Am I still a virgin if I use a tampon?
- Shauna*

Some girls worry that if they use tampons, they will no longer be virgins. The truth is, a virgin is someone who has never had sexual intercourse. Inserting a tampon is definitely not the same as having sex!

So why do girls ask this question so often? Girls who are virgins usually have a hymen,
a very thin piece of skin-like tissue that stretches partly across the
opening of the vagina. A lot of people mistakenly think that a girl is
only a virgin if her hymen has not been broken. Most of the time a
girl's hymen breaks after having sex for the first time.

But a girl's hymen can tear in ways that have nothing to do with
having sex. For example, it is possible that inserting a tampon might
tear the hymen (although that usually doesn't happen). So even if a
tampon does break a girl's hymen, she is still a virgin until she has
had sexual intercourse.