So what is all the fuss about?

The ruling of the French court was surprising and made everybody in France sit up and take notice of the fact that a court can give a judgment, just based on the presence or absence of the hymen and that was deemed as the only proof of a woman’s chastity. It brought to focus the existing situation even in these supposedly modern times and the kind of beliefs prevalent in certain cultures with regard to premarital sex and virginity.

According to a female student, who has been in the US since the last decade, the American culture is refreshingly unique and does not frown upon the fact that she engaged in a sexual relationship with a fellow student whom she loved. Though her family was unaware of this fact, she had decided that since that was the guy she would be eventually marrying; she would have no problems having sex with him. Ultimately though, they broke up and since her family has now fixed up her marriage with somebody from Morocco, she has the onerous task of surgically restoring her hymen just to prove that she is yet a virgin. Women have realised that the earlier technique of fooling a man into believing that he had deflowered a virgin by placing some drops of blood on the nuptial sheets or by artificially making it difficult for the man to penetrate by using the pubic hair to tie a couple of knots is no longer feasible or practical and therefore they have no qualms about undergoing the necessary surgery, if they have been promiscuous before marriage. Many such Muslim women opt for this surgery providing fictitious names and addresses and take the trouble of travelling long distances to get this done so that they are able to present them selves as pure virgins to their families and prospective husbands, even though the procedure is a costly one ranging  between $400 to $1000.

How is the surgery actually done?

The surgery involves placing a duplicate hymen at the vaginal canal entrance and takes about ten minutes to perform. The cost can vary based on the kind of surgical procedure wanted by the patient as some may only ask to stitch the hymen remnants together, which is known as hymenorraphy and others may want the surgeon to insert a capsule made out of gelatin and filled with a liquid resembling blood, which would break upon penetration conveying the impression that the hymen has torn during intercourse. Some others may demand the construction of a new hymen making use of surrounding tissues taken from the wall of the vagina.

Doctors however admit that despite hymenorraphy being taught in medical schools, the operation can be a risky one and it needs expertise to do it right. This procedure was initially done by a prominent American doctor, who took the trouble of training other doctors in his group. Patients are told to keep away from sex and any physical activity for about two and a half months to ensure total healing of the wound. The cost of the surgery varies from $1000 to $2000 in the United States and is lesser at $700 in nations promoting medical tourism. There are other countries such as Korea and China which offer a discount of as much as 50% to students and women who want to go for such a surgery.

So what is the conclusion…?

It is ironical and sad that when the odds are stacked against you in terms of your family not liking the fact that you are not a virgin and you could lose out on a wealthy husband just because of that tissue called hymen not being there, you have to spend money, effort and time to actually construct something and ensure that nobody becomes aware about it. You can even request the surgeon to obliterate any trace of documentation of the surgery and nobody is any wiser about it.

So are such surgeries done only by women who wish to present themselves as virgins?

The answer is a resounding no as many modern married women belonging to the Muslim religion go through the process of hymen repair as a gift offering to their husbands after some years of marriage. This is the beautification or the artificial tightening of the vaginal canal preferred by married women in their late thirties and early forties and they see it as a second honeymoon opportunity gift to be presented to their husbands.

This beautification of the vagina – what is it actually?

It is exactly that. Surgeons actually perform cosmetic surgery by bleaching, tightening and firming up the vaginal muscles to make it look as beautiful as possible. Some doctors decrease the labia size for women who prefer such a thing and do not mind paying a heavy amount for the process. Many women do not mind going through such a revirginisation process many years after marriage as they want to bring back the sexual excitement and oomph back into their married lives. So processes such as labioplasty, vaginal reconstruction and hymenoplasty are just some of the cosmetic surgeries they are willing to undergo. These surgical processes have become very popular and are now advertised as recreational surgery processes. Costs have been coming down over the years and with some countries like Thailand, Hong Kong and China packaging it attractively, married couples do not mind taking them as such package offerings include travel, accommodation, surgery and honeymoon.

Will this pass off as just another novel idea or will it continue?

This can be best perceived as a reflection of the desperation of a woman who wish to please their family and want to put on a false show of their chastity and is also a comment on the rather myopic view taken by certain cultures towards the fairer sex.

