The ever-growing desire for a ‘designer vagina’ has soared by almost 50 per cent over the course of a year, new figures show,
Industry figures reveal a 45 per cent jump in the number of labiaplasties – which involves trimming back the inner lips, like ‘Barbie’ – across the world.
Leading names in the plastic surgery field have said the vaginal surgery, one of the most sought-after, is officially the ‘fastest growing procedure’.
Dr Renato Saltz, president of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), told AFP that ‘vaginal rejuvenation is the new trend’.
IMCAS figures also show spending on cosmetic surgery has jumped by eight per cent in a year, now totalling £7.5 billion ($10.7bn).
A form of cosmetic vaginal surgery, called labiaplasty, was one of the most sought-after procedures because of the desire for a ‘Barbie vagina’, statistics revealed
Spending on equipment and products used for nips, tucks and lifts is only expected to increase by another nine per cent next year.
On the back of the IMCAS figures, Dr Saltz added the ‘fastest growing procedure’ was the labiaplasty, which 100,000 people underwent in 2015.
Porn has repeatedly been blamed for the thousands of women going under the knife for a labiaplasty, which has soared in recent years.
Dr Saltz added: ‘The demand for cosmetic procedures is stronger than ever.’
IMCAS, short for the International Master Course on Aging Science, released its statistics at its own beauty industry conference in Paris yesterday.
Sales of equipment such as lasers for hair removal, ‘pharmaceutical compounds and ‘active’ cosmetics were monitored and added up.
Purchases of fat-sucking devices, muscle-freezing toxins such as Botox, wrinkle ‘fillers’ and breast implants were some of the other items tracked.
The figure spent during 2016 is the equivalent of the total annual exports of Costa Rica, the world’s 75th biggest economy.
And Asia is the fastest-growing market, and is expected to overtake Europe for the first time in 2018 in terms of cosmetic spending.
IMCAS said the market should reach £8.2 billion ($11.6bn) next year, and is likely to more than double in the seven-year period from 2014 to 2021.
A similar rise in spending has been seen for clients, according to separate figures from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS).
More than $15 billion (£10.6bn) was spent on beauty procedures by customers in 2016 – an 11 per cent jump on the year before.
Daniel Mills, president of the ASAPS, credited a healthier economy and pioneering technology for the boom in cosmetic surgery.
And he added ‘a desire on the part of baby-boomers and their offspring to remain competitive in a youth-centric workforce’ may also be to blame.
ISAPS statistics, released last year, reveal that 23.6 million face or body-boosting procedures were performed in 2016.
Of these, 10.4 million required clients going under the knife, the rest were injections or non-invasive treatments, those figures showed.
The top five countries – the US, Brazil, Japan, Italy, and Mexico – accounted for 41.4 per cent of the world’s cosmetic procedures.
Breast augmentation remained the most popular procedure in 2016, accounting for 15.8 per cent of all beauty operations.
It was followed by liposuction with 14 per cent, eyelid surgery with 12.9 per cent, and nose jobs with 7.6 per cent.
Penis enlargement was reportedly the least popular cosmetic procedure in 2016, and the category with the biggest drop – 28 per cent.