The first boy Vanessa had sex with mocked the way her genitals looked. He went on to tell his friends, and Vanessa was bullied on a school bus. She was 13.
"It was very scarring for me," Vanessa*, now 29, told The Feed. "If you're vulnerable enough to show someone a part of your body that no one else gets to see, and they turn that against you, it's a horrible feeling." The experience had a profound impact on her confidence and self-perception.
This insecurity followed her through subsequent high school years and into adulthood, seeping into every relationship she had, even though no other partner commented on her appearance. She shied away from sex, avoided opening her legs, and wouldn't let her partner perform oral sex. "In my head, they were thinking it was disgusting," she said.
"I realised that no amount of self-love or reassurance from my partner at the time — my now husband — could make me comfortable with it." Two years ago, Vanessa underwent a labiaplasty — a procedure to reduce the size of the inner lips of the vulva, costing her $8,000. She said it was the best decision she ever made.
"I no longer think about how much I hate my body every day. I finally look in the mirror and love the way I look, and feel sexy," she said. Source: Getty / Pramote Polyamate "I'm more open with my husband while we are being intimate, no longer wanting to have sex in the dark or keep my clothes on.
" Recent studies indicate Vanessa's experience is shared by an increasing number of.
