Fat Grafting
Fat harvesting, also known as fat transfer, is a new and different approach to refine your contours.
What is fat harvesting?
Many plastic surgeons are helping women to re-purpose unwanted body fat to re-contour their breasts, buttocks, face, and even their vulva. This modern technology allows aesthetic physicians to achieve beautiful and natural-looking results with fewer risks than surgery.
As women age, the dermis (the layer of skin under the epidermis) thins out, leaving the face and other body parts, such as the vulva, looking thin and hollow. At FBW Gynaecology Plus, we can use fat harvesting for congenital vulval abnormality, correction of perineal scarring and trauma, atrophic changes due to lichen sclerosus, and reversal of female genital mutilation.
How can fat harvesting reshape a woman’s vulva?
As women age, they lose fatty tissue from the face and breasts, and pubic area. Living as we do, in a time when women routinely shave and wax their vaginal area, the wrinkling and skin laxity they encounter can make them feel self-conscious.
The loss of fat manifests in a sagging of the outer lips (labia majora) and mons pubis. Also, the loss of natural padding along the pubic bone can make sexual intercourse painful.
Fat harvesting has shown promising results in the labia, face, buttocks and breasts.
Stem cells are an important part of the maintenance and repair of the human body, keeping tissues alive and healthy. Research has shown that fat tissue is a rich source of stem cells that can be applied to different areas of the body and act to regenerate the dermis.
After removing fat tissue through liposuction, the harvested fat can then be applied to the vulva and vagina.
What happens during fat harvesting?
During your initial consultation at FBW, our surgical team will review the fat transfer procedure in detail with you. At that time, they will also enquire about your general health, lifestyle, and any prior surgeries you may have undergone.
Depending on patient preference, a fat harvest can be performed under local or IV sedation anaesthesia.
Using liposuction to harvest fat, a member of our medical team removes cells from a donor site on the hip, inner or outer thigh, lower back, or lower abdomen. The fat is processed in a special centrifuge and then injected into the treatment area, called the recipient site.
What can I expect after a fat harvesting treatment?
It takes up to four days for blood vessels to grow into and begin to accept the grafts after the treatment. Then another two or three days for those new blood vessels to become robust.
It takes two to three weeks for the cells surrounding the fat harvest to reach enough strength to withstand minor stresses.
Most of our patients can return to their normal activities within one week, looking and feeling marvellous. However, all surgical and even most non-surgical cosmetic treatments carry some degree of risk. Possible concerns with fat harvesting include:
- Swelling
- Irregular contours or uneven results from liposuction
- Hematoma
- Skin or fat necrosis
- Less than expected results
Click here to view an image showing how fat grafting could help you (warning potentially graphic image)
