And Matlock is very much a woman’s man. But is he really helping us out, or
giving us one more area of our bodies to feel paranoid about?
“Look, demand for these treatments comes from women,” he says. “I didn’t
create it, the market was there, and I discovered it because I listened to
women. Every single one of the procedures has been developed because it has
been requested. And it’s going international. There is demand.”
One or two customers a month travel from the UK to see him. Although the
G-Shot is now available in this country, the British Association of
Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has no statistics on any form of vaginal plastic
surgery in this country, simply because, as a press officer told me, “there
isn’t a whole lot happening”.
Matlock thinks this is not through lack of need. “There is only one surgeon
[Dartey] practising in the UK,” he says, with a hint of sadness. “I blame
the national healthcare system you have over there. British doctors don’t
earn enough to come here for training. Also, the mentality of the doctors —
they work so hard, they have no life. Doctors here are entrepreneurial, in
the first place. I make $4m a year. I have a great life. I see patients
twice a week, I do nine procedures. I don’t have night calls, hospitals, no
weekends, none of that.”
It isn’t just the fault of the doctors. Some of the blame must also be laid at
the feet of British women. Matlock is frustrated by the modesty of his
British patients when it comes to that part of their anatomy. “My UK
patients are so shy. They say, ‘Women in the UK would never talk about
this.’ The attitude is, ‘That’s how it is. You were born like that, so leave
it alone.’ That’s why they come here. Here, the culture is 100% different.”
Of course, the million-dollar question is, do his patients have better sex
than anyone else? “Sexual gratification for women is directly related to
muscles and tightness. Kegel,” he says, referring to pelvic-floor exercises,
“we all know Kegel doesn’t work. So we ask, ‘How tight do you wanna be?’
What they say is, ‘We want to be as tight as we were when we were 18, before
we had children.’ That’s what they want and that’s what they get.”
In fact, there are no studies to prove that the diameter of a woman’s vagina
is the determining factor in her sexual pleasure.
Real-life testimonials, however, speak volumes. Violet Estrada, 37, who owns
an LA property company, had laser vaginal rejuvenation to correct muscles
loosened by the birth of two very large babies, a problem that had led to
urinary incontinence and loss of sensation. She also had the G-Shot (and,
while she was at it, Brazilian butt augmentation).
“I said I wanted to be like a 19-year-old. Then, when I went in for the
rejuvenation operation, he told me about the G-Shot, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m
for it.’ The whole experience lifted my self-esteem. I felt tighter. My
partner noticed right away. And the G-Shot was amazing. Even after one shot,
it opens up your mind to what’s down there, puts you in touch with
yourself.”
Back in Matlock’s office, we’re poring over pictures of a Playboy model
displaying what he calls “a beautiful structure”. Matlock's hands-down
bestseller is laser vaginal labioplasty, and it’s this kind of image, he
claims, that inspires women. “Women bring in this pornographic information —
I have drawers of it — and they say, ‘That is what I wanna see.’ That’s what
women want to see after rejuvenation.”
Perhaps the Playboy bunny has been worked on as well? “Have I worked on
Playboy women? Yeah, I have. I worked on one who was on the front cover.”
Where Matlock has fans, he also has outraged detractors, in his own industry
and beyond. Dr Toby Mayer is a plastic surgeon working in Beverly Hills. “If
someone has a functional problem with their vagina, then they should have
reconstructive surgery,” he says. “But who can say what a vagina should look
like? I am 66 years old. I have never, in all my life, ever heard a man
say,‘I saw this woman, she had an ugly vagina.’ Never. To tell someone
otherwise is to promote body dysmorphia. What is the mentality of this
person? It’s not progressive, it’s entrepreneurial. It’s about money. And
doctors should never be about the money.”
For Matlock, the link between good sex and pulchritudinous genitals is
obvious. “It’s confidence. If you’re not comfortable with how you look, and
you could correct it, why wouldn’t you?”
But do men care? Isn’t good sex a lot to do with feeling that someone likes
you the way you are? A long pause. “No, I don’t think they care,” he says.
“I think men are happy just to be there. A husband will usually tell a wife
she’s fine, but she knows she’s not fine. She’ll say, ‘I know I’m not.’
He’ll say, ‘I think you’re fine, but if you want this, that’s fine.’ ”
Matlock has his own wish list. After 16 years of working out religiously,
there is still a small bulge of fat on the top of his pectoral muscles. A
Colombian surgeon has developed a technique for correcting it. “Why
shouldn’t I want perfection if other people have it?” he says, looking out
of the window at the blue sky and the light glancing off car windscreens as
they crawl down Sunset Boulevard. “A perfect life — it’s all about that
here. The guys, the girls, health and wellbeing. In every aspect of your
life. Sexually, professionally, emotionally. Absolutely.”
KEEP IT TIGHT
In the UK, we tend to accept a bit of bagginess and incontinence after
children. We joke about sudden sneezes and the dangers of using the kids’
trampoline — we’re not pleased about it, but, hey, what can you expect after
three or four kids?
In France, it’s different. It is the French woman’s duty to keep herself
vaginally toned — however many children she’s had had. In fact, it is a
matter of such importance that the government pays for women to have 10
sessions of pelvic floor-tightening physiotherapy after birth.
The high-tech option is EMG Biofeedback, in which a probe, wired to a
computer, is inserted into the vagina. Sounds and visuals guide madame
through an exercise programme. Those who don’t reach their “target
performance” are referred for further sessions. EMG Biofeedback is now
available privately in Britain; the equipment can also be bought on the
internet.
It’s a shame British women can’t take advantage of similar physiotherapy
sessions. Perhaps this is the real reason French women are so snooty:
because they’re tighter than a gnat’s chuff, and don’t they just know it?
Amanda Lynch
