We didn’t see that coming.
Who knew Medicare covered cosmetic procedures like vulvoplasty and labiaplasty which are used to improve the ‘look and shape’ of the vulva?
The procedures are used by some with medical conditions that cause painful and sometimes embarrassing problems. Others just want to look ‘prettier’ down there.
The Australian Government has turned its attention to the latter as it looks to make some budget savings. As Fairfax reported:
“However the number of these procedures done outside hospital attracting payments under the Medicare safety net has nearly doubled in recent years to 191 in 2010, at a cost of $427,551.”
If the Government is now acutely aware of the increase in ‘designer vaginas’, it must be an issue large enough to make waves. Scarlett Harris writes:
‘The Perfect Vagina’ (which you can watch here) is a documentary that deals with the rising dissatisfaction women have with their vajayjays and the quest for genital perfection in the form of labiaplasty, a cosmetic surgical procedure that changes the size and shape of the labia minora. In it, UK television presenter and actress Lisa Rogers encounters Rosie, a young woman who hates her vulva and is scheduled for a labiaplasty. She wants the surgery because her sister and her male friends never cease to make fun of what they—and she—believe to be her overextended inner labia.