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Whether you wax or shave, pubic hair removal is landing more people in emergency rooms.

Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco found that there are five times as many pubic hair grooming injuries between 2002 and 2010. Scientists say that most of the mishaps have occurred in recent years with 2,500 emergency rooms visits being related to pubic hair injuries.

From cuts to burns and rashes, clinical researcher Dr. Allison Glass advises that extra care should be taken when tending to pubic hair.

“We actually found that 3 percent of all genitourinary injuries were related to grooming practices,” said Glass. “I think the message is this is something that general practitioners and urologists should be aware of.”

In recent years, pubic hair grooming has become more popular with 70 to 88-percent of young women partially or fully removing their hair down there.

The study found the average age of women with pubic hair related injuries is 31 while over half of those injured were between the ages of 18-28. Twenty-nine percent of pubic grooming injuries occurred in women younger than 18.

Although the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System ties 57-percent of pubic hair injuries to women, urologists were shocked to discover that 43-percent of men experienced injuries.

“This is not a female thing. It’s a male thing, too,” she said.

Study results showed that 58 to 78-percent of men participate in pubic hair grooming activities.  Thirty-seven percent of injuries in males occurred between the ages of 19-28 with 30-percent of injuries occurring between 29 to 49-year -olds and 16-percent under the age of 18.

Researchers found that 83-percent of grooming injuries were caused by shaving razors while scissors attributed for 22-percent of injuries. Hot wax was responsible for 1.4-percent of pubic hair grooming wounds.

Dr. Glass suggests that the increase in injuries is a result of the growing trend of pubic hair removal with girls as young as 12-years-old adopting pubic hair trimming habits.

In 2011, researchers at the Center for Sexual Health at Indiana University found that the pubic hair among Playboy centrefolds began to slowly disappear between 1957 and 2007.

“Changing beauty ideals are reflected in media sources … and have likely contributed to the expansion of this cultural trend,” Glass and her team noted.