THE PRACTICE OF VIRGINITY TESTING: EXPLORATORY STUDY IN THE LIÈGE REGION

Abstract

In October 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed the urgent need to put an end to the practice of virginity tests (and associated certificates), which are still widely practiced throughout the world, which have no solid scientific basis and which are harmful to the patients who are victims of them; and cited Belgium in the list of countries where these tests and certificates would still be current without quantitative data to support them. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to carry out a quick inventory of the practice of virginity tests and certificates in the Province of Liege. Our results confirm the assertions of the WHO and suggest that this practice is far from being anecdotal: one out of ten active practitioners in general medicine or in gynecology-obstetrics would indeed have already performed at least one virginity test in their career. Moreover, our study also indicates a lack of knowledge on this subject insofar as more than one in ten respondents declare that they do not know whether virginity tests are scientifically founded or not.