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Genital surgery banned?

Sweden may make illegal an increasingly popular form of plastic surgery in which women want to change their genitals.

The country has banned genital mutilation, which is performed on two million women every year worldwide, often against their will, for cultural reasons. Cosmetic surgery is not mentioned in the law, but the country's National Board of Health believes the voluntary operations should be outlawed as well, according to an Agence France-Presse account.

Surgeons have seen a big rise in requests for cosmetic surgery on female genitals, according to AFP. Some seek labia changes for aesthetic reasons, others want tighter vaginas for more sexual pleasure, and some Muslim women seek to reconstruct their hymens because they expect to be virgins when they are married.

"We are looking into the legal aspects of this kind of surgery and we will present a report to the government sometime this year," Per-Anders Sunesson, a lawyer who is in charge of the board's legal department, told the wire service. – (HealthDayNews)

Read more:
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