A new treatment has been developed to help girls and women who have absent or malformed vaginas, a condition which affects around one in every 4,000 females.
Dr Linda Baker, professor of
urology at the Southwestern Medical Centre, claimed that the new surgical treatment would not lead to the same complications as current surgical methods of reconstructing the vagina.
She said: "There were many surgical methods for reconstructing the vagina, but when I began seeing these patients, I thought the results were not natural-looking and inadequate in many cases.
"Too many suffered with complications from these types of vaginal reconstructions, often leading to painful intercourse in adulthood."
The procedure involves removing the top layer of cheek tissue from the patient's mouth.
This is then stretched and shaped into a perforated graft which is then wrapped around a plastic mould and inserted into the patient's body.
After about a week the plastic object can be removed as the tissue cells start to fill in the gaps.
