I have no idea why this thought popped into my head (especially while watching the film ‘the nature of existence’, or maybe I do…), but it’s here and gnawing at me.
How did he hymen evolve?
There are no “he hymens.” There are only “she hymens.”
It is a total seal inside the womb for the fetal child, and only sightly opened after being born. It may be a way to minimize infectious stuff from entering or may be needed in the womb for some development.
Uhh, what?
Consider. Source.
The last time I saw anything on this was in an old SD column, and the answer back then was “no one knows what hymens are for”.
The hymen is a membrane that covers the vaginal hole. As such, it’s pretty much destroyed when the woman has sex for the first time, and can’t therefore seal the womb for the fetal child, for obvious reasons.
But it can seal the child’s womb, can’t it?
We’re all hymens after all.
Actually, I looked up hymen on Wikipedia and according to the article there it often survives sex. It’s birth that destroys it pretty much completely.
Makes me wonder how often virginal women faked that old “blood on the wedding bed” test.
I think the description is meant to indicate it seals the womb of the fetal child. (If it’s a girl, of course.)
Except it doesn’t. My understanding is that cases in which the hymen forms a complete, hermetic seal are rare - and for that matter, problematic at menarche.
Sorry, that should have been ‘the’ hymen. I was typing away at my iPad and didn’t notice.
The child’s womb is the one that is sealed, it would be sort of idiotic to say it’s the mother’s
Not inside the womb:
From Hymen - Wikipedia
Interesting. Surely there are rare cases where it is perforate/absent long before birth. What happens in these cases? Infection? a plague of locusts? Nuclear armageddon?
Probably nothing of note. Many people have little ‘abnormalities’ that have little effect on their health, but perhaps sealing the womb during fetal development has some advantages small as them may be. Perhaps even having the hymen after birth partly sealing the opening until it needs to be opened has a slight advantage as well.
Just a silly silly though on this and I don’t know if it’s even possible. Not that that has ever stopped me in the past.
In the case of twins (and many species usually have multiples, so it would fit in with evolution a trait carried over to humans) maybe it’s possible that those cells from one fetus to be floating around the other fetus or maternal cells to be floating around with the fetus. The womb is a place designed to nurture and grow cells not genetically the same as it’s own, perhaps in a situation where the womb is not sealed these cells could attach and grow inside the womb of the developing fetus. Not that the fetus would have a baby, but those cells would be robbing the fetus of essential nutrients to grow.
Back in those days women/teen girls didn’t use tampons, didn’t ride bicycles, and didn’t do a host of other things that women/teen girls do these days that can break a hymen.
A passion for horse-back riding can go a long way towards ‘splainin’ to the new hubby why the Mrs. didn’t bleed on the wedding night. It’s the classic excuse women in many cultures have used for generations !
Slight hijack.
When my girlfriend and I had sex for the first time she bled. But she had had previous partners and said even when she lost her virginity there was no blood.
Did i break her hymen?