Female anatomy, the normal vulva is a myth

Scientists say: there is no standard for the size of the vulva and its components: large and small lips, clitoris … A study that aims to unpack women tempted by labiaplasty.

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In our society of appearance, the injunction of the perfect body is everywhere. Magazines, commercials, fashion, and even bad! So much so that the number of labiaplasties, cosmetic surgeries of small or large lips of the female bad is increasing.

Particularly sensitive to others, teenagers often tend to worry about the size of their vulva, their clitoris with their lips … Worried about whether their vulva is "normal".

Wishing to stop this injection of the "standard" and the ideal vulva, scientists from the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital (Switzerland) set out to define a standard for external female badia. Lost Sentence!

Among 657 Caucasian women between the ages of 15 and 84, the study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology demonstrated that it was clearly impossible to set a standard for size!

The researchers measured different parts of the vulva : length of the external part of the clitoris, labia majora, labia minora, distance from the lips to the clitoris …

And at given the figures obtained, if we can of course deduce an average, it does not make much sense given the difference found between the measures.

Indeed the small lips ] measured on average 43 mm, with 5 mm for the smaller ones against 10 cm long for the larger ones. Same observation for the large lips with an average of 8 cm, 12 mm for smaller and 18 cm for larger! As for the clitoris or at least its outer part, it was 7 mm on average, with a size scale ranging from 0.5 mm to 34 mm.

A 39% increase in operations of labiaplasty

What broadly relativize the term "normal" vulva since obviously no model type vulva can be modeled using the figures of this study. All vulvae are different, that is, all vulvae are normal. For scientists, the labiaplasty (or nymphoplasty) should be reserved for women major who suffer from discomfort or pain due to too large lips, and not practiced on minors, as is unfortunately often the case.

Between 2015 and 2016, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery noted a 39% jump in labiaplasty operations . In the United Kingdom, the NHS, an English health organization, notes that despite its recommendation to wait for the majority of the patient, more than 200 minors would have jumped between 2015 and 2016, and about 150 of them would have less than 15 years of age .

Source: The Independent