As Cecil points out in the column I linked to above, though, other animals including horses, moles and hyenas also retain the hymen in females up to sexual maturity, and there’s no evidence that males of those species prefer virgin females.
In fact, a sexual partner who has successfully bred with another partner is to some extent a better bet in reproductive terms than a virgin is, because she’s proved she’s fertile. (And in pair-bonding species, there’s a good chance that she’ll have a committed mate who will help support your offspring and increase their chances of survival, while you remain free to keep sowing your seed elsewhere.)
While I won’t disagree with Unca Cecil, the big difference is that we are the only ones possessing inteligence when it comes to hymens. Unlike animals we may be able to make a rational leap to Virginity=any offspring will have to be mine they can’t. That said, the connection between babies and sex in difficult and possibly impossible to pinpoint in human (and potentially early hominid) development so it’s hard to evaluate how much effect this would have.
Uh huh. And I bet you rode to the bed on the back of a kraken, and the condoms were pulled out of a leprechaun’s pot, and at the moment of orgasm, a million dollars shot out of your ass.
FWIW any time I go more than a couple of weeks without sex, it is uncomfortable the first time (and I’ve been with irishfella for nearly 9 years, so this isn’t about technique or size or anything like that).
Our “first time” after the birth of irishbaby (by c-section) was therefore somewhat less pleasant than I had hoped. Just for a second or two, then it’s all good.
So I think it really isn’t much to do with the hymen at all, but about things getting used to being stretched more than they are used to (and clearly some women “snap back” pretty quickly).
Of course. And (as I’m sure you know, but some readers may not), the hormones produced after childbirth tighten up the vagina, even if it hasn’t been stretched out with a vaginal birth. Post c-section sex can be…intense. “Uncomfortable”, in doctor speak.
(“Painful” to the rest of us!)
Except that that “rational leap” is a false inference. It’s perfectly possible to impregnate a woman without breaking her hymen.
And as you note, in humans the connection between sex and babies isn’t necessarily obvious anyway. AFAIK, we have no evidence for thinking that the human retention of the hymen was in any way due to sexual selection pressures (i.e., there’s no evidence that early hominid males preferred sex partners with intact hymens).
It is? Theoretically possible, I grant you, but perfectly possible? Aren’t too many literal virgin mothers out there. That’s a LONG journey for a sperm if it isn’t deposited right at the cervix.
I disagree. The pain I had the first time I had PIV sex was definitely from the hymen tearing; I haven’t felt anything else like it before or since. Also, I don’t experience anything like what you report (sex being uncomfortable after going without for a while).
