Cosmetic and surgical procedures for the face and body, like breast augmentations, nose jobs or eyelid reshaping, have been commonplace for decades. Less well-known, however, is the application of such techniques to the female genital area, discreetly referred to as intimate surgery, which is currently expanding.

A wide range of medical interventions, with or without surgery, are now available to women: G-spot enhancement, vulvar rejuvenation through hyaluronic acid injections, vaginoplasty to tighten vaginal wall muscles, clitoral hood reduction to increase pleasure, hymenoplasty for restoring an intact hymen (often for religious or cultural virginity imperatives) and labiaplasty to reduce the size of the labia minora when deemed too large.

While France is affected by this phenomenon (with just under 4,000 labiaplasties performed in 2022, though the figure is likely underestimated), it is particularly booming in the United States, where it began in the 1980s. There, vaginal centers and vulva spas offer treatments like vaginal steam baths and vagacials (a blend of vagina and facial). And surgeons specializing in the aesthetics of the female genital area are sometimes dubbed "vulvar designers." One of them, Dr. David Matlock, has been a pioneer since founding the Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Institute in Los Angeles in 1996.

'Dirty, hairy, slimy'

It is now possible to beautify one's intimate parts, while for millennia, the vulva has often been perceived as repulsive or unsettling. For Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), "the genital apparatus remains the cloaca; in women, it seems to be just a dependency"; for Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), "the obscenity of the female sex is that of all yawning things"; for philosopher Alain Roger (born in 1936), the vulva has been perceived as "dirty, hairy, slimy" since antiquity – a reason why it is rarely depicted in artistic works, unlike the phallus.

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