?Unique.? It?s not the word you want to hear as a doctor examines your two-year-old daughter?s vagina. Especially when you have no context. Especially when you hadn?t noticed anything ?unique? about it yourself. But that was the word used by the on-call physician as he stumbled over my daughter?s symptoms. Eventually, he spit out a more descriptive term, labial adhesion.
My daughter had repeatedly expressed that her ?gyna hurt? over the course of the day. My first instinct was a bladder infection, a hypothesis backed by a Google search. But we had been to the beach that week, too?maybe she had some irritation from the sand" Labial adhesion definitely hadn?t come up in my search. In fact, in 33 years of having my very own vulva, it wasn?t even something I had heard of.  The doctor pulled apart the outer lips of my two-year-old?s vagina, and revealed a full fusion of her labia. My heart sank. ?Isn?t that where the opening to her cervix is supposed to be"? He nodded. ?But it?s not there,? I said. ?There isn?t a hole where her cervix is supposed to be.?  
Having been born in the midst of the pandemic, most of my daughter?s doctor appointments were virtual. Was it possible her fusion was missed" And if it had been, was her anatomy fully developed" Did she have a uterus" Would she be able to have children one day" Could she be intimate as an adult" My mind spiraled through every possible ?what if.? Augmenting those concerns was a hand-drawn d...