Labiaplasty is a surgical procedure that reduces the size of the inner labia. Occasionally, a labiaplasty is required for medical reasons, for example to repair a tear after giving birth.
Sometimes, labiaplasties are carried out for aesthetic reasons – people want their labia to look smaller or more tucked away, often based on representations they may have seen in porn and other types of media.
Labiaplasty comes with risks, which include scarring and decreased vulvar sensitivity – these are pretty big risks for a cosmetic procedure. There is no need for labia to look a certain way. All vulvas are unique, so however they look naturally is fine.
If you feel uncomfortable about how your vulva looks, remember there’s no such thing as ‘normal’.
A gallery of different vulvas
If you don’t have a vagina but your partner or friends do, don’t shame them about their vulva. If it doesn’t look like the vulvas you’ve seen in porn – that’s normal. Porn doesn’t reflect real life. Vulvas are all different and there is no need to be ashamed of them, whatever they look like.
My vulva has...
...wrinkled lips.
-B, 19
...moles on the outside. Some are quite big.
-Z, 29
...quite big labia Majora and Minora. The Majora are like two pillows, they make me laugh.
-M, 28
My vulva is...
...darker than the rest of my body.
-L, 21
...beautiful, full of life, with one birth mark on one labia.
-F, 41
...freaking adorable! But, because one of my inner labia is longer than the other, and both lie outside my outer lips, I used to be ashamed of myself.
-A, 31
...tucked in, I think it's pretty.
-N, 22
