Genital Cosmetic Surgeries: Unresearched Claims of Unregulated Body Modification and Sexual Medicine Industries Prey on Women’s Sexual Insecurities

Genital Cosmetic Surgeries: Unresearched Claims of Unregulated Body Modification and Sexual Medicine Industries Prey on Women’s Sexual Insecurities

The New View Campaign Working Group on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS), www.newviewcampaign.org/fgcs.asp has identified unresearched claims made about FGCS and analyzed how the rhetoric used by the body modification and sexual medicine industries has co-opted feminist concepts of empowerment and choice for profit motives. A review of medical, academic, and popular literature, and a survey of promotional materials of physicians doing FGCS provides a disturbing picture of this moment. These surgeries include labia minora, majora, clitoral hood and pubic mound reduction, laser vaginoplasty, vaginal tightening, vaginal “rejuvenation” surgery, hymen restoration or repair, and “the G shot” collagen injection into the vaginal wall. Labia reduction, the most heavily promoted option, removes sexually sensitive tissue and may cause hypersensitivity or numbness, pain on intercourse, infection, adhesions, and scarring. Women assume that these operations are approved and safe and that doctors are proficient in these techniques, but physicians are performing them with minimal training. According to one physician, “We have seen many unfortunate examples of terrible, scarred, uneven results of labiaplasty from other physicians who have attempted labia reduction surgery with typically poor results, which are usually permanent.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has recently said that the procedures are not medically indicated, and the safety and effectiveness of these procedures have not been documented. Dr. David Matlock, the Los Angeles gynecologist who has pioneered and widely franchised these surgical techniques, including the G shot, has refused to publish any outcome studies, citing his need to “protect his intellectual property rights.” Physicians’ promotional materials and websites contain uniformly ecstatic accounts from patients, but psychologist Carol Tavris observes that “One of the most well-documented findings in psychology is called the ‘justification of effort’ effect: the more time, effort, money, and pain that people invest in a procedure, program, surgery, or other activity, the more motivated they are to justify it.” A long history of misogynist genital disgust and misinformation has created an environment of dissatisfaction being exploited by this new genital enhancement industry. Both physician and popular internet sites prey on women’s sexual insecurities by promoting appearance and putative sexual response benefits, but pay scant attention to the wide range of normal genital appearance, the variability of sexual response, and possible harm. Doctors who promote FGCS market extremely narrow aesthetic and sexual ideals that provide distorted impressions of ‘normal’ genitalia. In fact the size, shape, and form of women’s genitals vary greatly and change naturally over time. Yet the graphic display of ‘before and after’ photographs of women’s labia, and uncritical media coverage invites women to think that any labia other than those resembling prepubescent or airbrushed pornographic forms might be in need of “beautification” or “enhancement”. The promotion and normalization of genital cosmetic surgery has wide sociocultural implications. The genital “enhancement” surgeries being promoted today clearly fall within the standard United Nations definition of female genital mutilation.

Protest in New York City on Mon. Nov. 17

On Monday, Nov. 17, the New View Campaign will hold a protest at Dr. Ronald Blatt's office, 225 East 64th Street @ 3rd Avenue, to demand research and oversight of genital surgeries. We will have vulva puppets, street theatre, and a vigorous march (approved by the Police) to make our statement. Please come to participate and support. For more information, go to www.newviewcampaign.org/fgcs.asp.

To see an amazing range of normal labia images, go to

http://www.dodsonandross.com/gallery. See you there or online! Rebecca

Labiaplasty information

There is no data on safety and effectivness for labia or g shot surgery.