Revirginization

Repair Your “Down There” – Revirginization with Hymenoplasty

By Monica Galvan

Published on November 21, 2007

What significance does a drop of blood hold? For a vampire, it could be precious life; for Sleeping Beauty, it would be certain death with the prick of her finger; for a virgin, it is evidence of her purity. Recently, the trend of “designer vaginas” has taken a turn toward more moral ground, where women are requesting to have their hymens reconstructed to maintain, or regain, their virginity.

In an age when women are increasingly showing up at plastic surgery practices with photos clipped from pornographic magazines depicting the way they’d like their “hoo-hoos” to look, some women are seeking vaginal surgery for deep-seeded social, cultural, and religious reasons. For these women, revirginization is not merely a state of mind, but a matter of personal, and sometimes familial, reputation.

Hymenoplasty, or the surgical reconstruction of the hymen, is a popular procedure among Muslim women in France that is spreading across the U.S. as more women find out about it. During the operation, a woman’s hymen is either surgically re-sewn or a thin membrane is created from the vaginal walls to replicate the hymen so that it breaks and bleeds on the wedding night.

Realistically, a woman’s hymen can break long before she’s had intercourse, through playing sports, using a tampon, or other sexual activities. Truth is, many women can’t tell if they’ve “popped their cherries,” and undoubtedly, neither can their partners. But in cultures where a woman and her whole family can be shamed if that drop of blood doesn’t stain her wedding sheets, revirginization is a real concern.

Many “born again virgins” regain their virginity by abstaining from sex for an extended period of time before their weddings to restore a sense of newness, mystery, and sacredness that is revered in our notions of virginity. For some couples, the pledge to become virginal once again is enough, and perhaps more meaningful than an outpatient procedure that reconstructs the hymen for a couple thousand dollars.

I don’t want to downplay the significance of virginity in many religions and cultures worldwide. Neither do I want to dismiss the serious social repercussions that a woman may face if she is thought not to be a virgin on her wedding night. However, I wonder what a drop of blood truly symbolizes and whether its preservation and re-creation is worthwhile. Why is it that women have to face plight if they have had premarital sex, but a man’s virginity is never questioned? Indeed, men are often ridiculed for being virgins, while women are thought of as being promiscuous, immoral, and worthless if they are sexually experienced.

While hymenoplasty is certainly a voluntary surgery, the cultural norms that inspire a woman to undergo such a procedure reflect a society that psychologically keeps women in fear of God or public humiliation for doing what she chooses with her body. On that note, if you want to reconstruct your hymen for whatever reason, sister, go right ahead. The very fact that this surgery exists gives it validity, but I hope that one day we will live in a world where a woman won’t have to consider vaginal surgery to escape persecution or condemnation for what she does with her own body.

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Comments

1

DO YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON SURGERY IN THE MONS AREA OF A BODY ( I THINK THAT IS WHAT IT IS CALLED, THE FATTY MOUND ABOVE THE VAGINAL AREA),AFTER LOSING WEIGHT, Y IS VERY BIG AND JUST HANGS, I HATE IT.IS THERE ANY INFO YOU COULD SEND ME? THANK YOU..

r. panter
about 1 year ago

2

I cannot believe that this writer is so ignorant! Hymenoplasty is a life saving operation for women in many cultures!!! The failure is more than embarrassment it would mean death!
Many women have labia that is long an is source of discomfort and excess skin after losing weight can be removed.

Rio
about 1 year ago

3

Someone posted a comment about the mon's area and how to find out information on reconstructing that area of the woman's body. Could I receive some info on the same topic, because I have self-esteem issues due to that alone.

