A woman whose vagina was so narrow she could no longer have sex has undergone successful surgery to have it reconstructed - using a pig's intestine.

The woman had been sent for treatment after her gynaecologist found she was so narrow it was not even possible to carry out an examination. She was referred to the University Hospital in the town of Plzen, in the western Czech Republic.

According to The Daily Mail, doctors there decided to try out the operation after learning that a similar procedure involving pigs intestine could be used on people who had a narrow bladder. But they could find no literature or evidence that it had ever been used to help somebody like the young woman, the news agency CEN reports.

She had reported the problem after suffering from scleroderma - a condition that results in hard, thickened areas of skin and sometimes problems with internal organs and blood vessels. The condition can cause a woman's vaginal opening to constrict - making sexual function harder - and can also cause decreased sexual lubrication. 

To try and help the woman, surgeons decided to carry out surgery using a technique called a Mesh Augmented Vaginal Reconstruction. This is usually performed on women who have suffered a pelvic organ prolapse and who are experiencing symptoms such as urinary incontinence. 

Pig tissue is often used because its genetic make up is similar to that of humans. For over 30 years, scientists have been using pigs in a number of medical fields, including dermatology and cardiology.

Scientists have even re-grown human leg muscles using implants made of pig bladder tissue.

During surgery to treat the Czech patient, surgeons made an incision to enlarge the narrowed area. They then used the mesh made from pig's intestine to widen the walls of  the woman's vagina. And following the success of the operation, the doctors now plan to publish a scientific paper on the technique.