By Isabelle Loynes and Anna Hodgekiss. A teenager has spoken of her 'total shock' at being told at the age of 17 she had no vagina. Jacqui Beck, 19, has MRKH, an rare syndrome which affects the reproductive system - meaning she has no womb, cervix or vaginal opening. She was only diagnosed after she went to her GP about back pain - and mentioned in passing that she hadn't started her periods. Shock: Jacqui Beck was told at the age of 17 she had no vagina. She was diagnosed with MRKH, an unusual syndrome which affects the reproductive system - meaning she has no womb, cervix or vaginal opening. Tests revealed her condition and that where her vagina should be, there is simply an ident, or 'dimple' - meaning she is unable to have sex or carry her own child. Miss Beck, from the Isle of Wight, admits when she was first diagnosed, she felt 'like a freak'. All the things I had imagined doing suddenly got erased from my future.
News latest
Special offers and product promotions
Girls as young as nine are seeking surgery on their genitals because they are distressed by its appearance, the Victoria Derbyshire show has been told. Dr Naomi Crouch, a leading adolescent gynaecologist, said she was concerned GPs were referring rising numbers of young girls who wanted an operation. Labiaplasty, as the surgery is known, involves the lips of the vagina being shortened or reshaped.
Categories
Please refresh the page and retry. She said: "Girls will sometimes come out with comments like, 'I just hate it, I just want it removed,' and for a girl to feel that way about any part of her body - especially a part that's intimate - is very upsetting. S he said she is yet to see a young girl who needs the operation. Paquita de Zulueta, a GP for more than 30 years, told the BBC that it is only in the past few years young women have been coming to her with concerns about the shape of their privates. She said: "I'm seeing young girls around 11, 12, 13 thinking there's something wrong with their vulva - that they're the wrong shape, the wrong size, and really expressing almost disgust. Unbelievable that any doctor would perform this surgery on a young girl! What a shame that young girls feel this way about their bodies.
Girls as young as 11 are seeking surgery on their vagina to make it look 'like a Barbie', a GP claims. Young girls are expressing disgust at their genitalia, believing it to be the wrong shape or size, which Dr Paquita de Zuluet believes is driven by pornography and social media. She even claims girls exaggerate the physical or emotional distress their vaginas are causing them in order to make themselves eligible for surgery. The procedure is illegal to conduct on girls under 18 unless they have a medical reasons, such as their genitalia causing them emotional or physical distress. Yet, a cosmetic surgeon defended the procedure in adults, arguing it can boost women's self-esteem and confidence. In more than girls under 18 had the operation, known as a labiaplasty, on the NHS.
