Young girls tell us this major concern: will using a menstrual cup make me lose my virginity? It’s understandable: for us girls, keeping our virginity intact has been deeply ingrained in our society. From pre-marital relationships to marriage night worries, our virginity looms over us. But we don’t even talk about it. So let’s.

Who is a virgin?

A virgin is a person who has never had sexual intercourse.

But using a menstrual cup, or a tampon doesn’t mean you’ve had sexual intercourse. Then why are we worried?

Your hymen

The hymen is a thin tissue located at the opening of the vagina. Women are born with different kinds of hymens and some are born with so little tissue that it seems like they don’t even have a hymen.

Menstrual Cup and Virginity

Girls are worried their hymen will ‘break’ if they use a menstrual cup, since it has to be folded and inserted inside your vagina.

Some hymens will already be stretched or ‘torn’ before you have sexual intercourse, from a variety of activities like horse riding or other strenuous sports. And for some girls, after sexual intercourse, a hymen can be elastic enough to just stretch and not tear, causing no bleeding.

So, we know that checking the hymen is not a reliable way to see if a girl is a virgin or not. If you know that, you can begin to get comfortable with the idea of using a menstrual cup.

You may have outside pressures, like from your mother, because other people still relate intact hymens to a girl’s virginity. But the truth is that it’s not a good indicator, and you know that. And any partner that you choose should know that as well.

It is also your body, and you have the right to do something you believe is right and okay. If you want to use a menstrual cup, for a positive reason, the only voice that matters is yours. And if you use it, your hymen might stretch, or it might tear, or it won’t be affected.

But you’ll still be a virgin.