Labiaplasty... to make spin class more "comfortable"???

[NormaNameChange]

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/plastic-surgery-labiaplasty-soulcycle-spin-exercise-women-a8178751.html

So apparently...Labiaplasty ties into grooming trends where women want everything to be clean and neat and streamlined

Now, I'm all for clean and neat but...AIBU to pass on the labiaplasty?

Not seeing the issue with this. I do personally have an issue with how there seems to be immense pressure on women to look 'perfect' down there but if its causing problems to someone and the option is avaisble to stop it causing a problem, I really do not understand the issue.

If this was about (like many of the usual stories about this) 'want to give your man a bit of a treat? Get your lips tucked' or something then yes, I could see the problem. But for actual woman focussed reasons? Nah.

I’m not aware if any men ever complaining of loss of sensitivity/orgasm due to circumcision.

Actually it quite often does, for example after the loss of the foreskin men need lube to masturbate and lose a lot of sensation.

In both cases male and female neither should have their genitals touched surgically without their adult fully informed choice. If a woman wants to have her labia corrected for comfort or for her own mental health in feeling secure with her body then I as a feminist completely support her right to be able to do that to her own body.

here no lack of sensitivity in my case. It was made clear that that is a risk when I had it done though.

On the cycling front: I bought a Fizik saddle a few years back. it has a cut-out so that your weight doesn’t go on your soft bits especially clitoris. Instead, your weight goes on your ‘sit bones ‘ which is a bit painful for the first couple of days then fine.

(No chance of soft tissue pain being the limiting factor for me cycling these days. I seem to have semi-permanent thrush, and the fatigue would stop me after a couple of miles anyway...)

Re the cycling, men have a lot more than a Labia hanging down.

They don’t get their penis and scotumn made “cleaner, nearer and streamlined”.

I wonder why that is?

There's an increasing number of teenage girls who are getting labioplasty. I'm sure there are the odd instance where there is medical need but mostly it's for appearance. And that makes me really sad. Porn genitals have tiny labs

I had this at 20, for medical reasons as described by others. If NHS didn't do it I was going to do it myself. I used to cover them in bloody cling film and vaseline out of desperation to not have bleeding calluses, problems started at 5 years old. Had to go to shop changing rooms for relief. My mum had to cut my knickers off with nail scissors at 17 because they were completely stuck. Poked out over swimsuits..

Horrendously painful operation and recovery that I wouldn't wish on any woman, left me traumatised, but it was 100% medically necessary.

Unfortunately I find every time I go for a smear or internal (very frequent as have dozens of problems downstairs) I get an 'oh, whats wrong with it? Did you buy yourself a designer vagina then?' from trained HCPs.

Waiting on therapy to come to terms with the fact I had to have it done, wasnt an option not to. At 26 I still haven't ever had sex and frankly the thought of a man seeing it terrifies me. A doctor called me a stupid vain silly girl once, what would a man think?

Judging by the hoops I had to go through for surgery - fifteen years of problems, four years of three monthly gynae review, review by burns and plastics unit, psychological assessment - no one would get it just because biking was sore. Not an easy op to get at all on NHS. They don't believe it can possibly be a problem in many cases. One gynaecologist told me mine were enlarged because I was fat and if I lost weight they'd shrink...

Cell and neat... um.. I think Male genitalia is a lot more messy and very defiantly not neat and when it comes to cycling have you seen men's saddles? They aren't all loping off their junk as they have come up with the less painful innovation of bike shorts.
Let's not fool ourselves this. is about unobtainable beauty standard perpetuated by very obtainable porn.
If to are fool enough to undergo this and any accompanying surgical risk and self effect then ok, but whilst some women tell themselves it's for them, their daughters are learning their bodies aren't good enough.
Twats and in this case both senses of the word

If I had a daughter and she was in as much pain as I was I'd 100% support her in finding a solution to that.

I don't think I'm a twat for opting to have surgery that has made my life physically much more comfortable. I can sit for a 2 hour lecture now, couldn't do that before. Couldn't give two shits whether its pretty or not, whether it looks porny or not - just so long as its not sore all day every day.

@shouldnthavesaid - so sorry you've had such problems.

