Vaginal Tightening (Vaginoplasty)

Vaginoplasty is a surgical procedure which tightens the vaginal muscles, perineum and surrounding tissue providing more tone, strength and control to your vaginal muscles, enhancing your sensitivity and sexual experience.  Typically during childbirth the muscles of the vagina loosen and stretch during natural delivery but the issue arises when these muscles stay weak and loose afterwards which can cause stress incontinence and sexual dysfunction.  Vaginoplasty can be performed on its own but also as part of a total vaginal rejuvenation treatment plan.

Vagina tightening surgery effectively turns back the clock and restores the vagina to its pre-childbirth state. Vaginoplasty gives more tone, strength and control to the vaginal muscles, often lost through the childbirth and the ageing process. Vaginal tightening surgery often enhances sensitivity and sexual experience for both you and your partner. However it is worth remembering that since desire, arousal, and orgasm are complex, highly personal responses, these are conditioned as much by emotional and interpersonal factors as by aesthetic ones. Although vaginoplasty helps to improve sexual function of the vagina, heightened sexual feeling is not guaranteed.

Minor urinary incontinence, or stress incontinence, is also another unfortunate side effect of pregnancy, childbirth and the ageing process. This can cause embarrassment and have a negative impact on self-esteem. Urinary incontinence may have even affected your social life or romantic relationships. Vaginoplasty will help to improve or eliminate this minor urinary incontinence, improving your self-confidence and overall mental wellbeing.

If you are having a vaginoplasty to repair damage caused by medical treatment or to correct a congenital abnormality, vaginal tightening surgery will also help improve your mental health.

Many women who undergo vagina tightening surgery say the treatment has transformed their lives, improving their sex lives, social lives, romantic relationships, self-esteem and confidence in their body. After such major life changes, vaginoplasty can help to bring a little bit of the old you back.

It is incredibly common for a woman to have concerns about this area as often women may find that their vaginal muscles lose tone as part of the ageing process, or after childbirth for example - this can cause much embarrassment, discomfort, the loss of sensitivity or friction experienced during sexual intercourse can also affect sexual satisfaction and cause frustration for both yourself and your partner.

Once put to sleep usually under a general anaesthetic (In some cases a local anaesthetic and sedation can be used if appropriate) your surgeon will begin your surgery.  A vaginoplasty operation typically takes about 1 - 2 hours, and is treated as a day case, meaning that you are discharged to go home a few hours after your surgery is completed.

The surgery is designed to tighten the vagina and is done by joining together the stretched muscle at the back of the vagina and therefore shortening it, using dissolvable stitches, and then removing excess vaginal lining and tightening the surrounding soft tissues.  The resulting decrease in the size of the vaginal cavity creates more friction during sexual intercourse, often described as giving a woman back the vagina she had before children.  When the muscles and ligaments in the vagina are tightened, they can then support the other internal structures including the bladder, bowel and womb (uterus).

Just like any other surgical procedure, there are several things you should do to prepare for your vagina tightening procedure.

You should avoid consuming alcohol and smoking for 48 hours prior to your vaginoplasty. This is because both of these can delay the healing process. Ideally you should quit smoking six weeks before your vaginal tightening and abstain from it for the duration of the recovery period.

Aspirin, anti-inflammatories and certain herbal supplements should be avoided in the week ahead of your surgery as these can increase bleeding. Your surgeon will discuss this with you at length and guide you  as to when would be suggested to resume taking these.

As this procedure is carried out under anaesthetic, you will need to make sure a friend or family member is available to drive you home from the clinic following your vaginoplasty. You may also want to enlist their help during the recovery period.

It is not uncommon to experience altered sensation following vaginoplasty treatment. This may either manifest in increased sensitivity or discomfort, or the loss of any feeling at all (numbness) in the area. These changes in sensation usually occur for a few weeks following surgery. However if they persist you should inform your consultant - in some rare cases, these changes in sensation may be permanent. However we would like to stress that this is rare and  there are no specific risks to be concerned about.

Any type of operation also carries a risk of excessive bleeding, developing a blood clot in a vein, 

infection or an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic. However the risk of any of these happening during your vaginoplasty is small.

Our expert surgeon will discuss all the risks with you and will be happy to answer any questions that you may have before you undergo your vaginal tightening surgery.

Generally there will be swelling, soreness and some bruising after surgery which should subside in a week or two.  After a couple of days you should be able to walk around comfortably.  Your final result may be a couple of months following surgery, but you are usually able to resume sexual activity within 4-6 weeks.

Most of our patients opt to undergo this procedure under general anaesthetic so you will feel no pain.  After your surgery, any pain or discomfort you may experience will be controlled effectively with medication provided by your surgeon and will usually subside within a few days.

You may experience some mild discomfort and swelling but this will usually disappear completely in one or two weeks.  Any stitches will dissolve so there is no need for their removal although you will attend a 1 week post operative wound care appointment with a specialist nurse.  Many of our patients return to work after one week but you will be advised that you may require two weeks.  You must refrain from exercise and sexual intercourse until fully healed (around 6 weeks).

Vaginoplasty starts from £4700, however this will depend on your particular case. This can only be determined during a consultation with your surgeon, and following that an accurate price can be quoted.

As vaginal tightening surgery targets a particularly delicate area, then obviously sexual activity is something that you must avoid afterwards. You should abstain from vaginal penetration, which includes the use of sex toys, for four to six weeks. If you take part in this sexual activity before then, you risk hurting yourself and compromising the result of the surgery.

We advise taking it slowly and if you find you are experiencing discomfort during the four to six week period, then you can always wait a bit before trying again. If you are still experiencing discomfort after this six week period in up, please speak to your surgeon.

As with any surgery, it is important that you follow all the aftercare advice issued by your surgeon as the healing process cannot be rushed.