Pubic grooming gets hairy

Preparing for a bikini bod can be dangerous, as more women are discovering. Picture: Andre Penner/AP Photo

Preparing for a bikini bod can be dangerous, as more women are discovering. Picture: Andre Penner/AP Photo

Published Nov 30, 2012

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London - The growing trend for Brazilians and vajazzles has led to an increase in the number of women admitted to hospital with injuries to their private parts.

Injuries caused by women grooming their intimate area have increased five-fold in recent years, the latest research reveals.

While it is still men who account for 70 percent of hospital admissions in the US with “genitourinary” injuries (which involves the genitals, urinary tract and kidneys), women ending up in hospital with cuts and infections after shaving is on the rise.

Lead researcher Dr Benjamin Breyer said: “While women were overall less likely to endure genital injuries than their male counterparts, there was at least one exception: cuts and infections related to shaving or grooming pubic hair.

“The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in these types of injuries in women, and a second study that was recently published by the same UCSF group found that these types of injuries increased five-fold between 2002 and 2010.”

The survey by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) showed that between 2002 and 2010 about 16 000 people a year in the US (142 144 adults in total) ended up in emergency with genital injuries.

In the UK, Brazilians and vajazzles have risen in popularity after being made famous on TV show The Only Way Is Essex.

Former star of the show Amy Childs was filmed giving clients at her beauty salon vajazzles – crystal “tattoos” that are stuck on to the skin near personal parts of the body.

Breyer said women should be taught safer techniques for DIY grooming.

He added that many injuries sustained by men from clothing, furniture, tools and toys may be easily preventable.

The research revealed that of the 70 percent of men who were admitted to hospital with genital injuries, more than a third were between 18 and 28 and had hurt themselves while playing sport.

Older men were more likely to sustain injuries accidentally if they slipped or fell.

Breyer said consumer education and product safety measures, such as padding on bike rails, slip-free bath mats and safer techniques for grooming could all cut down on hospital admissions.

In their paper, the UCSF team noted that there were standard procedures that emergency department doctors would do well to learn, such as “zip detachment strategies for skin entrapment”.

The study, published in the Journal of Urology, was the largest ever to look at major and minor “genitourinary” injuries.

However, it does not reflect the true number of injuries as only patients admitted to the emergency room were in the database.

Many more injuries may have occurred that were not serious enough to warrant a hospital visit. - Daily Mail

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