Nips & Tucks

Designer vaginas and perfect penises are just a few cuts away and a couple thousand dollars away

Antiques and art. Designer fashions and French food. Hip hair salons and expensive automobile dealers. Yorkville, Toronto's upscale shopping neighbourhood, is a smorgasbord of luxury, luring money from wallets with enticing window displays. But there's no chic window displays bringing clients to the busy second-floor office of Dr. Robert Stubbs. His clients aren't looking for expensive furs or bespoke suits. They want designer vaginas and perfect penises.

Dr. Stubbs, a plastic surgeon, is one of Canada's only doctors offering genital cosmetic surgery. He can make men longer and thicker and women smaller and tighter. Take the stairs to his office in the morning and, for a price, you can leave in the afternoon through the private elevator to the underground garage with a new penis or vagina.

Women: Gravity, childbirth, hormones, and popular perception all conspire to make women feel less comfortable with the shape and size of their bodies; vagina's included. Dr. Stubbs has helped several women take revenge on the forces of nature and society by giving them the vaginas they once had or always wanted.

Penis Lengthening/Phalloplasty (about $4,500): How much bigger can he make a man? Out of three hundred patients Dr. Stubbs documented in a study, he was able to make men's penises longer by between 0.5 cm and 6 cm with most men experiencing about 3.2 cm increase in length. Luckily, the smaller the penis the greater the potential increase but the success rate varies. One poor fellow actually lost a centimetre in the procedure.

The surgery is relatively simple procedure performed in Dr. Stubbs clinic. Under local freezing and a mild sedative, Dr. Stubbs makes a cut where the penis connects to the pubic area to release it from its moorings. No, the penis won't fall off. It just comes out a bit further, like a turtle sticking its head out of its shell. He uses extra skin from the penis and pubic area to close up the gap.

Voila,the surgery is now done and it's time to go home. For the best results Dr. Stubbs attaches lead weights to the newly lengthened penis to make keep it from retracting while it heals. It'll take a few weeks before patients can impress people with their new size. The penis and scrotum are usually swollen and bruised for two to three weeks and it is recommended the patient refrain from sexual activity for at least three or four weeks. While impotence following the procedure is rare, most men don't cut quite the same angle after the procedure; the erection lowers by a few degrees. Other possible risks, as listed in the consent form all patients must sign, include reduction or loss of sensation, scarring, and death (although no one's died on Dr. Stubb's table).

Penis Thickening (about $3,600): Women will confide, if you ask them frankly, that it's not the length that matters but the width. Men who understand this and feel they don't quite measure up can get a greater girth from Dr. Stubbs. He says he can widen men by up to 60 percent.

Two techniques are available: fat injection and fat grafting. The first is simpler but less reliable, the second is more complicated but usually has better results.

Fat injection is reverse liposuction. Following local freezing, fat is taken from one area of the body and injected into the penis to thicken it. The technique works best if done in stages so at least two treatments are recommended. Patients can return to light work the next day but must wait three to four weeks before resuming sexual activity.

Fat grafting is more serious surgery. Slabs of fat and skin are taken from one area and used to thicken the penis. The procedure is done in Dr. Stubbs' clinic and patients can return home the same day but must stay home from work for seven to 10 days and refrain from sex for about six weeks. Lead weights attached to the healing penis help the grafts take root.

Both procedures, like all surgery, carry risks. Loss of sensation and penis function are possibilities but rarely occur.

Some women were born with large lips, others develop them after child birth or after years of sexual activity. Dr. Stubbs suspects accommodating gynecologists have been trimming women's lips for years but he's the only person advertising the procedure in Canada and women come from all over the world for what has become known as the "Toronto Trim." Dr. Stubbs says he's only performed 30 or so labiaplasties but business is increasing.

It's a simple operation performed in Dr. Stubbs office. After local freezing and a sedative, the doctor simply trims the extra tissue. Patients can go home after three hours in the recovery room but must wait about six weeks before puckering their new lips. As with any surgery, there can be complications. There can be a loss of feeling and scarring but problems are rare.

Vaginal Tightening (about $2,500): When Dr. Stubbs was a young internist training under a gynecologist in the early '70s, he was taught to add an extra stitch "for the husband" when closing up episiotomies after childbirth. He uses that same technique to make a women's vaginal opening smaller for cosmetic purposes. While the technique doesn't really improve sex for the woman, it can improve a man's sensation and a woman's satisfaction with her appearance, he says.

The operation takes place in Dr. Stubbs office under local freezing and a sedative. He works on the lower vagina, well away from the clitoris, cutting as with an episiotomy and then sewing up with the "extra stitch." Patients can go home a few hours after the surgery and recovery time is about six weeks, during which patients must refrain from sex. As with all surgery, there are risks of a loss of sensitivity and scarring but problems are rare.

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