Read Online Virgin: The Untouched History by Hanne Blank - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Hanne Blank
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their prenatal estrogen bath in the mother's womb, the hymens of very young girls (approximately under the age of two) can in some cases be more elastic than those of girls just a few years older. As the effects of the fetal hormone bath wear off, the elasticity of the vagina can correspondingly decrease and its tissues become more, fragile. Then, as puberty arrives, a girl's own estrogen increases enormously and with it, so does the elasticity of her genital tissues.
Thickness and resilience of hymen tissue also varies. In general, the hymen is thinner than an eyelid. Many are described as being translucent. Some are so thin and fragile that it is impossible for doctors to examine them without damaging them in the process. Others are thicker, even rubbery. Researchers have found that some hymens remain fairly thick, others remain fairly thin, and still other hymens may become thinner over time.
The thickness, thinness, and relative fragility of different hymens often complicate attempts to make virginity diagnoses based on what the hymen looks like. Some more or less disintegrate on their own. Others are quite robust and can be shoved around rather roughly without looking any worse for wear. Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century gynecologists sometimes explained away women who did not bleed the first time they had intercourse as having "complacent" hymens, meaning that the hymen was so elastic as to simply bend or fold on impact. The knowledge that the female genitalia could simply "give in" to penetration without struggle or damage was itself sometimes used to cast aspersions upon a woman's chastity, on the assumption that any woman who could disguise her sexual indiscretions probably had already done so. Some women who believe that they never had hymens because they did not bleed or feel pain the first time they had sex may simply have hymens that are sufficiently sturdy to bend instead of breaking.
Because we're taught to think of hymens as inherently fragile, the notion of a resilient hymen is especially intriguing. Some hymens are so resilient that they endure years of sexual intercourse quite handily, only to be discovered during prenatal gynecological exams or even in childbirth. In the January 2002 edition of Midwifery Today E-News, midwife Brenda Capps reported her attendance of the labor of a young first-time mother who had a thick, very resilient septate hymen that had apparently survived intercourse with no sign of damage and had to be cut to allow the baby to be born.
An even more impressive case is the topic of a 2002 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Gynecology report about a Taiwanese woman in her early thirties. Diagnosed with an imperforate hymen at thirteen, this patient had surgery to correct it. Despite the surgery, the hymen grew back, and she underwent a second hymenotomy when she was eighteen. Everything seemed fine for some time, and the woman married and became pregnant, delivering by caesarean section. At the time that she gave birth, doctors noted that her hymenal orifice was quite narrow. The patient admitted that her husband had a problem with premature ejaculation and that she rarely, if ever, felt penetration during their sexual encounters. (The underappreciated fact that lack of penetration is no barrier to pregnancy is certainly one of the morals to this story.) Whatever the nature of this woman's sex life, it must have been sufficient to the task, for the patient soon became pregnant a second time. When she arrived at the hospital to give birth, however, the doctors discovered that her hymen had once again resealed. The baby was delivered successfully by caesarean, and the patient was given a third hymenotomy. One hopes that the old maxim "third time's the charm" held true, and that this woman and her incredible resealing hymen have required no further run-ins with the scalpel.
At the far opposite end of the spectrum are the fragile hymens. Not a lot is known about fragile hymens
Thickness and resilience of hymen tissue also varies. In general, the hymen is thinner than an eyelid. Many are described as being translucent. Some are so thin and fragile that it is impossible for doctors to examine them without damaging them in the process. Others are thicker, even rubbery. Researchers have found that some hymens remain fairly thick, others remain fairly thin, and still other hymens may become thinner over time.
The thickness, thinness, and relative fragility of different hymens often complicate attempts to make virginity diagnoses based on what the hymen looks like. Some more or less disintegrate on their own. Others are quite robust and can be shoved around rather roughly without looking any worse for wear. Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century gynecologists sometimes explained away women who did not bleed the first time they had intercourse as having "complacent" hymens, meaning that the hymen was so elastic as to simply bend or fold on impact. The knowledge that the female genitalia could simply "give in" to penetration without struggle or damage was itself sometimes used to cast aspersions upon a woman's chastity, on the assumption that any woman who could disguise her sexual indiscretions probably had already done so. Some women who believe that they never had hymens because they did not bleed or feel pain the first time they had sex may simply have hymens that are sufficiently sturdy to bend instead of breaking.
Because we're taught to think of hymens as inherently fragile, the notion of a resilient hymen is especially intriguing. Some hymens are so resilient that they endure years of sexual intercourse quite handily, only to be discovered during prenatal gynecological exams or even in childbirth. In the January 2002 edition of Midwifery Today E-News, midwife Brenda Capps reported her attendance of the labor of a young first-time mother who had a thick, very resilient septate hymen that had apparently survived intercourse with no sign of damage and had to be cut to allow the baby to be born.
An even more impressive case is the topic of a 2002 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Gynecology report about a Taiwanese woman in her early thirties. Diagnosed with an imperforate hymen at thirteen, this patient had surgery to correct it. Despite the surgery, the hymen grew back, and she underwent a second hymenotomy when she was eighteen. Everything seemed fine for some time, and the woman married and became pregnant, delivering by caesarean section. At the time that she gave birth, doctors noted that her hymenal orifice was quite narrow. The patient admitted that her husband had a problem with premature ejaculation and that she rarely, if ever, felt penetration during their sexual encounters. (The underappreciated fact that lack of penetration is no barrier to pregnancy is certainly one of the morals to this story.) Whatever the nature of this woman's sex life, it must have been sufficient to the task, for the patient soon became pregnant a second time. When she arrived at the hospital to give birth, however, the doctors discovered that her hymen had once again resealed. The baby was delivered successfully by caesarean, and the patient was given a third hymenotomy. One hopes that the old maxim "third time's the charm" held true, and that this woman and her incredible resealing hymen have required no further run-ins with the scalpel.
At the far opposite end of the spectrum are the fragile hymens. Not a lot is known about fragile hymens
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