Revirgination

Lightkeeper · #1 (**permalink**) 23rd December 2005, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Virgin Territory: U.S. Women Seek A Second First Time
Hymen Surgery Is on the Rise And Drawing Criticism; A Radio Station Giveaway
By AMY CHOZICK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 15, 2005; Page A1
For her 17th wedding anniversary, Jeanette Yarborough wanted to do something special for her husband. In addition to planning a hotel getaway for the weekend, Ms. Yarborough paid a surgeon $5,000 to reattach her hymen, making her appear to be a virgin again.

"It's the ultimate gift for the man who has everything," says Ms. Yarborough, 40 years old, a medical assistant from San Antonio.

Hymenoplasty, a controversial medical procedure known mostly for its prevalence in the Middle East and Latin America, is becoming popular in the U.S. Although there are no hard data, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says vaginal surgery, including hymenoplasty, is one of the industry's fastest-growing segments. Gynecologists are marketing hymenoplasty in magazines, local newspapers and online. They report business is booming.

Restoring innocence this way has sparked criticism. Religious groups that value abstinence until marriage say hymen repair is a deception. Some feminists liken hymenoplasty to female genital mutilation. In addition, hymen repair, unlike other types of reconstructive surgery, isn't taught in medical residencies. Some medical associations worry that surgeons might be improperly trained.

"Revirgination" costs as little as $1,800 at Ridgewood Health and Beauty Center, a spa and cosmetic-surgery center in the New York City borough of Queens. To promote the procedure, the center's owner, Cuban-born Esmeralda Vanegas, has given away hymenoplasties on a Spanish-language radio station. She also promotes them in her eponymous magazine, Esmeralda

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What is this saying about what we think about women? What does this say about society in general?

Would you do it? Would anyone want their spouse to do it? Who would anyone be fooling? Is it any different from any other plastic surgery? Is it important for us to put on a false front?

Rev. Rex · #2 (**permalink**) 24th December 2005, 06:14 PM

I think that this is very silly. Having an intact Hymen isn't what makes a virgin a virgin. To me, this is just another example of vanity, only sideways. It reminds me of the number of men in the US who each year undergo surgery to reattach the foreskin lost during circumcision, though there are at least some valid reasons for that.

I guess that if it makes this lady happy, more power to her.

Taphophilia · #3 (**permalink**) 27th December 2005, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rev. Rex

I think that this is very silly. Having an intact Hymen isn't what makes a virgin a virgin. To me, this is just another example of vanity, only sideways. It reminds me of the number of men in the US who each year undergo surgery to reattach the foreskin lost during circumcision, though there are at least some valid reasons for that.

I guess that if it makes this lady happy, more power to her.

How can you reattach a foreskin? I mean if it's gone there is nothing there to reattach.

Rev. Rex · #4 (**permalink**) 27th December 2005, 01:07 AM

They do a skin graft from a patch of skin from the small of the back, as I understand it. The operation is something like 99.7% successful, and the information at the doctor's office said that up to 10,000 men per year have the operation. Apparently the main reason is to gain the increased sensitivity during sex. I was personally very curious when I heard about that since I'm uncircumcised, and I asked several women I know and trust, what THEY thought...one of them was my wife, though she is biased. Every single one of them said that an uncircumcised man seems much more sensitive to her own movements so that he moves with her better, but I haven't found any other reasons for having that operation, then enhancing the enjoyment part of it. At one time, it was a medically sound practice to circumcise, but it isn't anymore, at least in the US. (I was born a month premature, so the doctors were a bit more concerned with keeping me alive than with doing what is basically cosmetic surgery.)

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