What Is Hematocolpos?

Sometimes the defloration of a girl performs not by her loving man with slow music, candles and such, but in much less romantic conditions. Imagine the gynecological chair, crew of medical stuff around and a surgeon with a scalpel in his hand. Not a very inspiring picture, right? Unfortunately, hymenectomy or hymenotomy is sometimes the only way out to cope with congenital pathologies of a girl’s hymen. Among such pathologies is hematocolpos.

Hematocolpos is the gathering of blood in vagina. Some girls are born without any hole in their hymen. This congenital pathology can be treated only be surgery. It is not very frequent – one in a thousand girls is born with such intimate defect. It is called the atresia of the hymen. It develops on the fifth month of prenatal period. Normally, the hole in a hymen is developed to the moment of birth. It is a necessary element of a girl’s organism, because it allows mucosa and blood go out of the vagina. But when there is atresia, it does not happen.

If the doctors notice it at once after the girl is born, they inform her mother that the child requires gynecological control and an operation awaits for her in future. But sometimes it happen so that a girl grows without knowing about her pathology. In teenage years her belly hurts but menstruation does not begin. Pain appears every month and sooner or later becomes a reason to visit gynecologist. A belly can even increase in size because of the amount of blood gathered there.

The operation itself is not difficult, it lasts up to 15 minutes. The cross-shaped or longitudinal excision is made and the edges are stitched with special gut that does not need to be removed. When all the blood is removed from the vagina, a tube or tissue is inserted into vagina not to let it come back to its previous state. The postop period requires treating with analgesics and special intimate hygiene. Usually this operation do not cause any complications if performed professionally.