Plastic surgeons this week raised red flags about a penis whitening fad in Thailand, dismissing the procedure as a phallic “fashion” with uncertain benefits and many risks.
Requiring the use of lasers, acid or chemicals, the latest craze in genital beautification can leave men with burns, scars, taut skin or the exact opposite of what they were after in the first place — a darker penis or a spotted one, experts said.
“I think it should not be done in a patient that doesn’t need it,” said Milanese plastic surgeon Massimiliano Brambilla, who specializes in genital procedures. “Most of the substances that are used to whiten ... are quite aggressive. Whitening is one of those things that I am very careful of.”
Earlier this month, a Bangkok clinic said 100 men a month were making use of its penis whitening service just six months after it started offering the procedure. The clinic charged about US$650 for five laser sessions.
According to global statistics produced by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), Thailand ranked 21st in terms of the number of cosmetic procedures performed in 2016. The data also showed a massive rise in genital beautification procedures globally.
Labiaplasty, which involves trimming the inner vaginal “lips” or labia minoria, was in 2016 by far the fastest growing surgery sector, with a 45 percent rise from 2015, the ISAPS said.
Genital whitening was not listed among the data, but industry experts say demand is growing.
“I think it’s linked to the pornographization of society,” said plastic surgeon Fabien Boucher from Lyon, France.
“What people see is ... a genital aesthetic that in my view is not realistic,” with sex organs shaved and otherwise manipulated to represent those of very young people — hairless, smooth and pink, he said.
It is normal for the privates to be more darkly colored than the rest of the skin, Boucher said.
“I do sex-change surgeries, constructing penises for female-to-male transformations, and these patients want exactly the opposite” of genital whitening — many opting for color-in tattoos, he added.
“A key defect of our penile reconstruction procedure is that we end up with white penises which are visibly not natural,” he said.
Another reason for the Thai trend is cultural. The Asia-Pacific region is a major market for skin lighteners.
Boucher said there has been little scientific research into the use of lasers and chemicals for penis-whitening, and no bleaching techniques or products have been developed uniquely for use in this sensitive area.
“The skin of the penis is different” to that of the face or body, for which the existing products were conceived, Boucher said. “It is a thin skin ... and we do not yet fully understand how it will react.”
The Thai Ministry of Public Health has also warned against the procedure, saying it might cause irritation or infection, and even presents a threat to sexual pleasure and reproduction.
“Honestly, I don’t think they should be doing it,” said Boucher, who said he would not perform the procedure until the science shows it is safe.
Brambilla said he has turned down about three whitening requests in his 15-year career.
“If the color is uniform, I really see no need, but even if there is a reason for intervention, such as an accident, the instruments that we have now to do it, they cannot guarantee first of all the satisfaction, secondly a realistic result and thirdly the safety of what you’re doing,” he said.
Meanwhile, penis enlargement in 2016 dropped by 28 percent, according to the ISAPS, likely due to the rise of new, less-invasive booster techniques.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS