Welcome to OBGYN Champs, the show where no question is off limits. Join host Morgan Allen and board-certified OB/GYN Dr. Suny Caminero, MD, as they tackle the topics women are often too embarrassed, afraid, or unsure to ask about. From hormones, menopause, and sexual wellness to pregnancy, pelvic health, cosmetic gynecology, and everything in between, each episode delivers honest conversations, expert advice, and practical insights to help women take control of their health with confidence.
Whether you’re in your 20s, navigating motherhood, approaching menopause, or simply looking for trustworthy answers, OBGYN Champs is your place for real talk, myth-busting, and empowering education. Tune in, ask your questions, and join the conversation because your health deserves to be talked about.
Dr. Suny Caminero, MD, OB/GYN
Founder of Cosmetic Gynecology Florida
Website Address: https://cosmeticgynecologyfl.com/
Morgan Allen: What are some of the reasons a woman would want to get labioplasty?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Lots of reasons. The first reason is that it’s bothering her. Let’s say she’s an athlete, she’s going to the gym, she’s exercising, she’s going bicycling, and it’s always in the way. Or she isn’t wearing underwear at home, and she has to wear it because when she walks, it rubs, and she has to tuck it in.
Morgan Allen:
Let’s clarify what “it” is. So you’re saying “it” is the labia itself? That center part that comes down?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
The center part of what we call the vulva, which is the whole structure. The labia minora are the inner parts, and the labia majora are the outer parts, like the fat pads.
So when people talk about labioplasty, they’re typically talking about labia minora, which is the middle part. But labioplasty can also include the labia majora. Right. Which is the fat pads on the sides.
Morgan Allen:
It’s hard when some women don’t experience this; it’s hard to wrap your head around.
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Yes. If you’re not having a problem, you have no clue what people are talking about. You think, “My labia is fine. I don’t know why anybody would do anything to your labia,” but if you’re having the problem, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
It really is having to tuck it in and change what you wear. Sometimes women don’t go to the beach, or they have to wear a certain type of underwear so it doesn’t stick out. It makes them self-conscious because it sticks out. For other people, rubbing from exercise can cause irritation and sometimes increase the risk of a yeast infection.
It’s just bothersome. Particularly when it comes in, of course, the friction of coming in and out can also irritate them significantly. That can affect intercourse. One of the saddest things that I see, actually, not on a regular basis, is women not wanting to have sex because they don’t like the way that it looks, the way that it sticks out, and the way that it bothers them.
And so they sometimes either stop dating or they start having sex with the lights off with their long-time partner. They don’t allow their partner to do oral sex either because they’re so self-conscious about it. They’re really missing out on natural human sexual response because they’re not even engaging.
What is a normal vulva supposed to look like?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
All of the labia are normal. They’re kind of like breasts. We all have different-sized breasts. One breast is bigger than the other. Sometimes both are really big; sometimes they’re really small. But they’re all normal.
The same goes for the labia and the vulva. If it’s too long, it can bother you. If it hangs too much, it can bother you if it rubs. We have to pay attention to the aesthetic part of it, right?
A lot of people think they should only get it fixed if it bothers them. We also pay attention to whether you don’t like how it looks; that will definitely affect your intimacy. So if you don’t like the way that it looks, you can also fix that.
It’s like how we wear makeup or cut our hair. If we don’t like how something looks, we fix it, right? Because it affects our self-esteem.
How common is it for one side of the labia minora to be longer than the other?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Very common. 90% of the time, one side is longer than the other. I call them sisters, not twins.
Morgan Allen:
So it’s the same for boobs. Sisters, not twins.
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Exactly.
Can a labioplasty affect sensation?
Morgan Allen:
I don’t want my nerves to get messed up. I want that pleasure source to be there and be ready.
Dr. Suny Caminero:
That is the biggest concern. If the labioplasty i is done correctly, you shouldn’t have any decrease in sensation. The person doing labioplasty has to know what they’re doing and where the nerves are. They have to know where the vascular structures are to really decrease that risk.
What I hear most from the labioplasties I perform, I can’t talk about other labia places, is that, as women say, they feel more. It’s not that they feel more because I’ve done anything to improve their sensation. It’s because there’s so much more confidence now than they used to have that they’re literally having more intercourse, or they’re more free to go out and go to the beach and wear whatever bathing suit they want to wear and wear whatever pants they want to wear. And so they feel more confident. I think that’s why they say they feel more sensation.
A caveat is that if there’s so much labia that it’s covering, reducing it gives you a little more exposure. And because of that, you can definitely feel more. Whether you have less sensation depends on the surgery itself and whether the nerves are involved. Sometimes, some nerves do have to be cut during labiaplasty because you’re essentially removing that tissue. What you’re cutting are the nerve endings in those two, which can regenerate over time. You’re not cutting the nerve root, so it doesn’t take away sensation.
Do you have to go under anesthesia for a labioplasty?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
You do not, actually. Every surgeon is different, but you can do it under local anesthesia. For those women who are very nervous, you can always give them medication to help them sleep or help them relax. You can do that, but they don’t have to be under general anesthesia. You do not have to be intubated or anything like that for a labioplasty.
