Welcome to Healthy Ish. Thanks for joining us today on the Body and Soul podcast. I am your host for listening, Haley, how do you feel about your LaBier or perhaps it's your partner's labia. Well, my guest today is here to reassure us all whatever you've got down there, it's absolutely normal. In fact, there is no normal, photographer, Ellie Saidwick joins us to discuss the pervasive issue of vulva anxiety and the societal pressures that lead well a lot of women
to seek cosmetic procedures. Actually, have you heard of the new one? It is called labia puffing, and yes we're going to talk about that as well. If you do want more from Ellie actually, in fact listening to our chat on extra Healthy Ish, where she shares more on her own struggles with volver anxiety. You can catch that wherever you get your podcasts. Ellie, thanks for joining us on health yesterday.
My pleasure. Felicity, so happy to be here.
Now, before we talk about your phenomenal project, I have to run this latest Evolver trend past you that we are actually we had on the site last week because it is well obviously calling it out as something horrifying laby are puffing? Have you come across this one? I mean, do people actually get this shit done?
I mean, let's be honest, men don't get this done to their scrotums. But yes, why do we feel like we have to get this done to our bolvers? Mental? It's crazy?
I know, what is it? Right? I mean, I just can't understand people wanting a treatment, a cosmetic filler or fat being injected into your labia to basically normalize the area.
I know, and like with the lack of research on women's health and anatomy, we have no idea what this is doing to impact our sensation. Like there's just not enough knowledge around laby plus volver puffing or whatever it's called. We have no idea of what that does to our anatomy or our pleasure, Like whether it's later in life
or now. There's so many nerve endings in that part of our body, So we're really messing with a part of our body that we that is really pleasurable if we learn how to touch ourselves properly.
Yeah, that's a really good point. Now, before we get to your amazing project, talk to us about vulva anxiety. You know, it's out there, you experienced. What is it exactly? Can you describe it to us?
So for me personally, it was that I felt I wasn't worthy of pleasure because of the way that my vulver looked. I felt a lot of shame and I felt that I didn't have this I mean quotation design
of vagina that I thought. I know I'm wrong now after photographing five hundred people's bolgers, but I thought we all had that like Bali design of vagina where you're all tupped up and there's nothing there that you see sort of you know, in bikinis they often edit out photoshop any sort of labor, so you just see like a flat and you know it is full of anxiety. Was definitely personal issue for me. But now I totally believe that it's becoming a health crisis.
Well a health crisis talked about this. I mean, you know, perhaps first tell us about your project, because that'll give shed some light on how you've got insight into it being a crisis. Tell us about your project.
Okay, So in twenty and eighteen, I started photographingvolvers. So I put up a little Facebook post saying that I was going to photograph five hundred people and make a coffee table book. And I wanted that book to be used in gynecologist offices, schools, libraries all around the world. I just wanted it to be in the people's hands that are like me, where they felt their body wasn't right because they didn't see others. So I have been on a national tour all around Australia and New York
and London photographing people. And yeah, my books just come out this very week. It's been printed and it's going out to all the homes all across the world. And yeah, it's not just I think when people think of it,
they think it's just all photos. But there's five hundred photos, yes, but there's also about one hundred photos that cover topics such as thrush, vaginismus, back to your vaginosis, miscapurages, all those women's health topics that we all quietly suffer with, and that there's you know, there's still although there is a big change happening, they're still very taboo.
Tell us about the crisis. I mean, what did you perhaps take away from photographing all these volvers going through different women's health issues? I mean, are women concerned about what's going on with their volvers.
Well, I think that histics from the Women's Health Victoria. They just brought out some statistics that say almost one quarter of women aged eighteen to twenty four feel anxious, embarrassed, or unhappy about the appearance of their labor, which obviously then has damaging impacts on their physical, mental, and sexual health and well being. And then it was like one in ten, so that's the equivalent of more than half a million women say that they have or have had
or considered lavier plasty. So that's showing now to be one of the fastest growing cosmetic procedures among young people and worldwide. And the same research paper found that gen z Labyer shame is significantly heightened, with almost one in four people aged eighteen to twenty four reporting that they feel anxious, unhappy, or embarrassed about their laber. Yeah, that's
so it's very concerning. And I mean I was recently quite trolled online, which I mean I always get backlash, but a couple of Moskin's always created conversations since very first started, but everyone was just sort of saying, you know, how can you worry about this stuff? When there's so
much worse stuff going on in the world. But I do think, you know, like it is really important to have sex education and start this conversation and slowly help remove like the stigma, will to spread awareness of vulvar diversity, because going under the knife, you are cutting it off to fit society's idea of beauty, which is forever changing. And we, as I said before, we just don't know
the damage that that's doing. And you know, I know that in the past enlargements breast fillers were so popular, Whereas I speak to a lot of cosmetic surgeons because of the research that I do and have done throughout the past six years, and they all say they're starting
to do more lavier plasties. And then when you think of like b am I, which is a lot of symptoms of that for people getting breast in plants, there was so much like brain fog, you know, there was a lot of illnesses that we only found out later. And as I said before, this lavier plasty isn't researched enough, like women's health in general for our bodies isn't research stuff. So we don't know yet what what could happen after
this procedure. I mean it's irreversible. We know that once you cut off your LaBier laby plasty, you can never get that lavia back, I mean lavier plus puffing. It's sane that you know you have to get it done every six months, So I don't I think it's just absolutely crazy.
I mean sorry, I can't even like, I don't even want to think about having something like a needle into my my lay. Yeah, excruciating. It's just crazy.
And it's just another thing. Every single day you're reading something new that women have to live up to to be beautiful, and it's all just absolute rubbish.
What just before we go, what's one thing that you want women to know or learn or something that perhaps, yeah, that you've learned from photographing all these volvers.
Gosh, you are also unique, and I know that a lot of people have asymmetrical labia, so some of them are longer and shorter and you know, wavy like mine's a little bit like a little oyster. And that used to really upset me, but now I have completely come through the realization that that is what makes me me. And I think if someone is negative about the way your body looks, then they don't deserve to be.
Down there, you know.
Yeah, And you just have to love. We have one life, one body. Just the sooner that you can love the skin you're in. You've got to live a happier, more out there, more out there, you know, joyous life. And we have so many things that create shame around us. And I always say, shame can't live behind a voice, So speak loud and live large, and just go out there and have fun and just do all the things that you can with your beautiful body, like walk, run, play, masturbate.
You know. Just there's so many pleasures, especially in that area, so I say, go and live and enjoy it.
Yeah, well done, Ellie, Thank you for coming unhealthy ish pleasure. Ellie's book is called Flip through My Flaps and it is out now. By the way, I encourage you to jump on her website and take a look at all the volvers and the penises and everything else on there. It is, I don't know, perhaps really reassuring in many ways. I will also leave a link to the EP we did on the Labia Diversity Report, which is published by
Women's Health Victoria. That was a goody anyway. I hope you did enjoy the chat, Head to body andsoul dot com dot or if you want any more info, you can follow us on socials. I am at Felicity Harley For any feedback, grab our print edition which is out in your local Sunday paper. Thanks again for listening and stay healthy.