'Clitoral-hoodplasty'

(The ones we were too scared to try)

Somehow I got the job of road-testing the two below-the-belt treatments that no one else wanted to try.

First – and huge overseas, apparently – is anal bleaching and its sister treatment, vaginal bleaching. This is the cosmetic bleaching of the skin – mostly of light-skinned people – around the anus (and the vagina).

Beauty therapist Anna Marsiano says she helped pioneer the procedure, which cosmetically bleaches those areas, apparently deemed too dark, around your bits. “Sometimes I do three or four treatments a day and I sell a lot of product overseas,” she says.

A professional job from Anna costs $150 for the full treatment of both “front and back”, or you can buy lightening gels and DIY kits (Anna’s company, Bella Sydney, sells one for $95 a tube, phone 0414 445 356). Milk Studios Day Spa in Darlinghurst also does bleaching, phone (02) 83540318.

Also growing is genitalia surgery and labioplasty (costing from about $5000), which is an operation designed to remove excessive folds of skin down there. Some women don’t like the changes that have occurred through childbirth and/or ageing. Others just aren’t happy with what they’re seeing reflected back in their handheld mirrors. (Too much time on their hands, perhaps?)

Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Kourosh Tavakoli (Luxe Medispa, phone 1300 368 107, see drtavakoli.com.au) says he has performed more than 150 labioplasty and clitoral-hoodplasty operations, with queries about the cosmetic procedure rapidly on the rise.

“I used to do 40 each year, now I do 80 a year; that’s a 100 per cent increase,” he says, crediting the rise in popularity with “designer vagina” stories out of Hollywood and an increased discomfort in our tighter jeans. But he warned that potential clients should research their surgeon carefully. (Quite: I’d be wanting someone to pay very special attention down there.)

As it turned out, I didn’t really need to road-test either. The internet has graphic videos, pictures and blogs about all of these procedures. But a word from the wise: don’t do your research while eating lunch. Or in an open-plan office.

KATE COX

Source: The Sun-Herald