Virginity: Blood-stained sheet on first intercourse not always scientifically correct — Medical Practitioner

A virginity test is illegal and a blood-stained sheet on first intercourse is not always scientifically correct, Dr Oluwajimi Sodipo, a Consultant Family Physician at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, declared in Ilorin on Wednesday.

He stated this at a workshop for primary healthcare providers, noting that the WHO had declared the practice as illegal.

He added that apart from the WHO declaration, the practice was archaic.

Virginity test is conducted for various reasons, chief of which are requests from parents or suitors to establish marriage eligibility of the female or employment eligibility.

The WHO describes virginity test as a gynaecological examination conducted in the belief that it determines whether a woman or girl has had vaginal intercourse.

Sodipo said that there was a global call by WHO to eliminate violence against women and girls, adding that the practice was medically unnecessary.

He added that the practice was oftentimes painful, humiliating and traumatic.

He argued that the concept of virginity test was a myth, as the absence of a hymen did not mean that a female was promiscuous.

“The perception that there must be blood-stained sheet at first intercourse to indicate virginity is not always scientifically correct,’’ Dr Sodipo stressed.