with exercise, hygiene, urinary tract infections as well as sexual activity.

"It is done for either aesthetic reasons by women who are unhappy with how the labia looks, but also in some cases, they may be having some discomfort by things like riding a bicycle among other things. It is a procedure that is done regularly but is not something that everyone is doing because everyone does not have that problem," he said.

According to the doctor, it is not uncommon for patients to make certain requests about the way they want their vagina to look after the surgery. He, however, said that not all requests could be fulfilled.

"You can do certain things and pretty up the vagina but you really can't completely change it from like A to F," he said.

Meanwhile, the doctor has sought to dispel, as merely a myth, chattering that a woman who receives oral sex on a regular basis is likely to end up with an enlarged labia.

"There is no truth to that at all. It is just how a female was born and developed, but there is nothing that is done habitually that can change the way how the labia looks. The sensitivity of the vagina is not located in the small labia so that is not an issue. The sensitivity has to do with the vaginal walls and the clitoris," he said.