Virginity regained in Mumbai

Women in Mumbai are reconstructing their hymens in the hope it will help reconstruct their lives after pre-marital sex. Geetanjali Jhala reports.

Not long ago 25-year-old Ritu Patel felt depressed. She had returned from London after breaking up with her boyfriend Zeeshan Khan who had decided to go along with his parents’ wish to marry within his community.

She and Zeeshan had had sex during the three years they had been together. How would her prospective husband now react when he discovered she wasn't a virgin? And yet today she looks forward to marriage. Her confidence arose from a visit to a plastic surgeon who reconstructed her hymen.

It’s a 30-minute surgical procedure called hymenoplasty costing Rs 15,000 to 25,000 which has found many takers in Mumbai. A membrane is created about an inch into the vagina, using the flap of the vaginal lining. It heals fast, although patients are advised to refrain from activities like cycling for a few weeks. It leaves no scars. "Even so, I advise women not to go in for unnecessary surgery. After counselling, some of them change their minds," says gynaecologist Indira Hinduja.

But for many others, the social pressure to be a virgin bride is overwhelming, and the easy restoration of virginity irresistible.

"Hymenoplasty has been refined in the last few years. As awareness spreads, more women are coming forward to ask for the procedure," said Milind Wagh, plastic surgeon at Hiranandani Hospital, who does two hymenoplasties a month. He says women going for arranged marriages are sometimes accompanied by their mothers or aunts.

Sex before marriage is becoming commonplace in the city with more women getting financially independent and easier mingling of the sexes at work, gyms and parties. And yet the social expectation to be a virgin at the time of marriage remains undiminished, which fuels the trend for hymenoplasty. Even older women are going for it. "Women in their 30s have come to me for ‘revirgination’," said Mohan Thomas, a cosmetic surgeon.

Conflicting emotions follow the operation. Ritu Patel feels relieved that hymenoplasty has covered up her sexually active past. But she has pangs of guilt too. "I feel I'll be hoodwinking the man I marry," she said.
(Names of patients have been changed on request.)