How Soon After Childbirth Can I Have A Vaginoplasty?

This week’s Atlantic Coast Aesthetics Question of the Week comes from one of our followers on Twitter. The patient just had a baby and is interested in vaginoplasty, or reconstructive surgery of the vaginal area to increase tightness and correct damage to the vagina from childbirth and other issues. The question is, “How soon after childbirth can I have a vaginoplasty?” Dr. Thomas Pane, our Chief Medical Officer and founder, was interested to address this question because it is quite among mothers who want to regain a more youthful look and feel to their vaginal areas, with the added benefit of feeling more confident and sexy in their own skins.

Dr. Pane said that when it comes to vaginoplasty, there are a number of questions to consider. He typically does not consider vaginoplasty for a woman who wishes to continue having children. The reason for this is because every woman’s body and every birth is a little different, and performing vaginoplasty on a woman who is not done with childbearing means that the beneficial effects of the procedure may be negated completely during future childbirth, requiring further intervention to restore the area once again with a higher risk of complications and postoperative difficulties.

Another question is time elapsed since birth. Some surgeons will perform a vaginoplasty starting at three months postpartum. In Dr. Pane’s case, he prefers to wait a little longer, sometimes as much as six months after delivery, because this gives the best possible picture as to how the patient is recovering from the birth and whether the procedure will be of benefit in the first place. During childbirth, the muscles of the vagina stretch and expand to accommodate the baby’s passage through the birth canal. In many cases, this stretching is temporary and corrects itself as the swelling and trauma to the area heal, making vaginoplasty largely unnecessary. However, in some situations, especially where there is tearing of the vaginal entrance or other complications, the muscles may be damaged enough to require surgical intervention to counter the laxity of the area and help tighten up the vaginal walls.

Dr. Pane stresses that each patient is different, making it difficult or impossible to gauge how a given patient will react to vaginoplasty or any other procedure without an in-person clinical evaluation. This allows the surgeon to get a sense of the patient’s medical history, concerns and goals. It also facilitates examining the problem area at first hand, to understand what the current status is and determine what will be needed to correct it. In some cases, vaginoplasty may not be appropriate or another treatment option that is less invasive may be a more viable option.

Regardless, Dr. Pane says there’s no value added in jumping the gun on having a vaginoplasty. Especially when dealing with an area as prone to change as the vagina, which has to change somewhat during the course of the monthly menstrual cycle and more dramatically to prepare to permit the baby out of the mother’s body, rushing to perform such a procedure may actually create more problems than it solves. For the optimal results, it is best to wait until healing from childbirth has progressed far enough to properly evaluate whether an actual problem exists at all and determine how to proceed to fix it.

Everyone deserves to feel attractive and desirable. The vagina, as the epicenter of femininity and female sexuality, can be a very sensitive topic for many women, especially if they feel their vaginas are not sufficiently “sexy” on their own merits. It is important to seek out a surgeon who understands and can empathize with not only the existing condition, but how and why it matters. Vaginoplasty and similar procedures are primary focus areas for Dr. Pane, because he feels that when a person feels more attractive, confidence, feeling more beautiful and more likely believe in their own desirability inevitably follows.

Cosmetic surgery isn’t just for faces and tummies anymore. If you’d like to learn more about cosmetic procedures, we invite you to contact us on our Facebook or Twitter pages; email us at https://acplasticsurg.com; or call us at (561) 422-4116. There’s only one bad question, and that’s the one you don’t ask! Even better, your question may help others as ACA’s next Question of the Week, answered in person by Dr. Pane himself in a live Google Hangout. You deserve to be able to enjoy your body to the fullest, and ACA is committed to helping you do exactly that!