Labia Play

Labia Play

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Anna Medaris Miller
Anna Medaris Miller is a writer and editor in New York City who has years of experience reporting and writing on various health topics.

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Long or short, plump or thin, dark or pale, wrinkly or smooth—no two labia look exactly the same, says Stephanie Romero, M.D., an ob-gyn at USF Health in Tampa, Florida.
In case you're not familiar with the anatomical terms, the inner and outer folds of your vulva are called the labia majora and labia minora. The majora are the outer lips (the ones that grow hair) while the minora are the inner lips, which connect to the clitoral hood. The majora typically at least partially envelop the labia minora.
Unfortunately, as more women are shaving and waxing their pubic hair, they’re also becoming increasingly concerned about whether their labia are normal, explains Lauren Streicher, M.D., an ob-gyn in Chicago and the medical director of the Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“It used to be that nobody could see their labia and they never paid any attention [to it], and now everyone is looking and inspecting,” she says. “And of course, everyone thinks their labia isn’t as pretty as someone else’s labia.”
Meanwhile, labiaplasties—plastic surgery to alter the labia minora and/or majora—are on the rise, reports the American Society of Plastic Surgeons . Currently, more than 12,000 procedures are performed by ASPS members per year, a 39 percent increase from previous years.
But before rushing to alter your lady parts, understand that almost all shapes, sizes, textures, and colors of labia are normal and healthy. To prove our point, we talked to top gynos—and got creative in the drawing room—to share explanations and illustrations of what "normal" labia look like. And guess what? Yours is undoubtedly on the list.
If your tour de vaginas is limited to textbooks and porn, this type —in which the labia majora, or the outer lips, neatly envelope the labia minora, clitoris , and vaginal opening—is likely what you assume all normal labia look like. (Yes, it kind of resembles a fortune cookie.) And when most women seek out labiaplasties, this is the look they are going for, says Karen Horton, M.D., a plastic surgeon in San Francisco who specializes in female cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, including labiaplasty.
But while this type is common, it’s certainly not universal—or even universally desired, Horton says. “Not everyone wants Barbie's [smooth area],” she says.
Watch an OB-GYN explain whether sex can stretch out your vagina:
Just like some women sport thicker middles and others carry more junk in the trunk, some women’s outer lips pack extra padding. “One of the complaints I get is, ‘It’s too poofy,’” Horton says, which can make some women self-conscious about bulges in, say, yoga pants. She notes that labia majora reduction surgeries are actually a thing.
But, there are other solutions: Camelflage , for example, is brand of undies with special sewn-in liners that fight the dreaded camel toe .
Some women’s labia majora are naturally thinner, and many women’s labia majora become thinner post-menopause due to hormonal changes, experts say. But while Horton says some ladies complain about looking deflated—in Asia, there’s even a trend toward surgeries that plump them up your lady lips—there’s no harm in having less meat there, experts say.
“If someone were to have no labia, would they have medical problems as a result of it? No. would they have painful sex as a result of it? No. Would they be dysfunctional? No.” Streicher says.
Sometimes, the labia minora aren’t so, well, minor, and one or both protrude beyond the labia majora. While this shape is normal, it tends to be the one that bothers women most. “Sometimes their labia gets caught, like when they’re trying to have sex and it kind of gets folded up. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, like when they’re riding a bike,” Streicher says. “Sometimes, when [they pee,] instead of it coming straight out, it sprays all over the place.”
These kinds of issues can lead some women to seek labiaplasties , which are relatively minor surgeries, but not without risk, Streicher says. Bleeding, scarring, and uncomfortable intercourse can, in rare cases, result.
“If you look at a head-on picture of the labia, what you typically see is that the labia start at the top and then extend all the way down to the bottom of the vaginal opening—well not everybody has that,” Streicher says.
“In some women, it only comes down three-quarters of the way or even halfway every once in a while.” Again, there’s no functional reason to worry about it.
If you consider that the labia majora are basically an extension of the inner thighs and buttocks, it's kind of surprising that they're a totally different color than the rest of your skin. “Some people can be gray, some can be pink,” Romero says.
The color can also change, typically veering toward a darker shade, after pregnancy , thanks to hormones, Streicher adds. Your labia minora can be dramatically darker than the rest of your lady parts too. That too, she says, is “totally normal.” Phew.

