Why do Russians restore their virginity and how much are they willing to pay for it

It's easy to lose your virginity these days, but it's also easy to restore it. They do this in order to preserve their honor, and sometimes their life (if we are talking about the Caucasus), to please the man they love, or ... to once again sell their innocence for a round sum. A good demand for virginity restoration operations has created a special market, with its own leaders and pricing policy.

If we talk about the term "virginity", it is not medical and not scientific at all. The World Health Organization believes that this is rather a religious and socio-cultural concept, which means the state of a person before the first sexual contact, whether it is a woman or a man.

The word "innocence" describes the physical side of the question much more accurately. In the case of women, anatomically, innocence means the integrity of the hymen (hymen). This is a fold of the mucous membrane with one or more small holes that closes the entrance to the vagina.

During the first sexual act, the hymen is usually torn and after that it is believed that the girl lost her virginity. This gap is called defloration, but it does not always occur during sexual intercourse. Therefore, WHO can not offer any perfect technique that could absolutely accurately determine whether a girl had vaginal sexual contact or not.

At the same time, according to the official statement of the same WHO, giving special importance to innocence is recognized as one of the types of gender discrimination.

According to information published by the Ministry of Health, in Russia, girls begin sexual activity at 16-17 years old. On average, before marriage, each woman has 1-2 sexual partners, and a man – 6-8. It is also known that from the moment of the first sexual contact to the registration of the first marriage takes about 10 years.

In recent years, Russians do not attach too much importance to whether a woman kept her innocence before the wedding or not. Every year, there are fewer and fewer men for whom this is important. If in 1989 only 6% of respondents considered premarital sex the norm for girls, then by 2014 this opinion was already held by 20% of respondents.

But there are also many who are sure that the girl should "save herself for her husband". Even in 2019, there were 33% of such conservatives among Russian men. There are also those who call those who lost their virginity before the wedding "second-rate" and do not consider them as potential life partners. It is these representatives of the stronger sex who provide the main part of doctors specializing in the restoration of virginity with work.

The simplest way to "restore" innocence can be considered a special capsule with artificial blood, which simulates a rupture of the hymen and bleeding during coitus. The cost of such an accessory is from 36 to 57 dollars (2600-4200 rubles).

But not everyone is ready to trust the Chinese set from Aliexpress in such an important issue. Therefore, the surgical operation to restore the hymen, the so-called hymenoplasty, is in demand all over the world. This not very complicated procedure can be performed not only by large hospitals, but even by private clinics – it is absolutely legal.

Of course, the biggest demand for such operations is in the Caucasus. For surgeons, "hot strada" comes before the so – called wedding season-at the end of summer. Andronik Demerchyan, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Sochi, says that many people recover what they lost during the holidays before going home.

Specialists distinguish between short-term and long-term hymenoplasty. In the first case, the surgeon stitches the remains of the hymen, and in the second, a new hymen is formed from the tissues located in the vagina. Doctors say that it is easier to restore recently lost innocence, and if after the rupture of the hymen years have passed and there were births, then the case, although not hopeless, is much more troublesome.

The cost of hymenoplasty in Russia, depending on the complexity of the operation, is from 30,000 to 60,000 rubles. The operation also depends on some nuances, for example, the anesthesia used. Most often, the intervention is performed under local anesthesia, but some patients want to get general anesthesia. Because of this, the price of the procedure can greatly increase and reach 100 thousand rubles.

Of course, there is a "gray" segment of the market – some surgeons perform operations illegally, without a license, or even at home. The services of such an underground specialist are cheaper, but the risks also increase significantly.

This is how plastic surgeon Andrey Kasyanov describes the main problems associated with "illegal immigrants". Unfortunately, tragic cases occur with such simple operations. In 2018, Zhazgul Sarbagusheva, a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, came to Moscow to undergo hymenoplasty. On the introduction of the painkiller lidocaine, the patient's body reacted with anaphylactic shock and the girl died.

The investigation of this case revealed a number of serious violations in the capital's clinic. It also turned out that the gynecologist who performed the plastic surgery of the hymen worked illegally. But even the risk does not stop women from the republics of the Caucasus and Central Asian countries. In these regions, virginity is inextricably linked to women's honor and its loss before the wedding can cripple the girl's fate and even cost her life.

For this reason, surgeons who provide services for the restoration of virginity in these regions are forced to advertise their services, carefully concealing themselves. It is not uncommon for doctors to be threatened or even attacked. For example, in Makhachkala, which is true to the traditions of Islam, journalists found six ads on Instagram about the provision of such services, but in five cases their messages were ignored, and in the sixth – they refused.

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, hymenoplasty is not a very popular medical service. In one of the Moscow clinics, representatives of the press were told that they were approached about this issue no more than once a month. Most of the women who want to regain their innocence are Muslim women from the Caucasus and Central Asia who live in Russian cities.