1 week Ago By Aimee Meade
“D’you want to see it?” my friend asks me, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “It looks sooooo good!” The “it” she’s referring to is her vagina . My friend has had labiaplasty , a treatment that sees women turning to the knife to give themselves a supposedly more-aesthetically-pleasing, “younger-looking” vulva.
And I get it. We all want it to look younger. In the pursuit of youth, we spend billions on anti-wrinkle injections, hair transplants, gym memberships, boob jobs.
It was probably inevitable that our fear of ageing would extend to our vaginas, but that doesn’t make me any less concerned as to why women like my friend are doing this. This anti-ageing fad seems to be taking on a life of it’s own. The “vaginal rejuvenation” industry was estimated to be worth $3.
57bn in 2023, and it’s expected to grow by more than 22 per cent by 2030 . Plus a quick look at TikTok and you can see social media is awash with women hoping not just for a “better looking” vagina, but an anatomically tighter one too. Influencers are telling their young audiences to “improve their coochie” with tips and tricks and Kegel exercise routines, accompanied by captions that read “your man will love you for this”.
One video says I should drink boiling water with star anise in it to help tighten things up, which is so ridiculous I could laugh. At clinics around the UK you can pop along for a facial, get an eyebrow wax and have a gigantic wand inserted into you that emits a light that supposedly has a tightening effect. If you can have that done and not make a Star Wars light sabre noise as it goes in, you’re a better woman than I am.
Injectable gels, similar to dermal fillers, are in UK clinics too. Whilst I would usually back any enhancements women want to do to make themselves feel better, I think it’s important for us to question who women are doing this for. Now I could be wrong, but I’ve never met a woman who woke up one day and said, “I think my vagina needs to be tighter, smaller and look younger”.
That opinion has most likely been formed and influenced by men, whether that be a direct comment from a partner or perhaps being influenced by what they are seeing online or in pornography . It saddens me that this could be causing women to go under the knife, or use products that could be making them uncomfortable. Read Next I injured myself from pelvic floor exercises because women are told ‘tight is right’ Even high street offerings – like the vagina tightening gels – come with risks.
Dr Shirin Lakhani, a former NHS doctor and now physician at Elite Aesthetics in Kent, told me: “These gels tend to dry out the vaginal lining, which in turn decreases lubrication in the vagina. The decrease in lubrication leads to friction and the feeling of being ‘tighter’ from the lack of lubrication. However eventually, this friction can cause microtears and damage to the vagina itself.
Vagina gels can also cause vaginal issues such as swelling and agitation. They may also disrupt the delicate vaginal microbiome leading to issues such as bacterial vaginosis.” The more research I have done on this topic, the more sinister things have become too.
For instance, after watching a handful of Kegel exercise routines on TikTok I am served a video talking about hymenoplasty – the process of recreating a broken hymen. In some cultures, high value is placed on virginity and there’s an expectation that a woman should bleed during sex on her wedding night. Hymenoplasty can be used to make sure that happens.
It dawns on me that we’re no longer just talking about vaginas that look young – the videos pinged through to my phone are now about people who want a vagina that is anatomically young. What message is this sending to women and our younger generations? Hymenoplasty and virginity testing (where a girl or woman’s genitalia is inspected for a hymen) were both were banned in the UK in 2022, being described as an honour-based abuse. But, it is still offered by clinics overseas and there are fears it’s been driven underground into back street clinics here.
I can’t help but feel women have learned this pressure and are now complying with tightening gels, herbal teas and in the extreme, hymen reconstruction. It feels like we’ve turned a dangerous new corner, where not only are our vaginas expected to look young, but they’re somehow expected to physically be younger. In a world where misogyny is on the rise, I think we’d be wise to consider what choices women are making for themselves and their own bodies, and which are being made for them.
Lauren Layfield is a broadcaster, author, and presenter.