Morgan Allen:
Do you typically put people under?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
I do put people under for other services, like if I’m fixing a bladder or rectal prolapse. Or obviously, if I’m doing a hysterectomy or ovarian cystectomy. For those robotic surgeries, they do have to be under general anesthesia. That won’t be done in an office. That would be done in a hospital.
Morgan Allen:
And you go into the hospital to do them?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Yeah, I do that.
You call your procedure the “Signature Designer Labioplasty.” What makes your approach so different?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
The difference is that I have to make sure that the whole thing looks aesthetic. If I were to just fix the labia minora, for example, and leave the skin of the clitoris or the skin of the space between the anus and the vagina, then it just looks uneven. Now you have the reduced labia, but it just doesn’t look right. And many women who have labioplasty sometimes aren’t happy with the result.
It’s because it wasn’t harmonious. So the reason why I call it that is that if I’m going to do a labioplasty, then I’m going to make sure that the whole thing is going to look good, not just that one portion. And the perfect example is that it’s not just the excess skin of the clitoris, but some women come in, and many women have hemorrhoids. The last thing I want is to make the vagina look so pretty, and then there’s this ugly flower once we’re done.
Often, when you do a labioplasty and you don’t reduce the excess skin that’s on the clitoris itself, or sometimes you have to move the clitoris back, then it looks like you have a little micro penis, which we’ve talked about before.
Morgan Allen:
So you can’t just remove the labia. You have to make sure that the whole thing has an aesthetic look, because that’s what you want, right?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Exactly. Perfect.
Should every labioplasty result look different based on the woman’s individual anatomy?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Yes, yes. Every anatomy is different, so every result will be different. For example, I usually ask my patients, “Here’s a book of before-and-afters, which one do you kind of like?” Because every woman likes different results, right? Some women like a little more labia. Some women like a little less labia.
It’s good for me to know what look you like. Then I can tell you whether we can match that look or get close to it, depending on your anatomy.
Morgan Allen:
So there are some husbands, and they’re putting in their two cents in there?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
What’s interesting is no, not really. It’s not going to be crazy. They’re so supportive. Often they tell their partner, “Hey, you don’t have to do anything, but do it if it’s going to make you feel better.”
I recently had a patient who has a very supportive husband, and she’s so happy with her results. She’s walking around naked all over the place, and he’s like, “It’s time to put her away now.” She just wants to be naked. I love that so much.
Can a surgeon remove a little too much tissue? If so, what problems can that cause?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
If too much tissue is removed, it can look like a scar. It can look like an indented scar, and it doesn’t look good at all. And women can have even more issues with self-esteem because now it looks like a topline.
It is better to remove less tissue and go back for a second revision than to remove too much, because when you remove too much, it’s very, very difficult to fix.
Morgan Allen:
And then do you perform revision procedures? What does that look like?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Often my revisions are because somebody had a labioplasty done and they didn’t address the clitoris, so the micro penis phenomenon type. Sometimes a revision is because they took too much and now have to bring tissue from other areas to rebuild that tissue. Sometimes it’s because there was a complication from the surgery and there is blood flow that was lacking to the particular area—now women have a hole in that spot.
So many, many different revisions, unfortunately.
What does recovery look like from this kind of surgery?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Recovery isn’t bad, but it’s more than people think because it’s not just skin. It’s really cutting and defining the area. It takes about two weeks of resting to recover.
You certainly cannot have sex the first three days. You just have to really take care of it and be at home. You really can’t go out or anything like that because we don’t want any suture separation.
We don’t want any infections. When it comes to intercourse, typically 6 to 8 weeks to resume. And of course, if you can imagine, if you just fix the labia, now this friction can really affect the labia. As for exercise, any lower-body exercise would have to wait at least four weeks, sometimes eight, depending on how fast they recover.
How do you pee? How do you pull it in?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
Just a normal way. You sit down and pee. You sit down to nothing, and then bacteria. We have strict post-surgery instructions to make sure you don’t get infected.
But you’re absolutely right. The rectum is right there, so it’s very close to the area of surgery. And again, that’s one of the things: it can get infected. So we have to make sure that you are doing it, cleaning it twice a day, and that whenever you have a bowel movement, you’re washing it with soap and water.
And then we also give you Betadine, different things to help you keep it even more clean. But yeah, you can pee and poop the normal way.
How soon can patients return to work?
Dr. Suny Caminero:
If they work sitting down, they can typically return to work in a week. If they work very actively, like a nurse in a hospital, then they have to wait two weeks.
I wanted to mention that the labia change over time. Some women are born with long labia, and there are 17, 18 in their athletes. And they—they have it removed at 19 or 20 because it’s affecting their exercise and their activities and even their sports. And then for other women, after you have babies, the tissue just becomes so lax that it starts to get longer. So many women will say, “I didn’t have this before,” and now the labia are sticking out.
As we get older, in our 40s and 50s, we lose some of the fat pad on the labia majora, and when we lose it, that tissue deflates, making it seem like the middle part is sticking out more because the sides are deflated.
We lose fat, okay? We lose fat in the wrong places and gain it in the wrong places. We’re getting fat here. We lose fat down there tonight. You know how we lose the cheek fat too, and then it starts to sag?
That’s kind of like the moderate. You lose the fat there, and then it makes it look like the labia minora is just more exposed.
