Lyndsey, although the advice is to dilate forever, it's also possible for some women to stop... especially once they're decades post-op.
Personally, my surgeon recommends once a week for life, and I'm down to doing it once every 2-3 weeks because, to be honest, I forgot a couple of times and then realized that I'd noticed no difference in tightness or depth after missing a week. (I'm 3.5 years post-op, give or take.) So I would not do anything to risk my vagina either, but I'm confident that every other week is safe for me. 🙂 By 20 or 30 years post, I would not be surprised if I was dilating much less frequently even than that - there are a couple post-ops on here who've made it that long and one reported that she forgot where she left her dilators for years!
