designer vaginas
by Jenny Bryan
Rose's experience
Rose describes the first night after her laser vaginoplasty and labioplasty at a Los Angeles clinic as a living nightmare. Thousands of miles from home, she spent a painful and sleepless night. But, by the second day, there was less pain and she could walk around, though she was still very tired. A week or so later, she was back home in Britain.
Her vagina and labia were healing nicely until, eight weeks after her surgery, she wore a pair of trousers which irritated her sensitive wounds. The area became swollen and hard and her GP thought that scar tissue might be forming, which was the last thing Rose wanted to hear. A phone call to her surgeon in the US was reassuring, but he warned her that it could be several more weeks before she was fully healed.
Eventually, things did settle down and Rose got the effect that she wanted – a tighter vagina and neater labia. For other women in a similar situation, she still recommends surgery:
'I'd say "go ahead", even though there were setbacks with my operation and, with proper after care, these shouldn't occur. I don't consider my operation as a designer vagina. It was just wanting to get back to normal after childbirth.'
Lori's experience
Six weeks after surgery to tighten Lori's vagina and repair the damage of childbirth, she and her husband checked into a luxury hotel to celebrate the return of their sex life in style. Already, she had noticed improvements in her continence and bowel problems but the first night of passion turned into a bit of a damp squib.
'It was a little disappointing because we'd hyped things up so much and then there was some physical pain and it made it uncomfortable for me,' Lori recalls.
Some weeks later, she can see the benefits of tightening her vagina.
'We do have more friction between us but my ability to orgasm is about the same,' she says.
Like Rose, she does still advise other women to consider surgery if they are left with stretched vaginal tissue after childbirth but she stresses the importance of being realistic about what is and isn't possible.
(February 2002, updated August 2008)
