‘I wanted a designer vagina since I was 14 – but I now live in excruciating pain’

A woman who desperately wanted “designer vagina” surgery at the age of 14 wants to ban the practice after she was left in “excruciating pain”.

Campaigners are calling for labiaplasty – which alters the appearance of the folds of skin at the vaginal opening and is sometimes referred to as getting a “Barbie” vagina – to be treated as female genital mutilation (FGM).

They say the operation, which plastic surgeons warned several years ago was “the world’s fastest-growing cosmetic procedure”, has surged as a TikTok trend in recent months.

Riley Smith* said the procedure was promoted to her as a “fix” after she felt “insecure” about the size of her labia. She told The Independent that her “vulgar” friends reaffirmed her “worst insecurities” when she confided in them about her worries.

She had labiaplasty aged 22 after being described as “the perfect candidate”, and claims not to have been warned of the risks, instead being told it was “super simple surgery”.

Afterwards, she felt “extremely drained and uncomfortable” and said she has since experienced irritation, dryness and recurring infections due to the removed tissue.

She now “can’t sit directly on it for long”, and finds sex “excruciatingly painful and mentally distressing”. Ms Smith added: “I’m so sad. Penetration was never painful before. I feel so angry at the surgeon, the system and myself for making this decision.

“It makes me so angry how casually this procedure is promoted as increasing sexual confidence, improving hygiene, and even making underwear more physically comfortable.”

She said a doctor has spoken to her about reconstruction surgery, applying the same techniques used for women who have suffered FGM.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines FGM as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.

FGM is illegal in the UK and usually non-consensual, but plastic surgeons can legally perform labiaplasty on anyone over 18 who consents. Figures from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons show there were 635 labiaplasty operations in the UK in 2024, which is a slight decrease from the previous year.

Charity The Vavengers, which works to end violence against women and girls in the UK, is fighting for labiaplasty to be criminalised like FGM. Chief executive Sema Gornall argued it is impossible to “consent to that much bodily harm” and claimed labiaplasty has become “normalised” on social media.

A search for the procedure on TikTok brings up more than 7,000 posts since 2024. Google has seen a 90 per cent increase in searches for “labiaplasty before and after uk” in the past year, and a 70 per cent increase in searches for “what is labiaplasty” in the past five years.

Ms Gornall added: “There are over 10,000 nerve fibres on the female genitalia. If I can’t consent to cutting off my arm without a medical reason… I can’t consent to cutting off my genitalia as well.”

FGM, as defined by the UK’s 2003 Female Genital Mutilation Act, includes cutting, pricking, stitching, or cauterisation of the vulva for reasons of “ritual”.

Dr Kate Goldie Townsend, a lecturer at Exeter University specialising in political philosophy, particularly concerning the body and children’s rights, told The Independent: “[FGM] is often connected to myths about cleanliness, and that undergoing the practice makes the girl or woman more marriageable.

“The rise in labiaplasty as a trend on platforms like TikTok adds to the incessant pressure on girls and women to conform to rigid, patriarchal beauty norms, no doubt fuelled by mainstream hetero-pornography.”

She explained how current FGM legislation states it is not a crime for an approved person to perform a “surgical operation on a girl which is necessary for her physical or mental health”, meaning a child could technically have labiaplasty if she had intense anxiety about her vulva’s appearance.

Dr Townsend said labiaplasty risks mirror those of FGM, including “bleeding, infection, reduction in sexual function due to the removal of nerve endings, chaffing, scarring, and psychological distress due to regret”.

The benefits are a “socio-cultural increase in confidence” due to feelings of “conforming to patriarchal beauty standards”. However, Dr Townsend said “many women express regret at having undergone the procedure, and some private clinics are capitalising on women and girls’ bodily anxieties”.

The Vavengers ambassador Payzee Mahmood, who underwent FGM, said: “I know women who have pain every single day of their life, not even just through having sex, but just existing in their bodies. They live with that pain.”

She said labiaplasty is “decorated and masked in this idea that women are choosing to have a designer vagina, that this is a sense of empowerment and freedom, but actually, this all goes back to patriarchy, because this is done for men in the same way that FGM is done for men”.

The government said it has no current plans to ban private labiaplasty surgery for adults, which costs around £4,000.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Prioritising women’s health and safety is paramount. Labiaplasty is only available on the NHS in exceptional circumstances when patients have a clinical need for surgery, for instance, to remove cancerous tissue.

“FGM is different. It is a crime, it is child abuse, and it can destroy lives. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls and offenders will face the full force of the law.”

A WHO spokesperson said it develops “guidance and resources to support countries with high prevalence” to implement prevention and care services, but “decisions about labiaplasty and other forms of plastic surgery are not the focus of WHO’s efforts to end FGM”.

*Name has been changed