"U.S. women seek a second first time with hymen surgery" [View All]

[Inland]

I first thought this was for those cultures putting a heavy emphasis on female viginity at marriage, but then the opening paragraphs:
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05349/622923.stm
Thursday, December 15, 2005

By Amy Chozick, The Wall Street Journal

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.
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Okay, if my wife spent five grand on surgery that might give her complications "down there" in order to have painful sex, I'd think seriously of getting her mental help. If she wants to pretend to be a virgin, there are better ways. Playing Baron Von Rodd and the Innocent Milkmaid, for example.

But the traditional societies have a different look at the practice: it's a form of consumer fraud, to which the modern women says, all's fair in love and marriage:

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"What people forget is that Islam teaches us to be honest and fair," Ms. Mazhar says. "A family should think about this before they present a woman as a virgin when she's not."

Ridgewood's Ms. Vanegas concedes her business is based on deception. But she says hymen repair is no different than other cosmetic procedures -- from waxing to Botox injections -- that women use to impress men.