That's how I discovered I had a problem with my hymen. Warning: this article contains adult themes, and some external pages we've linked to contain anatomical images. Like most teens, I was a little nervous about using a tampon for the first time. I'd just got my period, right before a summer holiday where I'd been really looking forward to taking dips in the pool.
How wrong I was. Fast forward a couple of hours, and I was experiencing my first-ever panic attack after spending two hours desperately yanking at the string in an increasingly frenzied bid to remove it. I was clueless as to what had gone wrong and, even more scarily, so was the internet. But, the more I pulled, the more pain I was in. The bathtub solution? No luck.
My heart sank as I saw a thick, fibrous string of tissue stretching across the bottom of the now expanded tampon. Why was my own body conspiring against me? That was all I could think as my equally baffled mum drove me to hospital in a panic that night. She told me that the string-like piece of flesh was simply a part of my hymen that was yet to wear down and would gradually come away after I started having sex.
But the thought of experiencing that kind of pain again - especially in a situation that was supposed to be pleasurable - was horrifying. When she examined me, it was so painful that she was unable to confirm whether my suspicions were correct or not. But, after I explained what had happened with the tampon, she decided to refer me to a gynaecologist. In that sense it was actually a massive relief.
At this point, I opened up to my group of friends at school about what was happening, and they were really supportive - especially when I had to take a couple of days off school for the operation. Thankfully, the surgery was a complete success, and the physical recovery was pretty straightforward. My hymenal membrane had a band of extra skin stretching across the middle, creating two small openings rather than one. This is a congenital irregularity, meaning that I was born with it. Hymens can also be imperforate , microperforate or cribriform.
An imperforate hymen is where the vagina is totally, rather than partially, covered by an intact hymen, says consultant gynaecologist Dr Caroline Overton. Microperforate hymens have just a tiny opening and cribriform hymens have multiple small openings.
Since painful sex can be a symptom of a number of other conditions, from thrush to lack of arousal , people may not even realise they have a hymen abnormality. While all four are relatively rare, the imperforate hymen, which Dr Overton believes is the most common of the four, affects between one woman in every thousand and one in every ten thousand.
That means between 3, and 32, women in the UK may be affected. Unfortunately for Gemma, a hymenectomy wasn't the end of her problems, as it had been for me. Instead, she developed vaginismus , a condition where the vagina spasms and tightens when penetration is attempted, making tampon use and penetrative sex difficult or impossible. So, if someone discovers that they have an abnormal or perforated hymen, this could be very triggering.
Despite undergoing physical therapy, Gemma still struggles with the condition. It is an inescapable fact that I experience varying degrees of pain every time I engage in physical intimacy. Malformed hymens can carry physical risks as well as having psychological ramifications. Imperforate hymens, where the vaginal opening is completely covered, are most dangerous, as there is no way out for the period blood once menstruation begins.
There is no visible bleeding but the woman will have symptoms of monthly period pain. The enlarged vagina and uterus can cause pressure on the bladder, causing urinary frequency and pelvic discomfort. Learning more about the variation in vaginas made me think about how little understanding many of us have of our own bodies. This Country: 'Our life was like Parasite - but in the Cotswolds'. Georgia Watts 9 April Share this:.
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