Kim Kardashian visits the SKIMS SWIM Miami pop-up shop on Saturday, March 19, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by J. Lee/Getty Images for ABA)
The number of women seeking so-called "designed vagina" surgery has allegedly doubled in recent years due to the rise of extra-tight leggings, a plastic surgeon says.
The surgery, known as a labiaplasty, shrinks the size of the labia minora and the labia major, the folds of skin surrounding the human vulva.
Dr. John Skevofilax, a plastic surgeon at the Juvenis Clinic in the United Kingdom told the Daily Mail that he had performed around 50 of the procedures in 2021, but due to increased demand had already surpassed that number in the first half of 2022.
Skevofilax claimed that women were getting the surgery in order to be more comfortable wearing tight clothing like leggings.
RELATED: Popularity of plastic surgery surges during pandemic
"Exercise clothing is a little bit tighter and it's formfitting so it does put pressure on the area," he said. "They experience pain, discomfort in general, chaffing… a lot of women will feel so uncomfortable that they avoid trying to wear this type of clothing."
According to Dr. Skevofilax, a shocking 80% of the women seeking the procedure were doing so due to clothing discomfort rather than for aesthetic reasons.
Leggings are a key part of the athleisure fashion trend, which saw major increases in popularity during the late 2010s and again during the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
Labiaplasty is a controversial subject, with critics arguing that a woman's who chooses to undergo the procedure has been influenced by commercials or pornography.
However, Dr. Skevofilax said that claims that women were asking for the surgery due to the influence of pornography are "dangerous and misleading" as it shamed women for seeking help with pain relief.
"Women should be able to wear whatever they want to wear," he said. "If they choose tight clothing, for instance, yoga pants because they are following a specific fashion trend or just because it’s simply more fitting for this type of exercise, they should be able to do so without anxiety and ‘a bite of the lip’ of what’s to come."