title: Is Hymenoplasty Anti-Feminist?
abstract: Hymenoplasty is a practice that must be judged from within its cultural confines and not only from outside. It offers women who have grown up within the sexual norms of a Western society the chance to return to their parental culture, with its female-specific virginity expectations. Hymenoplasty allows women to be sexually active prior to marriage, which equalizes the discrepancy between gender norms on premarital sexual experience. Caution is needed when comparing hymenoplasty to female genital mutilation. However, comparing hymenoplasty to other cosmetic genital modification procedures raises unique ethical, social, and medical quandaries that highlight the importance of patient's autonomy.
authors.affiliation: Dept OBGYN Denver Health, 777 Bannock St. MC 0660, Denver, Colorado 80204 USA. gretchen.heinrichs@udenver.edu.
authors.forename: Gretchen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heinrichs
mesh_terms: D018912:Arabs; D003075:Coitus; D005260:Female; D013509:Gynecologic Surgical Procedures / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D006924:Hymen / Q000601:surgery*; D007514:Islam; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics*; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000941:ethics*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000941:ethics*; D063507:Sexism; D012746:Sexual Abstinence; D012945:Social Values