As part of their body image campaign the Loose Women panel today tackled a rather embarrassing and awkward taboo – vagina dysmorphia.
Andrea McLean, Nadia Sawalha, Stacey Solomon and Jane Moore revealed they want to smash the stigma surrounding vaginal health and opened up about the growing trend of female labiaplasty, which is even attracting girls as young as nine years old.
But viewers were left cringing at the segment and slated the show for airing the discussion while they were eating their lunch.
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Opening up the discussion Nadia explained her personal story surrounding the issue.
She told her fellow panellists: “I remember sitting there with my legs open after having my baby and sobbing my eyes out because [my vagina] looked so deformed.”
Blonde beauty Stacey also had a similar experience to Nadia as she revealed: “When I had Zach I wanted to look because I wanted to see what it looked like.”
Going on to talk about the pressures of young people nowadays and how influences such as social media can effect a young person’s perception on what they should look like Nadia admitted she worries about the younger generation.
Stacey, 29, also opened up about the insecurities she felt while growing up.
She said: “I was worried about what people would think. I did have those insecurities and now I think ‘is it massive?’ or ‘can anyone get anything from this?'”
The stars then moved on to speak to expert Larisa Corda, who was sat in the audience, who revealed that girls as young as nine are considering labiaplasty.
She revealed that she has seen a rise in patients seeking help for anxiety by new pressures to have the ‘perfect’ vagina.
She said: “Children as young as nine are going to their doctors, which is really distressing.
“They get inundated with images from social media and believe they have to conform to looking like that. There’s not enough education on what is normal.”
The panellists were clearly shocked and were quick to question why a child that young would even consider having surgery.
Panellist Jane jumped in saying: “I would question that child’s background. Where are the parents?!”
They then moved on to talk to sculptor Jamie McCartney who created the highly-acclaimed art piece The Great Wall of Vagina.
The Great Wall of Vagina is a piece of artwork made up of plaster moulds of female genitalia to encourage women to accept that their vaginas are ‘normal’.
Viewers watching from home were horrified that the show aired the segment at lunch time with many slamming ITV.
One said: “‘Don’t die of shame – get to know your vagina’ – really, ITV??? #LooseWomen #itsLUNCHtime!”
“I can’t believe what I’m seeing on #LooseWomen today. There’s a chart on different shapes of vulva apparently,” another added.
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A third tweeted: “Get real ladies this is a ridiculous chat, 9pm not 13.15.”
Another said: “‘What does vagina dysmorphia mean to you?’ Not a question I thought I’d ever hear whilst munching on a macaroon with my Mum.”