Scared, Your hymen is a mucus membrane that is located right at the opening of your vagina. During your embryonic development in your motherâs uterus, it covered your vagina so that any fluids and dirt was kept outside your developing body. Just before you were born, a hormone surge should have made the membrane thinner and opened up at least one hole in it. The hymen literally separated your insides from your outsides inside your mother's uterus. Today it still indicates the spot where your vagina and vulva meets.
Research showed that all female babies get born with a hymen. Before puberty it is a fairly thin, whitish and tight membrane
Once you hit puberty, the estrogen surge you experienced should have made it thicker again, made it fold back onto itself to form a thick ring around the outside edge of your vagina. This ring is very flexible. Once this happens, the hymen will not be that easy to tear or destroy. Tampons, masturbation and even sex can leave the ring partly in place. Only at child birth, will these hymenal remnants be totally gone and only a small ridge will be felt around the vaginal entrance.
Before puberty the hymen will tear pretty easy as it is stretched thin and tight. Falling on your crotch (straddle injuries), gymnastics, horseback riding, martial arts, dancing or sticking something into your vagina could have caused it to tear.
When the hymen tears, it will often heal itself if left alone. Whenever it tears down to the vaginal wall, it will form a notch. After you get sexually active, it might leave behind some small âflapsâ around the vaginal entrance.
When your hymen tears, it can be painful and bleed. It can also happen without you even knowing about it.
Masturbation by inserting something large into your vagina, fingering, fisting and intercourse will cause the hymen to be worn away.
There are a number of things that can go wrong with your hymen. The hole can take on many shapes (use the google to search the interwebs for 'hymen shape'). Two shapes are particularly troubling: septate (2 holes with a fleshy and lose 'bridge' between them) and imperforate (completely closed). These two shapes can cause problems with sex, masturbation and menstruation (keep fluid inside or make tampon use very difficult). A simple surgical incision can solve these two problems.
If you have not done so yet, wash your hands and groom your fingers to remove sharp edges from your nails, get a mirror, lock your door and take a good long look at your genitals. Open your big and small lips with your fingers, pull back the hood over your clitoris and look at the color, shape and texture of everything. This will be an invaluable help to you when you can spot changes that take place in your genitals. Feel and look around the edge of your vaginal entrance for your hymen or what is left of it. If you feel like it, you can even stick a finger inside your vagina to feel for your cervix. It is right at the top end of your vagina. It feels like the tip of your nose with a small dimple in the middle. Don't worry; if your hands are clean, there are no harm that can be done and nothing that you can break inside. Your vagina is closed at the top and the little hole in your cervix is MUCH too small to poke anything inside it. Your cervix will move around in your vagina, depending on where in your monthly cycle you are. When you ovulate and are fertile, it moves up (higher), it will feel soft like your facial lips and the hole in the middle will be more open. When you are infertile (10 days before your menstruation and a few days after your menstruation), it will be low and feel firm like the tip of your nose.
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