Britain’s Clinics still offering to ‘restore virginity’ before marriage

An undercover investigation found that dozens of clinics, private hospitals, and pharmacies are offering controversial hymen repair surgery in Britain.

Some private clinics advertise that they can “restore virginity” using a surgery called hymenoplasty, in which scar tissue from the vaginal area is utilised to create a hymen.

Virginity tests are an intrusive and unscientific check to determine whether the hymen is intact.

Aneeta Prem, the founder of charity Freedom, said in an ITV documentary that the number of women and girls are undergoing hymenoplasty because they are being pressured to do virginity tests increased by 40% in the lockdown.

Women and girls are usually forced to do the tests by relatives who want to portray them as virgins. “Grooms’ families are getting more demanding, saying things like, ‘I know someone who has had a certificate,’ and ‘I want confirmation that this girl is a virgin,'” Prem added.

The Exposé

ITV’s Exposure found 20 doctors offering hymen repair surgery in over 30 clinics and private hospitals around the country, including London, Manchester, and Norwich, with fees ranging from £2,000 to £3,000.

ITV’s Exposure sent a reporter to Edgware Road in central London, where they were informed getting a virginity test was simple. The reporter pretended to be a bride-to-be who was annoyed that her mother-in-law was seeking a virginity check and went to nine pharmacies. Five people volunteered to take the test for them or connect them with someone who could. Some even issued a “proof” certificate.

A second reporter posed as the woman’s controlling mother and went undercover. She went to a drugstore by herself to schedule the test and informed the pharmacist that her “daughter” was upset about it. The manager accepted money without inquiring as to why the patient was absent or whether she had given her approval.

Ban Hymenoplasty

The World Health Organization says the presence of the hymen is not a reliable indicator of intercourse. Virginity testing is a violation of human rights and it needs to end.

Hymenoplasty or any other operation aimed at reconstructing the hymen has no clinical advantage, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It has demanded that such techniques be outlawed.

Victims Account

Naz failed a virginity test after being requested by the groom’s family. Her parents took her for a hymenoplasty against her will, where a doctor sedated her. She said, “They put me to sleep because I was very aggressive, I was kicking them.”

Naz did not bleed on her wedding night even after the surgery, her father tried to stab her and said, “she had brought shame on the family.” This incident damaged her life completely.

One woman Beyza (name changed) told how her parents took her for a virginity test at a pharmacy. In desperation, she admitted to her mother she had had sex.

She said, “It felt more shameful than not being a virgin. Why are you allowing this man I don’t know to touch me? It’s morally wrong, it needs to stop. And the fact they are making money out of it is disgusting.”

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Written by Ruth Jane