An ever-increasing number of females are undergoing taxpayer-backed ‘chastity restorative’ operations prior to getting hitched.

Over a hundred hymen-replacement operative procedures have been performed on the National Health Services (NHS) since 2005. The aggregate noted last year was thirty cases which has risen twenty-five percent from twenty-four cases during 2005.

The health services statistics that do not take account of facts on the religious or matrimonial standing of the people, appear to reverberate a ghastly trend cited by several privately run health facilities that have seen an overwhelming rise in demands for the operation from Islamic females shelling out around four thousand dollars for it.

Physicians point out that their clients are under immense pressure from imminent better-halves or relations insisting on the woman being a virgin on the wedding night.

Detractors inclusive of moderate Islamic factions have denounced the drift as an indication of the broadening of Muslim fundamentalist attitude to the Western hemisphere.

The hymenoplasty procedure deemed by many as invasive and down-right debasing is carried out as an in-office or outpatient clinic. The thirty to forty-five minutes lasting procedure involves suturing or reconstruction of the hymen after administering general or local anesthesia intravenously. This is done so that the hymen would split again and bleed during the conjugal night. In several situations, the lining of the vagina could be utilized for creating a fake hymen inside which a blood-filled capsule would then be placed for ensuring real bleeding during membrane rupture. Healing or complete dissolution of the sutures would take place in around six to eight weeks.

Such procedures are prevalent in the Middle East where it is must for a woman to be chaste till she marries. It is basically a cultural thing wherein the to-be husband and in-laws would verify whether the female is a virgin prior to marriage. In such regions, such matters turn out to be a huge disgrace leading even to divorces or honor killing. None other than Lady Diana was put through the chastity test.

Another group of women who opt for such procedures are those who have undergone abuse (for instance being raped or some form of sexually traumatic episode) and feel it as way of empowering themselves and figuratively restoring some aspect that has been robbed away from them.

Also, females in long-standing relationships opt for these procedures for providing their mate with an exceptional gift.

The costs for revirgination could vary in-between 2500 and six thousand dollars and there are generally no complications arising due to the procedure. Usually such procedures for repairing the hymen are solely conducted specially for securing physical or mental-emotional wellbeing.

The NHS does not provide backing for hymen restorative surgical procedure for cultural grounds. Surgeries on the NHS are performed based on medical requirement.