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Health

Biggest study of vaginas shows there's no such thing as 'normal'

By Alice Klein

29 June 2018

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

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Vaginas come in all shapes and sizes, a study of hundreds of women has revealed. The findings should reassure women who are worried about whether they are “normal”.

Recent years have seen a surge in cosmetic surgeries in external female genitalia. Collectively called the vulva, these are often colloquially known as the vagina. In the UK, for example, the number of women undergoing labia reductions has increased fivefold in the last 10 years.

This has partly been driven by body image pressures and partly by lack of information about genital diversity, says Emma Barnard at the University of…

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