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Here's what you demand to know (Film: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

If you are a adult female and oasis't had sex for a while, you may exist concerned that things take inverse.

Not with the deed itself (don't worry the basics are yet the aforementioned) but with your torso and, in particular, your hymen.

Online message boards are filled with concerned women who oasis't had sexual practice for several years and are unsure whether their hymen may take grown back.

Worries include if it ways they are technically a virgin over again and if it is going to hurt when they do choose to have sex again.

The simple answer is no, your hymen will not grow back.

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.

However, he said he would describe it as a small-scale tear on a thin layer of tissue which is normally accompanied by some haemorrhage.

But why doesn't it grow dorsum again?

'The hymen can't grow back equally it'due south simply stretched and torn tissue without the ability to regenerate,' said Dr Athanasias.

'We occasionally accept patients calling and requesting appointments in order to clarify whether they are still virgins.

'The hymen stretches and tears non merely through penetrative sex activity just also during exercise or while inserting a tampon or other objects into the vagina.

'Besides if a woman relaxes, uses lubrication and digitally stretches the hymen, then it might not tear during intercourse.

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

'Then, you lot can't definitely tell if someone is a virgin if they have a hymen or is not a virgin if they don't accept a hymen.'

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

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

'This is called hymenoplasty and tin be performed with different surgical techniques under local or full general anaesthesia.

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

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

One of the other things y'all may exist worried about before y'all jump dorsum in the saddle (so to speak) is if it going to hurt?

You lot're not lone.

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

If information technology will hurt or non (and how much it may hurt) will vary depending on your age.

What is a hymen?

A hymen is a thin layer of tissue that partially covers the opening of the vagina – partially not completely.

It'south usually found 1-ii cm inside the vaginal opening.

When a woman has vaginal penetrative sex for the beginning time, the hymen usually stretches and/or tears.

It doesn't simply happen with sexual intercourse.

The hymen tin stretch or tear during practice or tampon insertion.

'When the woman is withal in her reproductive years she might experience some discomfort because it can take longer for the vagina to swell and become lubricated during sexual arousal and the pelvic muscles aren't used to having sexual practice,' Dr Athanasias says.

'The symptoms unremarkably resolve presently and a vaginal lubricant is all you demand.'

After the menopause and due to the lack of estrogen notwithstanding, the symptoms will have longer to resolve and will crave handling.

The vaginal lining becomes thinner, drier and afterward sore considering of a condition called vaginal atrophy.

Sexual intercourse can be painful and accompanied by vaginal bleeding.

And, while the boilerplate historic period of reaching the menopause is 51 years quondam, many women go through the change prematurely.

(Picture: JohnnyGreig/Getty)

These women could be aged in their 30s or 40s and get through menopause either naturally or afterward surgical removal of the ovaries or possibly after chemotherapy to treat cancer.

'Well-nigh all women in this age group volition be sexually active,' said Dr Athanasias (it's actually thought to be 87% of 31-45-year-olds).

'Equally the vaginal tissue becomes dry and thin, sexual practice can become very uncomfortable and many women even describe it as impossible.'

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

In that location are treatments available which mean you and your partner can continue to bask a healthy sex life fifty-fifty after menopause.

Dr Athanasias explained that vaginal lubricants and moisturisers can help but it is the local estrogen, which is available in vaginal cream or tablets, that aims to treat the underlying cause and non only the symptoms.

'The treatment of vaginal cloudburst tin be challenging when topical estrogen fails to brand a difference or is contraindicated (cannot be used in certain cases),' he says.

'In the past there were non any bachelor treatment options and unfortunately those women had to avoid sexual activity and learn to alive with their condition.'

Fortunately, in contempo years there take been developments to help brand information technology more comfortable for women to have sex after the menopause.

At Dr Athanasias'southward clinic, he uses the CO2 vaginal light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation 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 accept been able to continue their sex life into sometime age.

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

'I used to be skeptical regarding vaginal laser treatments but later on traveling to the United states and Italy (pioneers in light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation treatment) and talking to patients and clinicians I was convinced to innovate the handling in our clinic.

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

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