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This article includes potentially triggering descriptions of sexual assault.
John Lamparski/Getty Images/Amanda K Bailey
When does a doctors care turn into control?
For the first time,Brooke Shieldsopened up about what she says was an intimate procedure gone wrong.
What she needed was relief.
Sure, her labia was reduced, just as she had hoped.
I tightened you up a little bit!
Gave you a little rejuvenation!
she wrote in her memoir.
This man surgically altered my body without my consent.
And he thought he had done me a favor by throwing in a bonus procedure?
The sheer gall of it enraged me.
Shields isnt alone in her outrage.
She wanted something subtleshe and her doctor had agreed to go approximately two cup sizes bigger.
He said he talked to my fiance about going even larger.
They agreed it would look better.
She ended up with a 32E instead of a 32C, she says.
And when the situation isnt a medical emergency?
People like Amanda can be left with an unnecessary improvementand lasting harmthey never signed up for.
But this procedure had the opposite effect on her.
I couldnt walk normally or squat even after the six weeks, she adds.
I refused any intimacy with my husband because the pain was so unbearable.
My vaginal opening was almost shut, she says.
I had scar tissue sewed inside my vaginal canal that was swollen and unable to heal.
Kimberly also experienced having her control stripped away firsthand.
I explicitly said, No, dont cut me.
But he did it anyway, Kimberly recalls.
How common is this pop in of medical mistreatment?
And the issue at hand runs deeper than a few rogue docs overstepping their bounds.
Its not just Brooke Shields.
Its not just two or three people.
We live in a culture that puts doctors on pedestals, Shelton tells SELF.
They went to prestigious medical schools.
We should see [this situation] for what it is: Its inappropriate.
They dont get to act on what your genitalia should look like.
Or what theythinkyou want to see in the mirror.
Only you get to choose that.
And if you believe these uninvited alterations are relatively harmless, doctors say the effects can be long-lasting.
Tightening of the vagina can cause functional problems too, includingpain during sexsomething Shields said she still deals with.
Beyond physical distress, the emotional toll can be just as devastating.
My very realPTSD symptomskicked in, she recalls.
It was coming back to me.
I was so scared.
One of the most traumatic elements of sexual abuse is the unexpectedness, Dr. Peprah-Wilson explains.
She didnt feel like herself, covering her chest with a turtleneck even in the sweltering, summer months.
Added to that distress was the fact that much of her trauma was minimized.
People would say, Id love to have bigger boobs.
However, its not always the most straightforward.
or Um, that doesnt really sound like something Im interested in.
More resources are available online from theNational Sexual Violence Resource Center.
