What this part of the practice treats, and who it is for
Intimate rejuvenation brings together the treatments that address specific symptoms: laxity of the vaginal canal after one or several deliveries; the dryness, burning and discomfort during intimacy of menopause; mild stress-related urine leaks; and labia minora hypertrophy that chafes against clothing or hurts during sport. They are managed by Dr. Arístides Arellano, plastic surgeon holding specialty licence 0002008, at his practice in Puebla.
This page is written in terms of symptoms and function, not sexual performance: an intimate treatment can improve chafing, dryness, pain or leakage, and what happens afterwards depends on far more than a laser or a suture. Results may vary from one person to another.
There are two routes and they do not compete: medical laser, day-case and delivered in sessions, works on the lining and superficial collagen; intimate surgery, in an operating theatre, works on muscle, fascia or the external shape.
How a case is assessed here: from symptom to anatomical plane
The assessment does not start from the available device; it starts by locating the symptom in the plane where it actually sits. That is the only way to avoid offering sessions to someone who needed surgery.
- Lining and superficial collagen: dryness, burning, irritation and mild laxity. The territory of medical laser.
- Levator muscle and fascia: structural laxity of the canal, a sense of openness, a perineum weakened by tearing or an episiotomy. No laser reaches that plane.
- Pelvic floor: the strength of the muscle group that supports bladder, uterus and rectum. It is trained, not cut.
- External shape: size, asymmetry or excess of the labia minora and majora. This is surgery of the shape; it changes nothing on the inside.
- Gynaecological or urological territory: prolapse, unstudied incontinence, active infection, unexplained bleeding. That is assessed first and, where appropriate, managed jointly.
The prerequisites, and why they are not negotiable
Before treating, we require up-to-date cervical cytology (Pap smear), we rule out active genital infection and pregnancy, and we review the obstetric and hormonal history. When the complaint is urine leakage, or a prolapse is suspected, the correct order is diagnosis first: a gynaecological or urological assessment according to the symptom, with joint management by that specialty when the case calls for it. Saying so beforehand avoids paying for a series of sessions that was never going to work.
In surgery of the external shape the design is marked with you standing and awake: position changes how the tissue falls, and marking on the table is the fast route to a disproportionate resection. It is deliberately conservative, because stopping short can be revised whereas removing too much tissue cannot be undone.
Laser, surgery or pelvic floor: how the choice is made
Once the plane is identified the decision becomes concrete. If the problem is the quality of the lining —dryness, burning, discomfort during intimacy after menopause— the reasonable route is laser: RenovaLase for the genitourinary syndrome of menopause, and FemTouch, the gynaecological fractional CO₂ laser protocol, when the goal is tissue trophism and hydration. It is the usual route for women who do not wish to use hormone therapy, always framed as symptom improvement and never as a cure.
If the problem is laxity, the answer depends on its depth. In mild laxity with good tissue quality, IntimaLase tightens the vaginal wall without a theatre; combining several applications into one plan is what is called comprehensive vaginal rejuvenation. When laxity is structural, laser does not reach the plane of the problem and the indicated route is vaginoplasty, which brings muscle and fascia back together and can be combined with a perineoplasty.
If the dominant symptom is stress urine leakage and a diagnosis already supports it, there are two complementary tools: IncontiLase on the vaginal wall, and the magnetic stimulation of the StarFormer IntimaWave chair, which strengthens the pelvic floor seated and fully clothed, with no needles. In urge incontinence neither of the two is the answer.
And if what bothers you is on the outside —chafing against clothing, pain on a bicycle— it is a labiaplasty: it corrects the external shape and does not touch the canal. Having problems in two different planes is common; they are then ranked by priority and can sometimes be resolved in the same operation.
What is not done, and what these treatments do not correct
This is the section that sells least and saves the most disappointment:
- They do not cure: we speak of symptom improvement, measured before and after the series or the operation.
- They do not correct a significant prolapse of the bladder, uterus or rectum; that needs a gynaecological assessment and frequently a different operation.
- They do not resolve urge incontinence and do not replace its investigation. Laser is indicated in mild to moderate stress incontinence, and only with a prior diagnosis.
- They do not change the colour of the tissue: pigmentation there is constitutional and hormonal.
- They are not a treatment for your sex life: they can remove pain or friction that were getting in the way, which is not the same claim.
- They do not replace hormone therapy when that is indicated for other medical reasons: it is assessed with your treating physician.
- They do not include gender-affirming vaginoplasty, which belongs to a different subspecialty: if that is what you are looking for, you will be directed to a dedicated team rather than kept here.
The real commitment: sessions, rest and calendar
Laser is not a single session. Collagen takes weeks to reorganise: it is done as a spaced series —the number is set at the assessment— usually followed by annual maintenance. Improvement is gradual, not immediate. Each session lasts a few minutes, with no theatre and no general anaesthesia, and afterwards tampons, intimacy, swimming pools and high-impact exercise are avoided for the days indicated.
Surgery has a shorter and stricter calendar. With vaginoplasty, social recovery is around a week and sexual activity resumes at about six weeks, not before: that is the time the muscular repair needs to consolidate. With labiaplasty most patients return to office work between the fourth and seventh day, and exercise and intimacy are authorised at around four to six weeks. Post-operative follow-up is included.
All surgery carries risk and requires a prior medical assessment; results may vary according to each patient, their anatomy and their individual healing.
What it costs, and why the figure is approximate
Reference figures in Puebla, all approximate: labiaplasty starts from $60,000 MXN and vaginoplasty from $50,000 MXN. In both, the price is all-inclusive: operating theatre and facilities, pre-operative laboratory work and the post-surgical recovery treatments. It is not the surgeon’s fee alone, which is why a cheaper-looking estimate tends to grow later.
Laser treatments are charged per session: $8,000 MXN a session and $24,000 MXN for a package of five. How many sessions your case calls for depends on the symptom and your response to treatment; the plan for the StarFormer IntimaWave is set at the assessment.
No published figure is a quote. Any procedure or treatment first requires a private assessment consultation with Dr. Arístides Arellano —$800 MXN, charged separately— and it is there that the final cost of your case is determined and confirmed in writing. If your case does not belong in this practice, you will be told that too.
Confidentiality, and why no photographs are published here
Every consultation in this area takes place in complete privacy, with the time it needs and without judgment; the medical record and clinical photographs are handled under strict confidentiality and documented consent. Elsewhere on this site real cases are published with signed consent; here they are not, and that is deliberate: no patient should have to choose between being treated and appearing on a public page. At your assessment Dr. Arístides can show you clinical material if you find it useful.
Who performs these procedures
They are performed by Dr. Arístides Arellano Huacuja, plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon in Puebla: qualified as a physician and surgeon at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Xochimilco (1986), practising under professional licence D.G.P. 1125959 and specialty licence 0002008, specialty training at Hospital General de Agudos Dr. Abel Zubizarreta (Buenos Aires, 1987–1989), Fellow of the International College of Surgeons (F.I.C.S.) since 1994 and holder of United States patent US 5,928,158 (USPTO, 1999).
He works in the clinic founded in 1971 by his father, the dermatologist Dr. Francisco Arellano Ocampo, and directs it today. Dermatological care belongs to the clinic and to that lineage; the surgery and the laser procedures described here are his. Trust is verified, not promised: both of his licences are public and anyone can look them up in the National Registry of Professionals. The clinic is at Calle 20 Sur 2539, Col. Bellavista, 72500 Puebla.