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  • blueorchid
    Junior Member
    • Oct 2013
    • 2

    I had my hymen surgically removed yesterday!

    Hey, I'm 17 years old and up until about a year ago I had no idea that I didn't have a vaginal opening!
    I always thought I was always doing it wrong whenever I tried to insert tampons, but I never thought I didn't have an opening cause I get normal period every month.
    I raised my concerns to my GP who referred me to a gynecologist. After meeting with the gyno I found out it looked like I had absolutely no opening so she got her boss and she had a look, and they discovered I had my periods through a hole in my hymen that was the size of a pinprick. Yay, right?

    That was three months ago and yesterday I went to the hospital to have a "resection of redundant hymen" sounds fun right?

    Cause I'm still 17, I had to go into the children's ward and was the oldest one in the surgery waiting room. How embarrassing, hahaha. My lovely mother came with me and we sat in the waiting room for 5 hours :'( It sucked pretty bad. Not to mention I'd never had surgery before and I'm really scared of needles; so I wouldn't stop crying cause I was so scared. I was in a ward with kids from 2-10 years old and the 17 year old girl in the corner was the one crying, hahahaha.

    They called my name and I went and got into one of those fabulous hospital gowns and layed on my bed and proceeded to cry some more :P Then they wheeled me down the hall into theatre and my mum followed me trying to get me to stop crying, which worked. Then came the dreaded moment of them putting the IV in my hand and it didn't even hurt that much. It stung a little but that was it. I felt like the biggest wuss. Hahaha. Then my mum was led out of the room and the nurse told me she was putting the anesthetic in my IV and they gave me oxygen to breathe in and after 4 breaths I fell asleep.

    I woke up in recovery and apparently I wouldn't stop talking and repeating myself. The pain in my vaginal area when I woke up was pretty sore and I was crying cause it was really persistent so they gave me some morphine. I really had to go to the bathroom, so my Mum helped me out of the bed and helped me walk to the bathroom. I apologised to the nurses for bleeding on their bed and they just laughed at me. I sat down on the toilet and could feel the blood coming out, it just felt like a really heavy period. I passed urine and it stung quite a bit, but I've come to learn that leaning forward when I pee makes it much easier! I got dressed with the help of my mama. They used dissolvable stitches which is good. The whole procedure took half an hour, easy peasy I had some food to eat and beside being a bit wonky at walking and feeling a bit nauseous from the pain meds, I felt good and we went home. I felt super special being wheeled out in a wheelchair.

    Last night it hurt to sit down and get up so my lovely family was helping me around. I went to bed after taking some panadol and woke up this morning feeling absolutely fine! Practically no pain at all. I have to have salt water baths for a week or two, which are also painless. I'm still a bit tender when I sit down but it's seriously nothing. The surgeon actually said on top of having an microperforate hymen, I had a sort of secondary hymen that was a lot thicker behind it. Go figure. Double hymen.

    I wanted to post this here because the thing that made this whole experience a lot more stressful was the fact that there was next to no information on this kind of topic. Girls having imperforate, in my case; microperforate and others with septate hymens. I felt like I had this terrible abnormality when the GP told me she didn't know what was wrong. But it's a lot more common than you'd think. What isn't as common is making it to 17 years old before realising and having it fixed I have the rest of this week off school but I should be fine by monday~ They said no attempts at tampons or anything for 6 weeks, but to be honest I'm not that keen to try until everything is completely alright.

    Long story short, any girls out there who freak out over not having an opening, don't you worry. The corrective procedure is incredibly minor even though it seems a bit daunting.
  • jns
    Assistant Admin
    • Mar 2010
    • 8398

    A good description to help others who have similar situations realize that things should go fine with this type of surgery. It also shows that the gynecologist may not have seen such a situation before, but that doesn't mean that they cannot figure out how to correct things. The surgeon obviously knew what to do. Everybody is a little different.
    I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
    ...
    Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?

    From a speech by Patrick Henry on March 23, 1775 at St. John's Church, Richmond, Virginia

    Comment

    • blueorchid
      Junior Member
      • Oct 2013
      • 2

      Indeed! I wanted to post this here because I couldn't find any information on it when I was going into it so I'm hoping this can help others ^_^

      Comment

      • indihannahluu
        Junior Member
        • Aug 2016
        • 2

        Wow - thank you for all the detail! I don't have a microperforate hymen, but an extra thick one that hasn't seem to worn away, so I'm due surgery in a few months, having gotten my referral today. There's so little info on this problem (Couldn't even find it on the NHS page!) so it's really reassuring to hear your experience! Also, if you ever have something like this again (say after a smear test) when passing urine putting an already wet paper towel between your legs diminishes the pain really well. I know this is from years ago so you may not see it but you mentioned no tampons or anything but were you recommended stretching? I've been told I'll need to regularly stretch to avoid the build up of scar tissue, and was wondering if you had to experience anything like that - hope everything's cleared up for you now

        Comment

        • Healthquestions126
          Junior Member
          • Nov 2021
          • 2

          Loved reading this because I had a very similar experience !! Felt like I was abnormal and there was something really wrong with me because of lack of information on this topic. To anyone feeling like a weirdo I want to say that 1) you are not weird for having any type of variation of the hymen 2) Life is definitely easier if you go to a doctor and have the simple procedure. I realised I had a septate hymen at 14 waited for 4 YEARS until I told my mum and got it removed and man my life would've been a LOT easier if I had just got it removed at 14. Sending big hugs to everyone with this issue and lots of love xx

          Comment

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