Not too long ago, I came across this news story about lab grown vaginas. Apparently, a team of researchers from the U.S. and Mexico grew vaginal organs in a lab for four teenage patients who had “underdeveloped” or absent vaginas.
The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has posted materials about the study here and here.
The story raises interesting questions about whether this new medical technology will serve to enforce gender and sexual norms or whether it could serve to enable gender and sexual play; however I argue in this post that these questions are not all that easy to answer.
Vaginal Scaffold (Credit: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine)