(Dutch News) Dutch doctors have pledged to stop carrying out operations to “restore” women’s hymens, as one of a package of measures to tackle what ministers call “damaging practices” affecting mainly women and girls.
There were 120 hymen repair operations at Dutch clinics in 2018, broadcaster NOS reported, most of which took place in a commercial clinic and cost up to €1,100.
The operation, which involves a few stitches under local [anesthetic], is undergone by girls whose culture expects them to bleed the first time they have sex on their wedding night. Doctors are particularly opposed to the operation because there is technically nothing to “repair.”
“Family pressure on girls should not be a way to make money,” health minister Hugo de Jonge said.
