The Effect of Genital Aesthetic Surgery on Body Image Cathexis and Sexual Function in Women

The emotions that women generally feel about the appearance of their bodies cause them to turn to aesthetics surgery.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of genital aesthetic surgery on body image cathexis and sexual function in women.

This descriptive-prospective study was conducted between November 1, 2022, and July 30, 2023, with 50 women who applied to the gynecology service in a training and research hospital. Sociodemographic and descriptive characteristics questionnaire, body image cathexis scale, and female sexual function index were filled out before surgery. The patients whose contact information was obtained were called by phone 2 months after surgery and the body image cathexis scale and the female sexual function index were administered again. Frequency analysis, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were used to evaluate the data. Significance was accepted as p<0.05.

The average age of the women was 39.26±10.28 (22-68) and the mean body mass was 25.39±4.55 (17.6-39.8). The majority of women (44%) underwent perineoplasty. It was observed that the level of body cathexis after genital aesthetics surgery was significantly higher than the preoperative body cathexis, and the general level of sexual function, desire, arousal, orgasm, and satisfaction level increased significantly after surgery.

Female genital aesthetics surgery was found to improve body cathexis and increase sexual function in women. In order to reduce unnecessary female genital aesthetic surgery, education should be planned on this subject and public awareness about genital appearance should be increased.

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