For conservative people, they always associate hymen with virginity.  In fact, in the early days, virginity is important and for them, hymen should be intact. Thus, during coitus on the night of their marriage when bleeding is not evident, the husband thinks the woman they married to is not a virgin. As a result, consequences occur like public embarrassment, torture and in some point, even death. Perhaps, the idea of hymen being linked with virginity can be traced to Hymenaeus, or Hymen, the son of Apollo who personifies marriage.

But in most current health articles, they beg to differ from that standpoint. For them, the hymen, although part of the anatomical structure of the reproductive organ of females, it can be torn even without sexual intercourse. Athletes, dancers or even women engaging in strenuous activities can likely tear their hymen. Even putting tampons on during menstruation can cause this problem. There are even health articles wherein cases of breaking of hymen happen even for no particular reason. Because of that, it has always been a health tip for women that although hymen may be torn, it is not an indicator or losing virginity.

Still, hymen can be torn in an intercourse. They say that bleeding and pain are the symptoms of a breaking hymen once in an intercourse. Health tips say that this is a normal process and it will just stop after a while. However, current health article say that even when a woman'shymen is intact, as long as a sperm is in contact with the vaginal area, and the woman is fertile, pregnancy can likely occur.

At present, according to health articles, there are 3 types of hymen- The microperforate, septate and imperforate hymen. The microperforate hymen is when the membrane is almost closes the opening of the vagina. During menstruation, tampons cannot be used however, menstrual flow can still happen. to correct this, surgical intervention should be done by the doctors. The other type, septate is when there are 2 vaginal openings making it hard to use tampon during menstrual period. The doctors usually make a minor surgery correcting the vaginal opening and making it only one. Lastly, an imperforate hymen is when the membrane completely covers up the whole vaginal opening. Since there is no vaginal opening, the blood during menstruation goes up into the abdominal area making abdominal cramps or back pains. Treatment involves surgery but this can't be done until adolescence since it is where menstruation starts.