‘Virginity tests’ are unreliable and invasive, but doctors still get asked to perform them

“Anybody who perpetuates the idea that virginity has anything biological to do with it is incorrect and they should be told that,” Jennifer Gunter, a gynecologist who writes about women’s health issues, told CNN.

“Virginity is a patriarchal, social construct. So keep medicine out of it.”

It’s a test based on myths and outdated ideas

The so-called “virginity test” is typically performed one of two ways:

“There’s this idea that the hymen is this barrier that remains intact until some Prince Charming comes and ‘opens it’ and ‘pops the cherry,'” said Ranit Mishori, senior medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights and professor of family medicine at Georgetown University. “All of these horrendous ways of addressing the hymen are patently wrong.”

So, it’s extremely difficult, doctors say, for them to determine whether any change to the hymen is a result of penetrative sex or other causes.

Another supposed indicator of “virginity” is the presence of blood on the sheets after a woman has sex for the first time That’s a myth too.

It can have harmful consequences

Virginity tests can have damaging psychological consequences for girls and women.

Because there’s no equivalent for men, virginity tests imply that sex before marriage is only unacceptable for women.

“If someone’s asking for a hymen check, then what they’re saying to you is that it’s wrong to have sex before marriage,” Gunter told CNN.

Sometimes, the consequences of virginity testing are physical.

The sexual stigma perpetuated by the tests can drive women to risky behaviors. They might opt for oral or anal sex to preserve their virginity, doctors say, which can lead to sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, if practiced without protection.

It’s based on a narrow definition of sex

People who request virginity tests as evidence of whether a girl or a woman has had sex are missing the point, Mishori said.

There are many other ways to have sex besides vaginal penetration, and simply inspecting the hymen will not yield any instructive answers about whether a woman is sexually active, she said.

Another issue is that the tests don’t respect a woman’s autonomy and integrity, Mishori added: Why should a woman need to go through an exam to prove something about her sexual history? Why wouldn’t society simply believe what she says?

“It’s about trusting women, believing women and taking them at face value rather than subjecting them to outsiders being the arbiters of their behaviors, lifestyles or purity or character,” she said.

Finally, the idea that someone would even feel the need to assess whether a woman has had sex is a signal of how society determines her worth and desirability, Mishori said.

“There are a lot of social norms that all come into play through that little tiny piece of tissue,” she said.

Unfortunately, those social norms and misconceptions have formed over a long period of time, Mishori said, and dismantling them will be a challenge that extends beyond medical professionals.

And if the news this week is any indication, there’s still a lot of work to be done.