Lip reduction operations are still more numerous in Great Britain. The fault of distorted representations of the female body.
Pop culture and pornography have not finished wreaking havoc on young women. The British health service, the NHS, is launching an alert on November 15, concretizing genital surgeries. Between 2008 and 2012, 266 lip reductions were performed in young girls under the age of 14 according to official statistics. All ages combined, 2,000 operations of this type were performed in 2010. According to a report by the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG), this could be just the tip of the iceberg: private clinics are not included in these statistics.
Five times more operations
Most of the time, cosmetic genital surgeries are unnecessary. Lip reduction, the most common operation, is possible for women who have hygiene problems, during sex or during physical activity. But in most cases, patients evoke aesthetic reasons according to the RCOG report. If, in certain extreme cases, there is indeed a deformation of the lips, the majority of operations are purely cosmetic. However, the short-term risks are very present: bleeding and infections of the vagina.
Over the past decade, the number of lip reductions reported by the NHS has quintupled. The RCOG notes that more and more women are using this type of service, including adolescent girls. Figures from the British Association for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology show no increase in the number of genital pathologies as the number of operations explodes.
Inform young women
RCOG experts say genital surgery should not be performed on minors, except in exceptional circumstances. This recommendation applies more broadly: no woman should undergo such a modification without medical justification. Dame Suzi Leather, holder of the Chair of the Ethics Committee, evokes a serious lack of information around these operations. Women are unaware of the natural variations in the reproductive system.
“Giving patients a much more accurate idea of what is and is not normal will help them make more reasoned choices. If you are anxious about your genitals, and you look on the Internet, you either come across advertisements for cosmetic surgery or pornography. You won’t find information on what is normal or what a healthy vulva looks like, ”says the scientist. The RCOG report agrees with it: young girls must be better informed from an early age.
Dame Leather is also concerned about the easy access of young girls to this type of operation. In no case should this be possible, as long as genital development is not complete. Beyond these risks, there is no reliable evidence that this procedure has any positive effects – physical or psychological – on patients.
Ban advertising
The RCOG discusses the ravages of pop culture and pornography. They offer a distorted image of the female body, without taking into account the variations offered by nature. The majority of women want to be operated on because of these representations. The Ethics Committee is sounding the alarm on this subject.
But advertising is not spared either. Private clinics encourage women to undergo surgery for cosmetic reasons. The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons points to poor regulation in this area. “We want tighter and tighter central regulation of cosmetic operations to help curb anyone who performs these operations unnecessarily and without consideration for the patient,” said Tim Goodacre, director of the professional standards department. “We use strict restrictions with the firm objective of limiting any material other than that intended for information. Ads that could be viewed as persuasive should be banned. “
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