*First Published: Jul 24, 2015, 10:05 pm CDT
More stories to check out before you go

Posted on Jul 24, 2015 Updated on May 28, 2021, 7:13 am CDT
Following rigorous competition and more than 130,000 voters, the World’s Most Beautiful Vagina Contest anointed a champion this week. It was a strange, difficult-to-gauge event—but that’s why organizers turned to scientists to tell us what it all means.
U.K. resident Nell, 27, won first place and $5,000 in the pageant with a vulva beauty ranking of 7.7 out of 10. Jenny, 23, of Bavaria, Germany, took second place with a 7.3; and Anita, 20, from Hungary, came in third. They each earned $2,500 and $1,250, respectively.
The contest was sponsored by Brian Sloan, who is also the manufacturer of the Autoblow 2 . It’s known as “the first truly realistic alternative to traditional pleasure products for men,” according to the its website .
These winners will also be flown out to Los Angeles, where their vulvas will be 3D-scanned to later be reproduced for the Autoblow device.
Sloan contracted a group of data scientists to analyze the contest’s findings for their scientific implications. The data was then compiled in “ The Vulva Paper .”
If you’re a visual learner, you can view photo examples of each class here .
The Vulva Paper’s website says scientists “used the contest data to assess the diversity in vulval morphology and voters’ preference for different morphologies.” A total of 182 women participated in the contest; 110 entries were examined for the study (if measurements could not be taken from the photo, the entry was not considered).
The scientists viewed each entry on a 15-inch computer screen, zooming in “until the genitalia were easily measured using a screen ruler,” read the paper .
They measured labia majora length, labia minora length, and clitoral hood length.
Finally, the scientists rated the complexity of the labia minora; they used the three categories of rugosity (smooth, moderate, marked) to do so. To prevent vaginal bias, the same person also conducted all of these measurements. The scientists later used this research to classify the contest’s entries into six different categories of “vulval morphology.”
A chart detailing the six classes is included below:
As far as methodology is concerned, a random assortment of entries was sent to each voter, who was then asked to rate the vulva pictured on a scale from 1 to 10. These voters were only able to rank one photo at a time, but could also vote on an unlimited number of entries. The scientists compiled 2,766,671 ratings from 134,707 contest voters.
“To reduce individual biases, we centered each voter’s ratings using their mean and standard deviation. This allowed us to reflect the preferences of voters on the same scale,” read the study .
According to the paper , each voter rated 21 photos, on average. Each vulva also received 15,285 votes, on average.
The study also found that “roughly 51% of voters preferred the first two classes of non-protruding, simple labia. The other 49% favored the four more complex vulva classes.”
“As expected from the rankings that we saw at the country and local levels, Class 1 vulvas are preferred over the others more often. But the combined percentages of voters who preferred more complex classes of vulvas far outweighed those who preferred the simplest style.”
The winners’ photos, however, were not included in the study—having been among the participants whose photos were not able to be considered. Moreover, the “doggy style” posture featured in these entries made it difficult for the scientists to complete the necessary measurements.
“Indeed, pictures depicting contest entrants in a doggy style position obtained ratings 2 points higher on average (p <0.001) than others. Other features, like piercings in the clitoral hood, didn’t affect the ratings,” read the study .
So basically, the “doggy style” photos generated “influential excitement” among the contest’s voters—an important competitive advantage for all future entrants to consider.
Photo via mislav-marohnic /Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
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*First Published: Jul 24, 2015, 10:05 pm CDT
More stories to check out before you go

