Abstract : Female genital cosmetic surgery procedures have gained popularity in the West in recent years. Mark
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Abstract : Female genital cosmetic surgery procedures have gained popularity in the West in recent years. Marketing by surgeons promotes the surgeries but professional organizations have started to question the promotion and practice of these procedures. Despite some surgeon claims of drastic transformations of psychological emotional and sexual life associated with the surgery little reliable evidence of such effects exists. This article achieves two objectives. First reviewing the published academic work on the topic it identifies the current state of knowledge around female genital cosmetic procedures as well as limitations in our knowledge. Second examining a body of critical scholarship that raises sociological and psychological concerns not typically addressed in medical literature it summarizes broader issues and debates. Overall the article demonstrates a paucity of scientific knowledge and highlights a pressing need to consider the broader ramifications of surgical practices. "Today we have a whole society held in thrall to the drastic plastic of labial rejuvenation."( 1 ) "At the present time the field of female cosmetic genital surgery is like the old Wild Wild West wide open and unregulated"( 2 ).
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