For The Ladies:Facts About The Hymen
When a woman starts to have intercourse, the tip of the penis generally breaks through the hymen. This often causes slight bleeding.
However, one study has suggested that only 43 per cent of woman bleed when they lose their virginity.
The hymen can also be broken by masturbation (particularly with dildos or vibrators) and by the use of tampons.
Traditionally, some doctors have claimed that it can be broken by exercise and particularly by horse riding or cycling. But the truth of that belief is uncertain.
Structure of the hymen
If you think of the vagina as a tunnel (which it is), just imagine that someone has draped a sheet across the entrance of the tunnel, so that most of it is blocked off. That's what the hymen is like.
Most females never see their own hymens, but in fact the membrane is just about visible if you part the vulval lips (the labia) and hold a mirror a few inches away.
The hymen is pinkish, and often it's shaped like a crescent, though many other forms may be seen.
In nearly all young women, there's a large gap in the membrane. In other words, it doesn't block off the vagina completely.
This is important, because the hole in the hymen allows the menstrual blood to come through when the girl starts having periods.
Imperforate hymen
Unfortunately, in a few young females there's no gap in the hymen, and this causes real problems when puberty arrives.
What usually happens in these cases of 'imperforate hymen' is that the girl has monthly symptoms of periods, such as abdominal pain and feeling bloated, but no bleeding occurs.
Inside her, the volume of menstrual blood gradually builds up over several months. It fills the vagina and then the womb and possibly the Fallopian tubes too.
This is a condition called haematocolpos.
Once someone has made the diagnosis, the treatment of haematocolpos is fairly easy.
A gynaecologist admits the young woman to hospital and cuts through the hymen to let all the blood out. The remains of the hymen are then cut away.
Once this operation has been performed, the patient should have normal periods. Later on, she should be able to enjoy sex and to have babies.
Tough hymen
In days gone by, it used to be claimed that many young women had 'tough hymens' and this made intercourse difficult or impossible. Some of them underwent surgery, in which a doctor cut through or removed their hymens.
However, about 40 years ago the researches of a group of British family planning doctors showed that in many of these cases, the hymen wasn't tough at all.
The reason why sex was difficult or painful was that the patients had vaginismus, a common psychological condition in which the muscles tighten up whenever any approach is made to the vagina. The family planning medical officers were able to cure the majority of young women by teaching them special relaxation techniques.
Having said that, it's true that in a few cases the hymen genuinely is rather tough, and this creates problems with intercourse. Removing it should solve the difficulty.
There are other rare structural problems of the vagina that can be cured by surgery.
Hymen tags
After the hymen has been broken, a ring of little pink 'tags' is left at the lower end of the vagina. They are also known medically as carunculae myrtiformes.
Usually they just shrink up over the years, so that by mid-life there is very little left of them.
But very occasionally, hymeneal tags may cause discomfort or pain during intercourse.
In such cases, it's well worth trying a sex lubricant. But if that doesn't improve matters, a gynaecologist can do a small operation to remove the tags.
Hymen reconstruction (restoration of virginity)
In some cultures, it's very important for a young woman to appear to be a virgin when she gets married.
The fact is that most bridegrooms wouldn't have the faintest idea whether a female is virgin or not!
But communities that set great store by premarital chastity tend to believe that all virgins will bleed when their hymens are broken.
And there's often an expectation that if the female is chaste, she must stain the sheet with blood when she first has sex.
Because of such traditions, there's a thriving market in so-called 'restoration of virginity' operations.
A large number of surgeons do this 'op' (for hefty fees) in cities such as London, Tokyo and New York and on the Indian sub-continent.
It's not available on the NHS. The procedure is known as 'hymenoplasty' or 'hymenorrhaphy.'
What it involves is raising a small flap of vaginal lining, so that there appears to be a hymen again. Stitching hymeneal tags together may help.
If it's done well, the operation creates a small obstruction that will be noted by the bridegroom. When it's broken it should bleed slightly.
Of course, the operation doesn't really restore your virginity, and legally you remain non-virgin. Also, you should remember that to have this operation is to practise a deception on your new husband – and perhaps on his family too. If they ever found out, you would technically be vulnerable to legal action.
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