“We are done! Everything is fine. You can go on with your life and get married now!” I said with joy. She replied “I don’t need to get married; I just wanted to fulfill my needs, and feel like a proper woman again”
Honestly, out of a million guesses, I wouldn’t guess a response like that. I was really surprised
Congenital malformations of the genital system are a delicate issue. Can you imagine how a human being supposed to live with abnormalities in the external genitalia, either in their development or in their function? I will pause here and give you a minute to imagine the life quality you are going to get in these conditions
As a gynecologist, I have seen quite a lot. I have met patient in agonizing pains, patients in grieve, patients with cancer and others in critical conditions. I have seen miscarriages and infertility. But this is something else. To meet a young lady who was born with congenital malformation of the external genitalia; and an under developed uterus and vagina, this was different
The bad news is that this condition is not as unique as you would think. Yes, there are thousands of women suffering from such malformation in the external genitalia. You see the tricky part here is that they would have normal ovaries, secreting the right amount of female hormones, making every single female sexual character present. But they still suffer from underdeveloped womb and vagina
This young lovely lady came to us from another Arabian country. She suffered for years, starting at the time of her puberty. She refused to get married till she finds a cure. Doctors in her country suggested a surgical intervention, to try to elongate her rudimentary vagina. They decided to use some of the skin in the thigh region. This was done by laparotomy “surgical incision and opening of the abdominal cavity”. And for a while they thought it was a success
She got married, only to find that the length of the vagina done by the surgery doesn’t exceed 3 cm. Of course this delicate issue made her marriage so complicated, and eventually she got divorced
And this wasn’t enough; she also had some pelvic adhesion, pain and an ovarian cyst as well
I can’t describe her frustration and despair when she first came to us. It wasn’t as easy choice to accept such a complicated case, but I couldn’t let her down without putting up a fair fight
The technique we used in her surgery is called “Davydov Procedure”. This is usually done by laparoscopy, but due to her previous surgery, we had to go with open surgery. This technique uses the peritoneal covering of the pelvic organs, to create a vaginal tract, and reconnect it with the outer opening. We had to remove the remaining of the skin used in the previous surgery, as well as the ovarian cyst
All I was hoping for at the time is meeting this lady a little bit earlier. All of this would have been done by laparoscopy instead
Only with God’s help, the surgery was successful. We were able to create an 11 cm vaginal tract, and by this she returned to being “a proper woman again” according to her prescription
This medical condition puts a great deal of pressure on the patient and the entire family as well. A lot of these patients live in fear and shame; they can’t even talk about this to the closest people in their life. Such pressure can lead to psychological problems; some of them might even have suicidal thoughts
This is my message today to every father and mother, in every corner in our Arabian nation and outside; this condition can be treated. And no one has to endure this pain by himself anymore