In the case of women who have more than one child and face loosening of their vaginal walls and other urinary related problems such as urinary incontinence, the operation can be a very useful one and in fact may also be recommended for good pelvic health. However, to just put up a front for the sake of a marriage and to project something untrue is something that seems unwarranted, but who are we to comment as it is purely a personal decision of the woman in question and the money she wants to spend.

It seems that this process of beautification of the vagina will continue and women will increasingly go for it as an important cosmetic expense to be done to enable them bring back the spark in their sexual life.

However they could be mistaken, for we still live in a society which has got set ideas about things and most men are loathe considering a woman who is not a virgin as somebody compatible for them when it comes to marriage. Men still want their potential life partners to be coy virgins and they see it as a challenge to prove their sexual prowess. Many get sexually excited at the prospect of deflowering a virgin, though they may not have had prior sexual experience. In fact this fixation with an intact hymen on the part of men is causing many women to rectify any tear in the hymen caused due to either sexual contact or otherwise so that they can present themselves as the typical virgin sought by their partner. This way they are able to satisfy the requirement of their partner and also keep their family happy.

Let us at this point understand the function of the hymen?

The female sexual system by virtue of it being outside the body has in the vagina, an organ that is capable of cleansing itself. But it is the tube that leads from the vagina to the uterus which is about half a foot long that is susceptible to infection and bacteria can easily deposit themselves on this canal, making their way from unhygienic toilet seats or tampons. This leads to uterus infection and women are thus very prone to urinary infections. The outcome of a urinary infection is smelly vaginal discharges, fever, pain and some spotting of blood.

To prevent such an occurrence, nature has provided women with the hymen that is a film of tissue acting as a gatekeeper to the vaginal canal. This gate prevents easy entry of any bacteria and keeps the canal clean and safe. But since no two individuals are the same, it is possible that some women may have no hymen at all or just have half a hymen. The appearance of the hymen is also different in each woman as is clear from the picture below. This tissue can be split or can suffer tear due to hectic physical activity like sports, gymnastics, and practice of martial arts that involve a lot of stretching. Other similar hectic activities like horse riding or cycling or through use of tampons can also lead to a ruptured hymen.

What are the medical terms for different types of hymen?

It is a misconception that an intact hymen means the woman is a virgin. The hymen can be of different shapes and sizes and depending on them, they are known by various medical terms such as the annular hymen where the hymen manifests itself as a ring around the vaginal opening, septate hymen where the hymen acquires a split down its middle making the vagina look like it has two openings, the rigid hymen, which is quite tough to penetrate and so on.

This tissue or hymen does not fully cover the vaginal canal as the menstrual fluid has to seep out and in cases where the hymen has blocked the opening, women have found it difficult to go about their natural body functions such as urinate, dispose off menstrual fluid, wear tampons and have satisfactory sex. In such rare cases, there is no option but to surgically cut the hymen off.

So why is an intact hymen so important from a cultural standpoint?

Since time immemorial, the intact hymen has been proof of a woman’s virginity and this fact was even checked by somebody neutral to both the parties before finalizing the marriage. Even in today’s times, it is the mother and mother in law who together inspects the girl and make sure that the groom is getting a fresh piece, so to say. If by any chance, the hymen happens to be ruptured, then it is not uncommon for people on the bride’s side taking their life to express their guilt and shame over this and this is prevalent essentially in Pakistan and India. Other countries which still lay a great emphasis on an intact hymen are the Muslim countries of Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia.

All along the focus has been skewed towards the man marrying somebody who has been sexually untouched. The latest example of this played out in a court in France when the marriage was annulled because the bridegroom discovered on the nuptial bed that his bride was not pure, as in her hymen had ruptured. In fact, this groom immediately went and deposited his bride at her parent’s place. The incident is more shocking when you consider that the groom in question was of French nationality and had an engineering degree. Moreover, he was thirty years old with a lot of sexual experience of his own, as discovered by the tabloids at a later date. Sociologists feel that this fixation with an intact hymen is usually in countries where the people are suffering from poverty and are also dependant on a strong hierarchical system. Hence it is deemed important for the bride to be a virgin so that the progeny does not have genes from outside the clan. This is all the more so since they cannot afford the costly process of DNA testing and there is no other way to ensure this purity of the progeny that is about to be conceived.