Top Reasons Patients Get Labiaplasty Revision Correction

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This blog discusses the top issues that patients have when considering labiaplasty revision, what options are available for each concern, and why patients should choose Dr. Alter as their labiaplasty revision surgeon.

5 Min Read:

What Is Labiaplasty Revision?
What Is a Botched Labiaplasty?
How Does Labiaplasty Revision Work?
What Are the Benefits of Labiaplasty Revision?

What Is Labiaplasty Revision?

No one goes into plastic surgery thinking they’ll need a secondary procedure, but some things are out of our control. When undergoing labiaplasty surgery, patients are often concerned with the cost of the procedure and recovery, but may have more lax expectations as far as results; It is a simple procedure, after all, right? Not exactly. Labiaplasty is actually relatively complex, and inexperienced surgeons can make mistakes or issues can arise during recovery, resulting in the need for a secondary procedure to fix the results of the first. This procedure is called secondary labiaplasty, labiaplasty revision, or corrective labiaplasty.

What Is Labiaplasty or Primary Labiaplasty?

Before we can describe what goes wrong with certain labiaplasties, we have to discuss what’s supposed to happen. The goal of a primary labiaplasty is to reduce the size and projection of the labia minora, or inner vaginal lips. Patients who undergo labiaplasty may have the following concerns:

Long, hanging labia minora
Irregular labial edges
Difficulty with physical or sexual activity due to the labia
Embarrassment or concern over the look of their labia
Hygiene issues due to large or protruding labia

Essentially, the goal of labiaplasty is to create a neater, smaller, or more manageable labia minora. While it seems like a straightforward procedure, it has to be performed by an experienced surgeon, or things can go very wrong.

What Is a Botched Labiaplasty?

Patients who seek labiaplasty revision often do so because they ended up with a botched or unsatisfactory result. There are many reasons to seek a secondary procedure, including the following:

Asymmetry

One common issue is that the labia minora are not symmetrical. When this happens, the surgeon removes too little or too much tissue from one side of the labia, resulting in a lopsided, awkward result.

Pain

This is the unfortunate pitfall of practitioners who do not utilize the correct surgical techniques for labiaplasty. Traditionally, surgeons use the trim method, which involves snipping off the edges of the labia and then suturing the edges. While this does remove tissue, it can result in uneven scarring that is actually quite painful. The scar tissue pulls at the labia, causing discomfort and unwanted sensitivity.

Unsightly Scars

At the same time, scarring from the trim method or a poor healing process can result in unsightly scars. Patients may complain of rough, scalloped edges that occur when the scar tissue pulls the sides of the labia together, resulting in an unnatural appearance.

Over or Under Excision

In some cases, an inappropriate amount of tissue is removed. Many patients have issues with over-excision, meaning their surgeon took too much labial tissue, leaving them feeling disfigured. In other cases, not enough labial tissue is removed. In either case, patients are left feeling that their surgery was not successful in achieving their goals, causing them to feel self-conscious and frustrated.

How Does Labiaplasty Revision Work?

It may feel like you have no options with a botched labiaplasty, but that’s not true. With an experienced labiaplasty revision expert, like Dr. Gary Alter, you have more options than you might think.

Dr. Alter is world-renowned as the expert in labiaplasty and labiaplasty revision. As a double board-certified plastic surgeon and urologist, Dr. Alter draws on his unique education to provide advanced aesthetic and reconstructive genital surgery, including labiaplasty. In fact, Dr. Alter is the pioneering surgeon who invented and perfected modern labiaplasty techniques, including the central wedge labiaplasty technique, which provides more natural-looking results and eliminates many issues associated with the trim method.

Dr. Alter uses his immense knowledge to provide advanced labiaplasty revision techniques, reversing unwanted or botched results for countless patients. So, while it may seem that your botched result has no hope, it very well might with care from Dr. Alter, as he has the unique ability to create complex, advanced reconstructive results for a range of concerns.

Labiaplasty Revision Concerns & Techniques:

For asymmetrical results, such as a gap, deformed, or absent labia, Dr. Alter can use tissue from the clitoral hood or from one labium to reconstruct the other labium.

For an overly removed labium that results in a gap, Dr. Alter will cut out the gap and bring the edges together, suturing the edges accurately to avoid painful scarring.

For scalloped edges or painful scars, Dr. Alter removes rough edges and scar tissue and sutures the edges more accurately for a better healing experience.

To fix a minor deformity, Dr. Alter can inject fat via autologous fat transfer to correct the issue.

Even with the labia completely missing, Dr. Alter may be able to reconstruct them using advanced techniques.

What Are the Benefits of Labiaplasty Revision?

Labiaplasty carries more emotional and psychological weight than perhaps other procedures, as this intimate treatment area relates to sexual health, appearances, and self-confidence. Undergoing the initial procedure takes a certain amount of trust, and when patients end up with a botched result, that trust is broken and very hard to repair.

However, for patients who do their research on the ideal labiaplasty revision surgeon and choose to revise their results, they have the following benefits to look forward to:

Restored confidence
Improved self-image
More confidence in sexual encounters
Improved pain and discomfort

It’s important to invest in yourself to improve your mental and emotional well-being, and to choose the best surgeon who will be sensitive to your experience and has the knowledge, experience, and skills to provide the labiaplasty result you deserved the first time.