While having a coffee recently with a group of close friends, we started discussing cosmetic surgery - a topic of conversation that is increasingly common now that we're in our forties. One friend confessed to going 'overboard on Botox at the start', but said she now uses it more sparingly. Another calmly admitted she now feels her breast enlargement has made her cleavage too buxom for her slim frame.
'It's okay for you,' says another. 'You haven't done any of that.'. I smile, but don't reply. If only they knew: I had cosmetic surgery five years ago - and I've never told anyone. You might wonder why, considering that while cosmetic ops used to be taboo, today it seems that anyone who's anyone has had a spot of filler in their forehead, or contoured their thighs with liposuction.
However, there is one type of cosmetic adjustment that remains verboten: surgery to improve the appearance of your genitals. That's precisely the procedure I had, aged 37, and it seems I'm not the only one. Labiaplasty — surgery to reduce the inner or outer folds of the female vulva — is one of the fastest-growing cosmetic surgeries. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), in 2022 there were 194,086 labiaplasty procedures. That's an increase of 46 per cent from the previous four years, and figures continue to rise.
Labiaplasty, surgery to reduce the inner or outer folds of the female vulva, is one of the fastest-growing cosmetic surgeries. My surgeon, a gynaecologist of 30 years' experience, tells me: 'I've performed labia reduction surgery on hundreds of women, but no one talks about it.'.
