Labiaplasty, cosmetic surgery on the labia majora or minora to make them ‘tidier’, is a pretty controversial treatment.
As well as concerns over the issue it raises in body image, it has been argued that the treatment is an unnecessary vanity and is another beauty ideal being placed on women.
Well one Reddit user has come out in support of the surgery, saying it doesn’t have to have the negative connotations currently associated with the procedure.
Throwlab is a 20 year old woman who has not only chosen to have the cosmetic procedure, but decided to
openly document her experiences in a post to the website.
The full post documents the woman’s experience of habing larger labia, where she admits:
'From around puberty on I've had minor annoyances due to my big labia minora... wearing a bikini was uncomfortable because sometimes my labia wouldn't "fit" in and I was afraid they'd stick out.'
The writer mentions issues like how cycling her bike would hurt, the uncomfortable experiences of using tampons during her period and the troubles she had when attempting to have sex:
'When I got older, it got annoying when having sex; I'd had to guide the guy in so to say, and had to sort of hold my labia apart.'
While trying to decide whether to have the vaginal surgery, throwlab confided in her mum the problems she was having with her genitalia, who revealed she had battled the same struggles at a similar age.
Her mum offered to then pay for surgery until throwlab can afford to pay her back.
Signing off the post, the young girl wrote:
‘I guess I'm making this post to educate some of you who are concerned about their labia. But please; DONT be insecure about them. You're born with them. A guy with a penis that's a little smaller than "average" (whatever average is, f*ck average) can't help it too.’
She later invited people with similar problems to contact her through the Reddit post and has used the opportunity as an information exchange for girls considering the surgery themselves.
