Plastic surgeon Craig Layt warns of social pressures drive rise of labiaplasty

‘Designer vaginas’ are on the rise but there are fears that come with the surgery.

“Designer vaginas” are on the rise with research showing the cosmetic surgery is now listed in the top 10 top ten most popular cosmetic procedures in the country.

Labiaplasty – a surgical procedure involving the removal or altering of tissues from the labia – was once normally considered a potential avenue for women who experienced discomfort requiring medical intervention.

But Griffith University lecturer Dr Veya Seekis says the invasive procedure is now trending for aesthetic reasons amongst young women pressured by external influencers and social pressures.

“Women’s bodies have been objectified a lot, and unfortunately women also self objectify,” Dr Seekis said.

Dr Veya Seekis. Picture: Adam Head

“It seems exacerbated here on the Gold Coast and when we look at things like social media and pornography, women’s genitalia is presented as very perfect and ‘Barbie’ like – very standardised – which is absolutely not the truth.”

The doctor of Psychology said as this perceptual cycle continued it tended to provide a “narrow view” of what was “expected” and what was “ideal”.

As it seeped into younger generations, Dr Seekis said younger people needed to be made aware about how to critically evaluate the content they were looking at online.

Gold Coast-based plastic surgeon Dr Craig Layt said the procedure had become a “worldwide trend” with its popularity increasing in the last three-to-five years – with many women driven by social media trends.

Operating theatre in hospital. Picture: iStock

Dr Layt said while other factors had to be considered, social media had an enormous amount of negative impact on younger women as well as men.

“Social media can be really bad in these spaces for young women,” he said.

“A young lady may look at her labia and think they’re not the way she wants them to look then go online or find a social media group which will affirm her belief that she should get something done about it.

“The important thing in that circumstance is that they see someone who truly is a professional, who is happy to say to them ‘You don’t need to or shouldn’t do anything’ rather than just do it.”

Dr Craig Layt. Picture: Supplied

Dr Layt said while many of his patients were after aesthetic changes and that was okay provided the risk-benefit analysis worked out.

“It behoves us as professionals to try and guide people appropriately and say, ‘what we’re doing here is not changing your makeup style, what we’re doing is something that’s real,’” he said.

“The classic (trend example) has to be Brazilian butt lifts – which seems to be waning now thankfully – but it’s all social media driven. Prior to that I didn’t know any Australian woman who wanted a bigger bottom. Some of those women will be happy with that forever and some of them will regret that.”

Dr Seekis said it was time to update the Australian curriculum to include social and emotional learning, helping younger generations critically evaluate online content in the hope to mitigate potentially harmful consequences.