Hymen

thumb|Youth (1893) by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. The colour white has traditionally been associated with ritual purity, innocence, and virginity in Western cultures.

The hymen is a thin piece of mucosal tissue that surrounds or partially covers the vaginal opening. A small percentage of females are born with hymens that are imperforate and completely obstruct the vaginal canal. It forms part of the vulva and is similar in structure to the vagina. The word is from the Greek ὑμήν meaning a thin skin or membrane. Many mammals possess hymens due to similar reproductive development.

practice and process of determining whether a female person is a virgin

Hymenorrhaphy or "hymen reconstruction surgery" is the surgical alteration of the hymen, with the goal of producing bleeding on intercourse and a tight vaginal introitus, falsely believed to indicate virginity. The term comes from the Greek words hymen meaning "membrane", and raphḗ meaning "suture". It is also known as hymenoplasty, although strictly this term would also include hymenotomy.

cleansing myth

A hymenotomy is a medical procedure involving the surgical removal or opening of the hymen. It is often performed on patients with an imperforate or septate hymen, or other situations where the hymen is unusually thick or rigid such as microperforate hymen. In the case of a female with a hymen without any opening, an opening may be created to facilitate menstruation. In situations where the opening is extremely small or the band(s) of a septate hymen limit access to the vaginal opening, the woman may elect for hymenotomy to allow for comfortable sexual penetration of her vagina, or to relieve

human disease

Artificial membrane that surrounds or partially covers the external vaginal opening