A. Richard
about 1 year ago

4

I think it's a good thing i guess for our technology but I don't think it is fair for those of us women that are staying true to their virginity

LoOpY
about 1 year ago

5

hello my nameis lana i am from bolton my problem is that i lost my virginity i dont know what i can do i need your help plaese help me i dont want that my famile know about it i need to be a screit please tell me waht i have to do how much gona cost me and where in bolton can i do in praivet plaes or where please help me i dont want any bode know thank you verye much i waite for your masseg

lana
about 1 year ago

6

Rio: The writer is not ignorant. Yes, she realizes that the issue of bleeding on the wedding night is a religious and moral value, and she addresses that. What she is trying to say though, is that it is wrong for those cultures and religions to place such an emphasis on a WOMAN'S virginity, while the same issue for men is non-existant. I completely agree. By placing such a high value on a woman being a virgin (or seemingly so), you are basically putting a price on a woman.

I am absolutely disgusted that such a backwards way of thinking is accepted in certain cultures. I truly feel sorry for the women who feel the need to become 'virgins' again to please their family.

Saira
12 months ago

7

This, like most male centric and psychotic idealization of the woman in the three sky god religions is massively absurd and detrimental to their female adherents.
People should understand that basis of "religion" is taken as a given and that is the problem. It exists ONLY in the imagined yet wants to be validated in reality where it would have to be subject to rules of objectivity and rationality (yes it would otherwise it stays in the imagined).
Feelings are not equitable nor substitutable for knowledge and should never be deferred to under no circumstance. If religion wants "equality" it MUST do so by the requirements of reason and not by pressuring its opponents by the use of guilt or force.
In every aspect that is important for human beings experience is what is prized; you would never hire a lawyer, doctor, even a sewer and drain person without experience; what then is it believed that a woman ignorant of herself and the beautiful art of sex considered valuable? I'll tell you why, insecurity of men. The idea that they they may not be up to a standard. Ask many older women who grew up during the periods where religious "morality" reigned and you will see how many have never experienced and orgasm.
I want a woman with experience so that I may talk and discuss this life that she's lead and what she's garnered from it in addition to having great, amazing and mind blowing keep me smiling for days and make me want to have it again as soon as possible sex.
I had a muslim lover and she told me, after 3 children and being married for more than 7 years, that with me she feels like a "woman" more than her husband ever did. She can't bring herself to have an orgasm through vaginal coit (she still can't relax well with herself) but I brought her a pocket rocket and she now masturbates (which she didn't do before) as often as she can and experience orgasms where she's even ejaculated.
As for the person who mentions the long uncomfortable labia, I personally love that. My present companion was told by a man that women with long internal labia like hers were lesbians and since her sexual education was never made she even thought about having and operation to reduce them; what an awful thing. Now she loves them because I've had her read stuff from Simone de Beauvoir to Nancy Friday to Virginia Wolf and she feels comfortable with her body. (yes she gets excited when she shaves and it rubs against the clothes when she walks around). I wouldn't impose my desires on another but I also wouldn't let my partner mutilate herself. There is no standard of beauty. Value exists only on our minds and nowhere else; look at what is considered "beautiful" in different cultures.
I think women are extremely beautiful and since I don't have a hard and inflexible standard of beauty, I approach every human female in function of her structure and take it as that.
If ignorant men think that their honor, which should come from their ability to reason and discern as well as possible the reality in which they live, is linked to a woman's vagina and that this affords them the right to dispose of them as if they were worse than chattel then I say do onto them as they would to others. In my experience men who tend to be violent toward women are in reality very weak and when in the presence of strong males cower. If that is the level at which we have to deal then so be it. A pig is a pig is a pig and dressing it up doesn't change that.

A male
9 months ago

8

By the way, the greater majority of straight males would not reduce their appendage for all the money in the world. They would add to it but not the inverse.
Also the word discomfort use by some women describes what exactly?
Women in order to be beautiful remove body hair and do all sorts of things to be beautiful or feel comfortable in a very artificial world.
This is all very disturbing to me; but I'm starting to give up on human beings.

A male
9 months ago

9

hello...i was raped and ihave lost my virginity, i had a sexual intercource witht that guy under force for a year ,but i reconstruct my hymen and that was 5 years ago, and i want to get married now, will my husband discover what happened to me through the sexual intercourse? coz i am afraid that the vaginal muscle was relaxed...will the vaginal muscle come back to the situation as it was before ?

female
2 months ago

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