Mine are big and cause problems on cycling holidays - I do long hilly rides through the Alps and up the TdF climbs, and on a multi day trip my genitals are so numb I literally can't touch to wash myself in the shower. Chafing, bleeding, pressure sores - awful.

I use a cut out saddle from Selle Italia which helps some, but I am still thinking about having the op.

Oh, and men don't have this problem because their cock and balls goes in front of them on the saddle - a lot of guys position their willy up towards their waistband. They can suffer from perineum numbness though, and sometimes temporary impotence after a rough ride like one of the cobbled classics or Paris -Roubaix (my fave!).

Fuck off with calling people twats for having an operation that makes their life better. All these people sharing their stories here deserve more respect than that.
Walk a mile in their vulvas then tell them they should live in pain and discomfort because you think it's all down to porn.

How dare people post this sort of shit demeaning other womens choices to live a pain free life and call themselves feminists. Didn't we fight for the right to choose?

Not everything is down to the patriarchy you know, sometimes women shockingly think for themselves.

TLDR but how about designing a bike seat that doesn't hurt women rather thsb cutting bits off women so a bike seat doesn't hurt them?

Like some PP I've also had this surgery. I must have been one of the first I think as I'm late thirties now and I had it as soon as I turned 18 and inherited a fair bit of money. I did it entirely because porn convinced me my longer labia made me a freak. I can't now recall having any discomfort due to the longer labia, i think it was purely an insecurity thing. Of course I later learned a lot of women, including many of my friends, had labia that stuck out. No one ever told me that as a teen though.

RJnomore - do you think people haven't tried? The problem is that every woman (and man) is made differently. And everyone's riding style and position and weight are a little bit different. There are hundreds of bike saddles, and thousands of pairs of padded shorts, and bike fitting sessions that cost anything from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand pounds, but some of us will always struggle.

I find the whole designer vagina tag totally abhorrent. I had labiaplasty after years of discomfort. I left exercise classes in embarrassment as I was in so much discomfort about because of my enlarged labia. I found finally having surgery hugely empowering and it is no understatement to say it has changed my life. When I came on mumsnet for advice about the surgery I recall many comments about how I would look. It was never about how I would look. It was about feeling free to live my life without pain and discomfort. Writing off labiaplasty as designer vaginas trivialises what many women go through before they feel able to seek help.

I’m not aware if any men ever complaining of loss of sensitivity/orgasm due to circumcision

Men DO complain about loss of sensitivity due to circumcision and it is a big deal for them.

Can we stop calling vaginas without long labia “porn vag” please? You know it’s perfectky possible to have that naturally.

I didn't mean to disregard what other posters said about their discomfort or pain. Just that from my personal experience I can say with certainty porn is a factor for at least some women who choose this. I do believe there are health & comfort reasons to get it too though for some

Because scarred lips would be so much more comfortable than plush lips on a bike seat

Porn vagina. Totally agree. The only time I feel inadequate about my "normally" protruding labia is when watching porn. I'm grown-up enough these days so that it doesn't affect me enough to ever consider surgically altering my completely normal, beautiful body.. BUT there are NO lips in porn! Often times they're not "just" trimmed - they're just not there! Even my husband gets bemused and comments.

Surgeries for medical needs need not enter this discussion as that is not where the ethical debate lies. Like all other plastic surgery - there are reconstructive breast surgeries, reconstructive facial surgeries, etc. I don't think anyone has ethics "beef" there. I would have those surgeries if need would arise.
The question is, how ethical is it of companies/society to make an alien product of our bodies and then sell it to our daughters? I'm happy I'm not raising a daughter this day as I wouldn't quite know how to pick up " your vagina lips are normal" conversation in her teenage years.

The only place young girls see vagina lips these days are in the mirror..and then the panic of inadequacy starts.

Being a plastic surgery victim is as far from "free" as I can imagine.

All this talk of porn ignores that fact that many women in porn have large labia.

Bartholins Did you see it last time in 1986?
In fact "lips" are so rare these days, they have become a fetish for some men to seek

If it makes a woman feel better about herself, or helps her feel more comfortable, then crack on. What goes on in your knickers is none of my business.

Personally, if I was considering surgery just to make spinning classes more comfortable, then something would definitely be for the chop and it wouldn't be my labia

I thought Spin Classes meant twirling around. I was really disappointed when I found out it was indoor cycling.