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How Long Should A Woman Expect To Recover From Labia Reduction Surgery? - Dr. Alinsod (VIDEO)

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How Long Should A Woman Expect To Recover From Labia Reduction Surgery?  - Dr. Alinsod (VIDEO)
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Dr. Alinsod discusses how long a woman can expect to recover following labia reduction surgery.

Dr. Alinsod:
Healing with a vaginal rejuvenation or a labiaplasty or any pelvic surgery takes approximately six to eight weeks to heal. That’s how long it takes for these tissues to come back together properly and be soft and pliable. Now whether I do a bigger pelvic reconstruction where I fix the bladder, the rectum, do a sling procedure, or whether I do a simple labiaplasty, it’s about six weeks of recovery.

Now that doesn’t mean you are going to be bedridden for six weeks. Someone who has a labiaplasty by itself, they will be able to walk out the office same day and be fairly comfortable. They will feel like they had an episiotomy, like they had a childbirth, and within a few days they are very comfortable. We give them pain medicine, topical creams for pain.

Those who have a vaginoplasty, that’s a more in-depth surgery. It takes six weeks and they are going to be uncomfortable for the first week and perhaps the first two weeks because of tissues that we have put back together and re-approximated back together deep inside their pelvis. So they do feel that they have rectal pressure, rectal pulling sensation which may last up to a month, and suddenly, and my patients tell me suddenly it’s gone.

After the six weeks, someone with a labiaplasty can go back to normal activities. They can do what they want. Someone with a vaginoplasty or pelvic reconstruction, they are going to need to do vaginal softening exercises for anywhere between two weeks and four more weeks. So the whole healing time with a vaginoplasty or pelvic reconstruction is closer to two months–total two months because of softening exercises.

A labia reduction surgery will take approximately six weeks to heal. So recovery time total is about six weeks. Now that doesn’t mean that the patient is bedridden or can’t do anything. They are actually able to function pretty normally that same day. The pain medicine that we give is quite well, quite good in giving control of pain; the local anesthetic sometimes lasts up to 24 hours.

So in that first 24-hour period of time, most patients are quite comfortable. So after six weeks they can do anything they want.

About Dr. Alinsod, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., A.C.G.E.:
Dr. Red Alinsod, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., A.C.G.E., graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, in 1986 and completed his OB/GYN residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center in 1990. His focus in those early years was pelvic surgery. He was the first Rutledge Fellow at MD Anderson Cancer and Tumor Institute and was also selected as a Galloway Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center.

Visit Dr. Alinsod at South Coast Urogynecology