Woman who had ‘designer vagina’ surgery after her boyfriend’s cruel comments about her appearance reveals her surgery hell and ‘indescribable pain’

A woman who has been left with permanent medical problems following botched ‘designer vagina’ surgery says the operation has made it painful for her to have sex and means she may never have children.

Venesa Vaughn, from Melbourne, described her hellish experience, revealing that a marriage break-up and cruel comments from an ex-partner made her believe she needed a labiaplasty.

However, the operation was so poorly performed that it has left Ms Vaughn with frequent urinary tract infections and intense pain when she inserts a tampon. 

The bungled labiaplasty, which is cosmetic surgery to change the appearance of the vagina, amputated her entire labia minora and removed her clitoral hood. 

Mr Vaughn said in 2020 she discovered her then-husband had been cheating on her and that led to deep sense of insecurity about her appearance. 

‘In my brain I thought there was something wrong with me on a physical level,’ she said.

‘The thing I thought of was ‘I don’t look right down there’.’

‘It had been bothering me for a little while… a long time… as an ex-boyfriend of mine over 20-odd years ago said it was the worst vagina he’d ever seen.’

Ms Vaughn, who lists her occupation as childhood trauma/mental health coach, said she ‘wasn’t really working’ at the time she sought labiaplasty surgery and so money was a factor.

‘So, all the surgeons I looked at were charging between $6,000 to $8,000, this particular doctor I’d found was charging $3,500-odd,’ she said.

‘His website was like ‘labiaplasty specialist’, he’s the best, he’s this, he’s that and you know he actually spoke to me on the phone and I thought “wow, what great customer service”.’

Ms Vaughn said there were a number of red flags from the start. 

He told her the operation would be performed in a hospital but instead it occurred at his clinic in a ‘3x3metre room’ where Ms Vaughn said people walked in and out while she was having the procedure done.

‘It was so unprofessional, ‘ she said. 

The surgeon promised the operation would entirely be done with lasers and require no stitching but she was disconcerted to see a fan sitting above the surgery bed. 

This was ‘so the smell of your (lasered) skin burning goes up into the fan’, according to Ms Vaughn who was strapped into the bed with her legs in the air as a nurse applied numbing cream.

‘I don’t feel pain but I feel tugging. He proceeds to cut the skin off and I can hear sizzling.

‘So my legs in the air, he proceeds to take my skin off and then he says “oh I’ve got to go back to the left side and take more off because it’s a bit longer”.’

At one stage the doctor left the room for about half an hour prompting Ms Vaughn to ask one of the nurses to fetch him. 

‘Then he takes off the clamps and starts to stitch me up and I can see his nervousness,’ she continued.

‘Every part of my body was screaming at me and there was nothing I could do. At this point, I’m thinking: Why is he stitching me up – he said there were no stitches involved.’

‘Then he starts stitching on the left side and I screamed and almost jumped off the bed, I said ‘I can feel that, so the numbing had subsided’.’ 

Vaughn said she was left in pain too severe for words.

‘I can’t describe the pain, the burning was unbearable, I’m a very strong person when it comes to pain, extremely strong, but this was beyond,’ she said.

Ms Vaughn slept with ice packs between her legs for three weeks and spent one of those weeks in bed as she recovered. 

‘Three weeks passed by and I could see I no longer had labia tissue,’ Ms Vaughn said.

‘I now had a hole and the sides because he had taken everything off.’

Ms Vaughn said the first time she had sex was ‘horrific’, adding it has taken a lot of adjustment to allow her something of a normal love life.

Vaughn has since sued the surgeon and received a settlement but says she is now reluctant to have children due to the trauma.

In retrospect Ms Vaughan now says that there was nothing wrong with her original vagina and that’s a message she would like convey to other women.

‘I’d like to take this opportunity to let all women know that your vulvas are fine the way they are,’ she writes in the caption accompanying the TikTok.

‘If you’ve ever been cheated on or been told you’re not good enough, its only a reflection of how the other person is feeling.’

Dozens of women thanked Ms Vaughn for sharing her story.

‘Thank you for sharing your story. I had a similar experience and have now been left botched as well it’s so incredibly devastating,’ one wrote. 

‘I’ve thought twice about it and I’m not getting one. Your videos have been incredible helpful,’ a second woman commented.