We find that many women have been unaware of potential changes that can happen to their labia. We see women who've had children. We see women who have not had children yet but who see that their labia are prominent. They interfere with exercise and they get caught in their clothing or underwear.

Many of our patients are sometimes self-conscious when they go to the gym or yoga classes, and a labiaplasty procedure aims at reducing the size of the labia.

There are basically two techniques. There is a linear reduction labiaplasty which simply trims the excess labia. There's also a technique called the V Wedge labiaplasty, and there are different candidates for each procedure. We can perform either one of those procedures, and we can discuss in private what procedure is more appropriate for each person's anatomy.

In general, a labiaplasty has minimal downtime. Patients are sometimes surprised that they can have this done under local anesthesia. They go home. They have very little pain. They have a bit of spotting but not much more than when they have a light period. And I think that most people feel that after a day or two, they could actually go back to work. They want to avoid sitting for prolonged periods of time, but as far as pain involved, there's very little. And I think that patients are very pleasantly surprised that in four or five days, they can go back to their usual activities. For exercise, they need to wait a little bit longer.

What Are the Reasons to Get a Labiaplasty?

Dr. Francisco Canales explains that some women may not like the look of their vaginas, while others have lifestyle issues related to enlarged labia. Either one is a great reason to consider getting a labiaplasty.