Labiaplasty and genital cosmetic surgery techniques in Medellin, Colombia

Abstract

Introduction. Female genital aesthetic surgery is in increasing demand; however, its technique and results are not well known. Objectives. To describe the sociodemographic data, clinical manifestations, postoperative results and satisfaction in a group of women who underwent female genital cosmetic surgery. Methods. Descriptive, retrospective study of an institutional database, in the period March 6, 2007 to January 14, 2021. Demographic and clinical data from medical records were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results. Data were retrieved for 713 patients, mean age 34.3 years, 12 of whom were younger than 18 years. Before the intervention, 87.5 % (n= 624) of patients were dissatisfied with the appearance of their external genitalia, 74.1 % (n= 528) had discomfort with their genitalia and 53.4 % (n= 381) reported loss of sexual gratification. The most common findings on physical examination were hypertrophy of the labia minora (n= 616; 86.4 %) and redundant clitoral hood (n= 577; 80.9 %). The most commonly performed surgery consisted of labiaplasty (n= 609; 85.4 %) and clitoral hood reduction (n= 564; 79.1 %). Overall satisfaction at 8 and 30 days was 99.4 % (n= 709) and 93.3 % (n= 665), respectively. Conclusions. In the cohort studied, women achieved high rates of cosmetic satisfaction with surgical results, and also experienced improvement in their functional satisfaction. There was a low rate of complications.