‘Premarital exams’ for women are popular in Utah. Some experts say they send a bad message.

By Marisa Iati
Oct. 23, 2019 at 7:23 p.m. EDT

Jennifer Gunter said she nearly fell off her chair when she saw the headline on the University of Utah’s medical center website.

Getting ready for your wedding night with a premarital exam.

Gunter, an OB/GYN and the author of “The Vagina Bible,” says she had never heard of a premarital exam. And, she said, some of the medical advice it seemed to offer was concerning.

In a Sept. 9 blog post, Gunter described what she saw on the University of Utah Health website: the suggestion that a woman schedule a premarital exam “to confirm that her body is ready for sex” and explore using a vaginal dilator, as first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune. The health-care system also suggested a link between condoms and urinary tract infections, and it recommended that women consider getting antibiotics in case they develop a UTI on their honeymoon.

“It seems very patriarchal to me and not scientific,” Gunter told The Washington Post. “And certainly I’m unfamiliar with any of these practices.”

Premarital exams are considered first gynecological visits in which doctors also try to educate women about their sexual health and forge relationships with them. Experts say women learning about their bodies is positive but that these exams sometimes promote scientifically inaccurate information, make sex sound like a medical condition and imply that women need preparation for sexual intimacy that men do not.

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