The New York Times shouldn't feel bad that it's wrong about the hymen. When I was doing a recent update on the hymen for the next edition of my book, I learned that a large number of healthcare providers can't even correctly locate it. More to the point, I was humbled (okay, mortified) to find that I'd written incorrect information about the hymen in the past.
So let's start with one of the statements that was in today's New York Times in an article titled "Surgery Offers Muslim Women Illusion of Virginity." The Times describes the hymen as "the vaginal membrane that normally breaks in the first act of intercourse." This aligns closely with the popped cherry myth that still echoes through the pillars of popular culture.
The cherry-popping myth has us believe that the hymen covers the opening of the vagina like a layer of Saran Wrap over a bowl of last night's leftovers. Or more fitting of how the myth gets enacted: like a butcher paper barrier that cheerleaders hold taut for the football team to explode through as the players march onto the field.
As I will try to explain in this post, a young woman's hymen usually changes as much as the rest of her body when she enters puberty. It not only changes shape, but it becomes more elastic--and it rarely goes pop. But first, let's see what modern science has to say about the Time's idea that the hymen normally "breaks" during the first act of intercourse.
A 2004 study published in the Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine reported "Subjects who admitted having past intercourse still had non disrupted, intact hymens in 52% of cases." This study of teenage girls found that "the mean width of the hymenal rim was 2.5 mm among the subjects admitting past intercourse and 3.0 mm among the group who denied past intercourse. This difference was not statistically significant..." (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:280-285) The difference between the rim on a hymen that is 3.0 mm and 2.5 mm thick is .12 inches versus .1 inches, or 2/100s of an inch difference. Good luck telling which is which with the naked eye!
A study of the genitals (especially the hymens) of pregnant girls published that same year in Pediatrics found that, "Despite definitive evidence of sexual contact (pregnancy), only 2 of 36 adolescents had genital changes that were diagnostic of penetrating trauma" (Pediatrics Vol. 113 No. 1 January 2004)
A 2002 study in Pediatrics investigated the question of whether hymenal measurements were useful in diagnosing previous penetration. After examining 386 children, the authors concluded, "Hymenal measurements are rarely useful as a diagnostic tool." (Pediatrics 2002;109;228-235)
As for the ability of the hymen to heal when it is injured, a 2007 study published in Pediatrics reports, "The hymenal injuries in these prepubertal and adolescent girls all healed rapidly and frequently left little or no evidence of the previous trauma... These findings reaffirm the remarkably complex healing process that occurs after a hymenal injury. (Pediatrics 2007;119;e1094-e1106) So even when the hymen does tear, it appears to have an amazing ability to heal and repair itself, at least in young women.
