Surgical reduction of hypertrophy of the labia minora.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate postoperative satisfaction, including improvements in quality of life, among patients who had undergone labia minora reduction.

METHODS

In a retrospective descriptive study, women who had undergone labiaplasty for hypertrophy of the labia minora between January 2005 and December 2009 were contacted by telephone. The women were asked to answer a satisfaction survey evaluating the esthetic and functional results of the surgery.

RESULTS

Among 21 patients who had labiaplasty using either a pedicle flap reconstruction (n=18, 86%) or a nymphectomy technique (n=3, 14%), 18 (86%) were contacted successfully and took part in the survey. All of the contacted patients were satisfied with the overall outcome of the surgery, with a mean rating of 8.7 out of 10 at a median follow-up of 17 months (interquartile range 6-25 months). From an esthetic point of view, all 18 patients reported an improvement in comfort with respect to any form of original functional discomfort. Concerning sexuality, 95% of the sexually active patients had originally described some form of physical or psychologic discomfort, and all of them reported total disappearance of this symptomatology.

CONCLUSION

Labiaplasty provided overall satisfaction in terms of improvements in patient quality of life and sexuality.