Scientific article
English

Labiaplasty in Minors: Medicalizing Mutilation?

Published inArchives of sexual behavior, vol. 54, no. 1, p. 95-106
Publication date2025-01
First online date2024-10-23
Abstract

Labial hypertrophy, which lacks an accepted definition, is generally understood to refer to morphological and aesthetic characteristics of the labia believed to deviate from a perceived norm. Such ostensive deviation has the potential to affect many domains of a person's well-being, as does its surgical treatment, labiaplasty. Nearly 24,000 labiaplasty procedures were performed in the United States in 2022, representing a greater than three-fold increase since numbers were first reported in 2013. Nearly 20% of these procedures were performed on minors, and cases have been reported in children well before complete pubertal development or the age of personal consent. In this article, we explore the indications that are used to designate labiaplasty as "medically necessary" in minors, a status that, we argue, is required for such procedures to avoid fitting the definition of "medicalized FGM" (i.e., "female genital mutilation") according to the World Health Organization. As a part of this, we consider the particular ways in which outcomes are measured in this population. We shed light on persistent methodological shortcomings in the research on labiaplasty, discuss ethical and legal implications, and make recommendations to improve the relevance, reliability, and generalizability of future investigations into this increasingly common, controversial surgical procedure.

Keywords
  • Adolescents
  • Aesthetics
  • Ethics
  • Female genital mutilation
  • Labial hypertrophy
  • Labiaplasty
  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Circumcision, Female / ethics
  • Circumcision, Female / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hypertrophy / surgery
  • Medicalization
  • Minors
  • Plastic Surgery Procedures
  • Vulva / pathology
  • Vulva / surgery
Citation (ISO format)
WALDEN, Rachel L, ABDULCADIR, Jasmine, EARP, Brian D. Labiaplasty in Minors: Medicalizing Mutilation? In: Archives of sexual behavior, 2025, vol. 54, n° 1, p. 95–106. doi: 10.1007/s10508-024-03021-1
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Article (Published version)
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Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10508-024-03021-1
Journal ISSN0004-0002
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Technical informations

Creation07/06/2025 00:34:01
First validation27/06/2025 16:59:42
Update27/06/2025 16:59:42
Status update27/06/2025 16:59:42
Last indexation27/06/2025 16:59:43
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