Labiaplasty

Labiaplasty (also labioplasty) is a plastic surgery procedure for altering the labia minora and the labia majora, the paired tissue structures bounding the vestibule of the vulva. The indications for the correction of labial hypertrophy are two-fold: (i) the correction of defect and deformity, and (ii) the cosmetic refinement of the vulva. While there are no formal medical definitions of labia minora hypertrophy (e.g. length, width, girth), labiaplasty alters the condition wherein a woman presents labia minora that are disproportionately greater than her labia majora; the labioplastic alteration of the proportions creates less asymmetrical labia minora that are aesthetically satisfactory to the women who undergo the procedure. Labiaplasty corrections include clinical presentations of congenital defects and congenital abnormalities, such as vaginal atresia (absent vaginal passage), Müllerian agenesis (malformed uterus and fallopian tubes), intersex conditions (male and female sexual characteristics in a person), etc.; and the exterior cosmetic refinement of the vulvo-vaginal complex, to repair the tearing and stretching of the labia minora caused by the mechanical stresses of childbirth, accident, and age. Furthermore, in other surgical practice, within a male-to-female sexual reassignment vaginoplasty operation for the creation of a neovagina, a labiaplasty procedure creates labia where once there were none.