Labia Majora Remodeling 

Overview

Some women feel self-conscious about their labia majora appearance, inhibiting sexual intimacy or activities requiring tight pants or swimsuits. Labia Majora enlargement can also cause discomfort in clothes. Women may have labia majora with:

• • Wrinkled skin with minimal skin excess, with or without mild fat loss, causing an aged appearance
  • Stretched, excess skin with or without fat loss
  • Fat and skin excess causing protrusion

The treatments for these different conditions need to be tailored to each woman.

Women can lose tightness of their outer lips (labia majora) after childbirth, aging, or weight loss. Mild, wrinkled or excess skin of the majora can be tightened with FemTouch CO₂ laser resurfacing under local anesthesia. It may possibly require two or three treatments to achieve the desired look, but the tightening is probably not permanent.

Mild loss of fullness can be corrected with fat injections, but care needs to be taken to prevent over-injection of fat resulting in protuberant majora.

The outer lips of the vagina (labia majora) may be enlarged with excess skin and/or fat. The combination of excess skin and fat occurs from birth or weight gain. Significant skin stretching with looseness and wrinkling with or without fat loss can result from childbirth, weight loss, or aging. The enlargement can cause an embarrassing bulge in pants, swimsuits, and underwear and even discomfort with clothes or exercise.

Procedure

Dr. Alter has developed a new technique to reduce the labia majora by removing a crescent shaped portion of skin from each inner labium. The scar is hidden in the concavity between the inner and outer labia. Excess fat can be removed with the skin if necessary, but care needs to be taken to prevent over removal of fat which would cause a hollow, aged appearance. If the woman needs more fat to achieve a youthful appearance, it can be injected at the same time.  The incision is closed with sutures under the skin, so there is minimal scarring and a natural appearance. There are no unsightly cross-hatch sutures. Suture placement and symmetry are crucial to achieving a good result, thus meticulous attention to detail is mandatory.

The surgery is relatively minor. It usually takes about an hour and is performed in a fully accredited surgical center. General anesthesia is usually used, but sedation with local anesthesia is possible. The complication rate is extremely low. Post-surgical pain is mild. If you have a relatively sedate job, you can likely return to work in 4-5 days.

If you are traveling, Dr. Alter and his team will see you on the day before surgery, and you can return home 2-3 days after the operation. You can resume sexual intercourse in about 6 weeks.

None of Dr. Alter’s patients have complained of any loss of sensation or any decline in the ability to have orgasms.

Labia Majora Fat Injections

Aging, weight loss, childbirth, or heredity can cause loss of the youthful fullness of the labia majora. This is easily corrected by injecting fat taken from another area of the body. The procedure is minor and takes about an hour. Surgery is usually performed under sedation with local anesthesia. It can be done alone or in conjunction with another procedure. You can resume sexual intercourse in about two weeks.