Posted on Jul 24, 2015 Updated on May 28, 2021, 7:13 am CDT
Following rigorous competition and more than 130,000 voters, the World’s Most Beautiful Vagina Contest anointed a champion this week. It was a strange, difficult-to-gauge event—but that’s why organizers turned to scientists to tell us what it all means.
U.K. resident Nell, 27, won first place and $5,000 in the pageant with a vulva beauty ranking of 7.7 out of 10. Jenny, 23, of Bavaria, Germany, took second place with a 7.3; and Anita, 20, from Hungary, came in third. They each earned $2,500 and $1,250, respectively.
The contest was sponsored by Brian Sloan, who is also the manufacturer of the Autoblow 2 . It’s known as “the first truly realistic alternative to traditional pleasure products for men,” according to the its website .
These winners will also be flown out to Los Angeles, where their vulvas will be 3D-scanned to later be reproduced for the Autoblow device.
Sloan contracted a group of data scientists to analyze the contest’s findings for their scientific implications. The data was then compiled in “ The Vulva Paper .”
If you’re a visual learner, you can view photo examples of each class here .
The Vulva Paper’s website says scientists “used the contest data to assess the diversity in vulval morphology and voters’ preference for different morphologies.” A total of 182 women participated in the contest; 110 entries were examined for the study (if measurements could not be taken from the photo, the entry was not considered).
The scientists viewed each entry on a 15-inch computer screen, zooming in “until the genitalia were easily measured using a screen ruler,” read the paper .
They measured labia majora length, labia minora length, and clitoral hood length.
Finally, the scientists rated the complexity of the labia minora; they used the three categories of rugosity (smooth, moderate, marked) to do so. To prevent vaginal bias, the same person also conducted all of these measurements. The scientists later used this research to classify the contest’s entries into six different categories of “vulval morphology.”
A chart detailing the six classes is included below:
As far as methodology is concerned, a random assortment of entries was sent to each voter, who was then asked to rate the vulva pictured on a scale from 1 to 10. These voters were only able to rank one photo at a time, but could also vote on an unlimited number of entries. The scientists compiled 2,766,671 ratings from 134,707 contest voters.
“To reduce individual biases, we centered each voter’s ratings using their mean and standard deviation. This allowed us to reflect the preferences of voters on the same scale,” read the study .
According to the paper , each voter rated 21 photos, on average. Each vulva also received 15,285 votes, on average.
The study also found that “roughly 51% of voters preferred the first two classes of non-protruding, simple labia. The other 49% favored the four more complex vulva classes.”
“As expected from the rankings that we saw at the country and local levels, Class 1 vulvas are preferred over the others more often. But the combined percentages of voters who preferred more complex classes of vulvas far outweighed those who preferred the simplest style.”
The winners’ photos, however, were not included in the study—having been among the participants whose photos were not able to be considered. Moreover, the “doggy style” posture featured in these entries made it difficult for the scientists to complete the necessary measurements.
“Indeed, pictures depicting contest entrants in a doggy style position obtained ratings 2 points higher on average (p <0.001) than others. Other features, like piercings in the clitoral hood, didn’t affect the ratings,” read the study .
So basically, the “doggy style” photos generated “influential excitement” among the contest’s voters—an important competitive advantage for all future entrants to consider.
Photo via mislav-marohnic /Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
‘What am I gonna do with all this beef stroganoff? It’s not even different flavors’: Instacart shopper delivers TikToker 34 boxes of beef stroganoff
‘I’m going to buy their meal and take it’: Guy at Steak ‘n Shake drive-thru gets revenge on rude customer behind him, buys their order and takes it with him
‘They better pay for the WHOLE TIME’: Chipotle manager stays at restaurant all night waiting for locksmith who never showed up after the store couldn’t lock
‘Why do y’all trip on medical bills bro?’: Man says credit score went up 40 points after he blocked hospital’s phone number, ignored medical bills for 6 years

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