By Kinisha O'Neill, Staff Reporter
When we saw the ad for 'Vaginal Rejuvenation' in Flair and later in the Health Section of The Gleaner, we just had to investigate.
REDUCE OR reshape the outer or inner lip of your vagina; tighten your vaginal passage by building the muscles behind it; restore your vagina to its youthful appearance; return your vagina to pre-childbirth state; reduce the opening of your vagina; rebuild your vagina, creating a 'neo-vagina'. It all falls under a procedure referred to as 'Vaginal Rejuvenation'. Both the young and the old do it.
Molly Simms, a 22-year-old secretary in the Corporate Area, just had an operation to remove what she calls fat deposits on her vagina.
She told Flair: "I thought it (the outer lip of the vagina, called the labia) looked a little too bulgy and I just had to get rid of the bulge."
Simms said she did not remove this excess bulge to please anyone but herself because she found it unattractive and uncomfortably odd-looking.
She compared her pre-surgery condition to having "fat hanging" and a tummy that needed liposuction.
It cost $45,000, a little bit of pain and some discomfort at first but the 'bulge' is gone and Simms said she was all the happier.
She described her experience during the surgery as tense. While she experienced some pain after surgery, Simms said that by following the advice of her doctor she was able to substantially reduce her discomfort. She was told to sit over salt water for the swelling of the vagina to go down. She also took five days' rest, was given antibiotics, a cream for the affected area and could not have sex for two weeks.
FIX HER UP
The 22-year-old said she had been searching the Internet and discovered that the procedure itself was possible. She decided to make some local calls and discovered Dr. Kemel M. Gajraj, an obstetrician/surgeon operating out of the Ripon Surgi-Centre in New Kingston.
"Many women get the operation because they think the lips (of the vagina) are too big and ugly looking," explained Dr. Gajraj. "They want them to look good for their male or female partners. Vaginal rejuvenation is solely for cosmetic purposes," he added.
ALL TYPES OF WOMEN DO IT
Dr. Gajraj said he has performed vaginal rejuvenation on women from all walks of life uptown women, women from the middle and lower class, working women, prostitutes, lesbians and others.
Vaginal rejuvenation is not a new operational procedure to the world of medicine. Women have been doing it for some time but, of course, have not talked about it openly and doctors are only now publicising the rejuvenation process, Dr. Gajraj noted.
"We've been doing it for some time now on women who are tying their tubes to give them a new lease on life; on women who have had kids and become loose; and for reasons such as deformities," he explained.
He explained that during the procedure the patient is put under a local anaesthetic for the two-hour operation which is done on an outpatient basis. Depending on the part of the vagina that is being operated on the internal passage and its muscles, or the outer lip recuperation time lasts between two and four weeks. The procedure costs between $45,000 and $65,000.
Dr. Gajraj, noted that if a woman has multiple partners and has lots of sex, her vagina will lose its elasticity. He added that if a woman has a partner whose penis is very large, that too will stretch her vaginal opening and passage.
He also cleared up the misconception that slim women tend to be 'tighter' than fatter women. It may seem that way because penetration is easier to facilitate. In addition, Dr. Gajraj said that when women lose a significant amount of weight (more than 30 pounds) their vaginal passage usually becomes larger.
Not her real name
