What's the point of a hymen?!

The hymen (or maidenhead) is a ring of tissue around the vaginal orifice. "Hymen" is a Greek word meaning "virginal membrane" or "thin skin". Hymen was also a Greek god of marriage.

The hymen is shrouded in myth. One myth is that the hymen completely occludes the vaginal orifice in human females. But this is quite rare.

Another myth is that the human hymen is the same in all females. However, there is much variation. There are in fact four distinct forms of hymen (annular, septate, cribriform, and parous introitus) based upon its general configuration. The many variations in the "normal" hymen are very important for doctors to understand. Otherwise, they risk, among other things, the misdiagnosis in a child sexual abuse case.

This is a point made recently by Drs A K Myhre and two colleagues from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children

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