It's a common complaint, especially among new moms: things just aren't quite right down there. Childbirth can do a number on your lady parts, both temporarily (as in the immediate postpartum nightmare that is, as a friend called it, Frankenvulva) and, for some, permanently. But who would go to the extreme of a surgical solution? Apparently, hundreds of women would -- and a small but vocal group of women gathered in New York this week to protest such procedures.
According to an article in Time magazine, such surgeries -- which range from reducing the size of labia to "unhooding" the clitoris to "revirginizing" by constructing an artificial hymen -- are gaining in popularity, both in the US and abroad. But some critics wonder whether doctors are preying on women's vulnerabilty and ignorance of just how wide a range of normal there is when it comes to genitalia. And some have even questioned whether these procedures, hyped on shows like Dr. 90210, amount to female genital mutilation as defined (and condemned) by the United Nations.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect is related to the link some have found between women who surgically alter their breasts and mental health. From the Time article:
And if research on another type of female plastic surgery is any
indication, that post-op happiness may be short-lived. A 2007 study
published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery found that 10 years
after women get cosmetic breast implants, a disturbing trend emerges:
they are nearly three times as likely to commit suicide as other women.
With the even more intimate genital surgery, says Tiefer, the potential
long-term consequences are troubling. "[Women] are projecting their
anxiety about sexuality onto this one thing: 'If only I could get this
fixed, then I would feel confident to be sexual,' " she says. "This is
a complicated issue."
Complicated, for sure. But maybe the solution is as simple as a return to the '70s era staple of emerging feminism consciousness: the hand mirror exercise, in which a woman confronts her genitalia, makes peace with it, begins to love it. Because it seems to me the rash of genital surgeries are both symptom and cause of a lack of self-love. And for a new baby, nothing's more important than a mother who loves herself, scars and imperfections included.
