Ruling on vaginal reconstruction/tightening surgery
10-9-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
Is vaginal reconstruction/tightening surgery halal for me after two natural child births have been unkind to my body? What if the only doctor available is a male? Will I be punished for the money I spend on this cause? It seems like a luxury and I dont want to be gluttonous on myself. My intention is solely the satisfaction of my husband, and worry that he may fall into fitan if I don't please him. I want to have many children and increase the ummah inshaAllah, but the womans body changes in many ways in the process. Please let me know these answers iA.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
It is permissible for you to undergo what you call vaginal reconstruction/tightening surgery, which is performed to straighten and tighten the vaginal muscles, with the intention to please your husband, provided that your case has exceeded the limit of the normal case of a woman in the same condition as you. In this case, it is like any other surgery intended for medical treatment.
Besides, it is permissible for a woman to receive therapy from a male physician if there is a dire necessity or need, according to the opinion of some scholars, who put conditions for that including:
First: If there is no female physician available to offer that therapy, whether she is a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
Second: medical treatment should be done in the presence of one of her Mahrams.
Third: to expose only the place of ailment, and perfectly conceal all the other parts of her body.
Fourth: according to some jurists, the physician should be a trustworthy person.
Therefore, if this place of your body needs therapy, it would not be considered luxury, as it is permissible for one to spend on his/her therapy. But all of this is permissible only if the case has exceeded the limit of the normal case of a woman in the same condition as the questioner. But if the place is in its natural state, and has simply become wider because of repeated childbirth or old age, then, it is impermissible to undergo such surgery, for in this case that surgery is not required by a need considerable under Sharee‘ah, let alone a necessity, for which the woman would expose her private parts.