Septate Hymens, Statistically Speaking

Since the day I discovered my septate hymen, I've always wondered how prevalent having one is. Recently, I turned to the library databases via UNH which house hundreds of databases with thousands of scholarly journals, articles, and studies. I was sure that I'd be able to uncover some information on septate hymens. I found a whopping two articles.

According to one of those articles, which came from the European Journal of Pediatrics, hymenal abnormalities are found in 1-2% of females. The imperforate hymen is actually the most common abnormality. While it didn't specify the least common, the infamous septate hymen occurs in .7% of females. 0.7%!!!!!!!!!!

This number is small. Think about it this way, for every 100 baby girls born, less than one of them will have a septate hymen. So you're probably thinking that 1) I have the worst luck ever or 2) that what I went through will only be experienced among a handful of girls. Statistically, I'm here to prove the latter wrong.

According to Worldometers, there are 7,162,119,434 people in the world today. This number, however, is constantly changing as people are being born and are dying as I write this. Buuut for all intents and purposes, that is the number we are going to use here. 49.6% of the world population is female which means that there are 3,552,411,239* females in the world today.

Feel small yet?

If there are 3,552,411,239 females and .7% of those females have (or had) a septate hymen, that equals 248,668,799** females born with septate hymens...!!! That's roughly 250 million girls!

250 million girls that exist in the world today were born with septate hymens. That number blows my mind. I think back to when I discovered mine and recall how lonely I felt. 250 million might seem like a lot, but chances are, those girls aren't neighbors or friends. We are spread out across the world, often left to face the reality of our unusual reproductive system on our own.

To all of my septate sisters out there, I've said it before and I'll say it again; you are not alone! There are literally millions of girls who are just like you (and me)! Stay strong! :)

How about them odds?!

*Actual number 3,552,411,239.26 but I rounded down.
**Actual number 248668799.6748 but I rounded up.

RESOURCES:

• www.worldometers.info/world-population/
• Watrowski, R., Jager, C., Gerber, M., & Klein, C. (2014). Hymenal Anomalies in Twins - Review of the Literature and Case Report. European Journal of Pediatrics. 173(11), 1407-1412. doi:10.1007/s00431-013-2123-3

Announcing Septate Sisters!!!!!!

Hello everyone! As some of you know, I've been hard at work building my own website and now I'm proud to announce it has launched!

Introducing my very own website!

 When I first discovered my septate hymen, like a proper 21st century teenager, I turned to the internet. I frequented health forums where I read stories of girls who were just like me and I found comfort in knowing that I wasn't alone. However, the health forums were vague and impersonal which is where Septate Sisters comes in. Septate Sisters is for all of the girls out there born with that extra band of tissue to connect with other girls like them! It's a place where girls can share their stories throughout their journeys.

If you have a few minutes, please go check it out! Let me know what you think!

What About Septate Hymens...?!?!

This semester I'll be taking a course called 'Human Sexuality' which, surprisingly, is actually a requirement for my major. To be honest, even if it wasn't a requirement, I would have still been interested in taking it. Anyways, I received the textbook for the class the other day in the mail and as I typically do as soon as I receive all of my textbooks, I flipped through it. I was particularly interested in seeing if they mentioned something about septate hymens.

They didn't.

Our Sexuality...$150 later...

Chapter 3 is dedicated to the female anatomy and flipping through it, I saw more vaginas then I wanted to. The textbook itself verges on porn with extremely graphic photos of different sex positions...but I digress. I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, that based on the detail given about all of the other lady parts, that this textbook would FINALLY discuss the infamous septate hymen. I was very disappointed to see that, once again, it was left out.

How about them apples...?

However, they did discuss, ever so briefly, the imperforate hymen. If you don't know what the imperforate hymen is, you can read more about it here. My understanding is that the authors, Crooks and Baur, decided that this hymen was worth mentioning because it is the only one that requires attention ASAP. With that being said, this is a college level textbook and anyone with this type of hymen would have likely realized they had it/gotten the necessary surgery already. 

What about septate hymens?!

As you all know, the main reason for this blog and for my appearance on MTV's Virgin Territory is to raise awareness of septate hymens. While it doesn't require immediate attention, it still has the power to really screw up someone's life if it goes unnoticed. My proposal to the authors of this textbook is to include septate hymens in the next edition of Our Sexuality. We need to start raising awareness to the other variations in hymens. Every person who has approached me about the MTV show has told me that they had never heard of septate hymens before I opened up about it. This needs to change...for all of the girls out there, whether they are aware or not of their extra band of tissue.