Adipose-derived PRP: your own fat, and the stem cells inside it.
Where the concern is laxity or loss of structural volume rather than dryness, plasma alone doesn't reach it. A small volume of your own fat — which carries its own population of regenerative cells — is harvested, combined with platelet-rich plasma, and placed where structure has been lost.
What adipose-derived PRP actually is
Adipose-derived PRP is a small volume of your own fat, harvested under local anesthesia, processed, combined with platelet-rich plasma, and injected into the vaginal wall to restore structural volume. The fat provides bulk that plasma cannot. It also carries adipose-derived stem and stromal cells, which support the graft's blood supply and stimulate collagen in the tissue around it.
Different from vaginal PRP, which uses blood only and treats tissue quality rather than structure.
Two things fat brings that blood doesn't
Volume
Laxity is a loss of tissue bulk and collagen density, not a loss of surface quality. Platelet-rich plasma is a signalling agent — a few millilitres of concentrated growth factors. It can improve the tissue it reaches, but it cannot replace volume that has gone. Fat is the only autologous material that physically restores it.
Cells
Adipose tissue is one of the richest accessible sources of mesenchymal stem cells in the body. In the fraction of fat that isn't mature adipocytes — the stromal vascular fraction — sit adipose-derived stem cells, pericytes and endothelial precursors. These secrete vascular endothelial growth factor and fibroblast growth factor, which build the blood supply a graft needs in order to survive.
That matters practically. Conventional fat grafting retains roughly 50 to 60% of its volume at one year, because much of the graft never establishes circulation. In controlled comparisons, enriching the graft with stromal vascular fraction has raised retention — one prospective study measured 73.8% against 62.2% at six months, and 65.4% against 48.4% at twelve.
How adipose-derived PRP is performed
01
Harvest
A small volume of fat is taken under local anesthesia through a blunt cannula, usually from the abdomen or thigh. This is a low-volume harvest, not liposuction for contouring.
02
Processing
The lipoaspirate is washed and processed to remove oil, blood and anesthetic fluid, leaving concentrated adipose tissue with its stromal vascular fraction intact.
03
Blood draw and spin
Separately, blood is drawn and centrifuged to produce platelet-rich plasma, the same preparation used in vaginal PRP.
01
Combination
The processed fat and the platelet-rich plasma are combined. The plasma supports the graft through the early period before it establishes its own blood supply.
02
Placement
The combined graft is placed into the vaginal wall in small aliquots through a blunt cannula, spread across the tissue rather than deposited in one pocket.
What an appointment looks like
Longer than a standard PRP appointment, because it includes a harvest step. Performed under local anesthesia. Recovery involves swelling and tenderness at both the harvest site and the treatment site. Specific timelines are given at consultation once candidacy is confirmed.
Volume settles over the first several months as the graft resorbs down to the portion that established circulation. What remains at around six months is broadly what will persist. Anyone quoting a fixed percentage of retention for your case is guessing — retention varies by patient, by donor site, by technique, and by how much of the graft achieves a blood supply.
Three effects, on three timelines
Immediate: volume
The graft itself restores bulk to the vaginal wall from the moment it's placed. This portion is mechanical rather than biological, and some of it will resorb over the first few months.
Weeks: blood supply
Adipose-derived stem cells in the stromal vascular fraction secrete vascular endothelial growth factor, driving capillary ingrowth into the graft. This determines how much of the graft survives, and it's the window that decides the result.
Months: collagen
The same cell population, together with the platelet growth factors, stimulates fibroblasts in the surrounding tissue to lay down new collagen. This is the part that changes tone rather than just volume.
This is why it isn't simply a filler. A hyaluronic acid filler adds volume and then degrades. A fat graft that establishes circulation becomes living tissue with its own blood supply, and the cells within it act on the tissue around it. That is also precisely why it carries surgical rather than cosmetic risk.
Vaginal PRP or adipose-derived PRP?
Vaginal PRP
Adipose-derived PRP
Treats
Tissue quality — dryness, pain, reduced sensation
Structure — laxity, loss of volume and tone
Source material
Blood draw only
Fat harvest plus blood draw
Active components
Platelet growth factors
Graft volume, adipose-derived stem and stromal cells, platelet growth factors
Setting
In-office, local anesthetic, around an hour
In-office surgical procedure, local anesthesia, longer
Recovery
Normal activity in 24 to 48 hours
Swelling and tenderness at two sites; longer, timelines given at consultation
The published studies - The Research
Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2021
Cell-assisted lipotransfer with stromal vascular fraction
Graft retention was higher with stromal vascular fraction enrichment than without: 73.8% against 62.2% at six months, and 65.4% against 48.4% at twelve months. Conducted in breast reconstruction, not in this region.
Systematic review, 2025
Adipose-Derived Stem Cell, Stromal Vascular Fraction, and Regenerative Cell Enrichment in Fat Grafting
Improvements in graft survival, skin quality and functional recovery, with no increase in infection, cyst formation, fat necrosis or oncologic recurrence over follow-up to four years. Notes methodological heterogeneity and limited long-term data
Who PRP is for — and who it isn't.
Likely a fit if
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Your primary concern is laxity, reduced tone, or a loss of structural volume rather than dryness
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Structural change followed childbirth, and hasn't resolved with time or with hormone therapy
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Hormone therapy resolved your dryness but the sense of looseness remained
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You have enough donor fat at the abdomen or thigh for a low-volume harvest
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You understand this is a surgical procedure and you've read the safety section above
Not a fit if
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You have a history of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer
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Your symptoms are dryness, burning or pain — that's vaginal PRP, which is less invasive and better evidenced
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You have an active infection, unexplained bleeding, or a bleeding disorder
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You're on anticoagulation that can't be safely managed around a surgical procedure
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You want a guaranteed amount of volume retained — no one can give you that honestly
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You're looking for a cosmetic result rather than a functional one