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Hither's what yous need to know (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.u.k.)

If you lot are a woman and oasis't had sex for a while, you may be concerned that things have changed.

Not with the human action itself (don't worry the basics are still the same) only with your trunk and, in particular, your hymen.

Online message boards are filled with concerned women who haven't had sex for several years and are unsure whether their hymen may accept grown dorsum.

Worries include if it means they are technically a virgin once again and if it is going to hurt when they exercise choose to have sexual activity once more.

The uncomplicated reply is no, your hymen volition non grow dorsum.

To explain why, I spoke to Dr Pandelis Athanasias, consultant gynaecologist at London Women's Eye.

Dr Athanasias said many people believed the hymen completely covered the vaginal entrance and breaks during vaginal penetration.

Yet, he said he would draw it as a small tear on a thin layer of tissue which is usually accompanied past some bleeding.

But why doesn't it grow dorsum again?

'The hymen tin't grow dorsum equally it'south just stretched and torn tissue without the ability to regenerate,' said Dr Athanasias.

'Nosotros occasionally have patients calling and requesting appointments in order to clarify whether they are however virgins.

'The hymen stretches and tears not just through penetrative sex but also during do or while inserting a tampon or other objects into the vagina.

'Also if a adult female relaxes, uses lubrication and digitally stretches the hymen, and so it might not tear during intercourse.

Lots of women take shared their concerns on online message boards (Film: Oscar Wong/Getty)

'So, y'all can't definitely tell if someone is a virgin if they take a hymen or is non a virgin if they don't have a hymen.'

Dr Athanasias said he occasionally has phone calls from women looking to have their hymen restored – particularly if sexual forbearance before marriage is important to their culture.

'In some cultures a adult female losing her virginity before spousal relationship tin have consequences, hence the requests for repair or restoration of the hymen,' he says.

'This is chosen hymenoplasty and can be performed with different surgical techniques under local or general anaesthesia.

'I don't perform those procedures and we don't have reliable statistics regarding the number of women undergoing hymen restoration surgery in the U.k. every year.'

Volition sex activity hurt if I haven't had sex for a while?

Ane of the other things you may be worried about earlier you jump back in the saddle (so to speak) is if information technology going to hurt?

You're not solitary.

Dr Athanasias said he spoke to many women who have concerns when they are resuming sex later on months or years of abstinence.

If it volition injure or non (and how much it may hurt) will vary depending on your historic period.

What is a hymen?

A hymen is a thin layer of tissue that partially covers the opening of the vagina – partially non completely.

Information technology's unremarkably plant one-2 cm inside the vaginal opening.

When a adult female has vaginal penetrative sex for the offset time, the hymen usually stretches and/or tears.

It doesn't only happen with sexual intercourse.

The hymen can stretch or tear during exercise or tampon insertion.

'When the adult female is still in her reproductive years she might experience some discomfort because it tin take longer for the vagina to dandy and become lubricated during sexual arousal and the pelvic muscles aren't used to having sexual activity,' Dr Athanasias says.

'The symptoms usually resolve soon and a vaginal lubricant is all you demand.'

After the menopause and due to the lack of estrogen however, the symptoms volition take longer to resolve and will require treatment.

The vaginal lining becomes thinner, drier and after sore because of a condition called vaginal atrophy.

Sexual intercourse can exist painful and accompanied past vaginal haemorrhage.

And, while the average age of reaching the menopause is 51 years one-time, many women go through the modify prematurely.

(Picture: JohnnyGreig/Getty)

These women could be aged in their 30s or 40s and become through menopause either naturally or subsequently surgical removal of the ovaries or perchance subsequently chemotherapy to treat cancer.

'Nearly all women in this age group will exist sexually agile,' said Dr Athanasias (it's actually thought to exist 87% of 31-45-twelvemonth-olds).

'As the vaginal tissue becomes dry and thin, sex tin become very uncomfortable and many women fifty-fifty describe it as incommunicable.'

Your sex life doesn't have to be over – hurrah!

At that place are treatments available which mean you and your partner tin can continue to enjoy a good for you sexual practice life even later on menopause.

Dr Athanasias explained that vaginal lubricants and moisturisers can help but it is the local estrogen, which is available in vaginal foam or tablets, that aims to treat the underlying cause and not only the symptoms.

'The treatment of vaginal atrophy tin can be challenging when topical estrogen fails to make a departure or is contraindicated (cannot be used in sure cases),' he says.

'In the past at that place were non whatever available treatment options and unfortunately those women had to avoid sex and learn to live with their condition.'

Fortunately, in contempo years there have been developments to help make it more than comfortable for women to have sex later on the menopause.

At Dr Athanasias'southward clinic, he uses the CO2 vaginal laser therapy which, he says, has shown outstanding results in treating women with vaginal cloudburst and helping menopausal women to resume sexual intercourse.

Information technology has meant that women have been able to continue their sex life into old historic period.

He added: 'Many of my patients are in their 70s and 80s and the satisfaction rate afterward the treatment is most 90%.

'I used to be skeptical regarding vaginal laser treatments only later on traveling to the U.s. and Italy (pioneers in laser treatment) and talking to patients and clinicians I was convinced to introduce the treatment in our dispensary.

'I'm extremely pleased with the results and the large number of women we are able to help.'

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