Official screening of the documentary “Centrefold” sponsored by the Welcome Trust!

I attended this controversial documentary created by Ellie Land about female genital cosmetic surgery which has increased by 500%. This is a very serious topic as women are feeling the need to have surgery without understanding the true nature of their bodies.  The film encouraged informed debate and discussion around why women feel the need to change how they look when how they look is exactly as they should.  The panel included Dr Phil Hammond, Ellie Land the director of centerfold, Sarah Creighton a consultant gynecologists, Lih-Mei Liao a consultant clinical psychologist work together to address the fact that elective surgery for appearance sake is  “psychology by proxy” and  Dr. Susie Orbach who is a psychoanalyst and writer and convener of Anybody, an organization campaigning for body diversity.

This project interested me from the standpoint of people’s beliefs that if they change physically they will feel better about themselves. This may or may not happen.  I believe that with any elective surgery, it is important to explore the reasons why.  Often there are other reasons and a deeper level of dissatisfaction with some aspect of a person’s life that might be better  explored first, in the context of therapy, before undergoing surgery.