Trauma to the hymen may heal without any visible sign of injury. An observational study of adolescent sexual assault victims found that majority of wounds to the hymen healed without any visible sign of injury having occurred.Trauma to the hymen is hypothesized to occur as a result of various other behaviors, such as tampon or menstrual cup use, pelvic examinations with a speculum, masturbation, gymnastics, or horseback riding, although the true prevalence of trauma as a result of these activities is unclear. Cultural significance
The hymen is often attributed important cultural significance in certain communities because of its association with a womans virginity. In those cultures, an intact hymen is highly valued at marriage in the belief that this is a proof of virginity. Some women undergo hymenorrhaphy to restore their hymen for this reason.In October 2018, the UN Human Rights, UN Women and the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that virginity testing must end as "it is a painful, humiliating and traumatic practice, constituting violence against women". Womb fury
In the 16th and 17th centuries, medical researchers mistakenly saw the presence or absence of the hymen as founding evidence of physical diseases such as "womb-fury", i.e., (female) hysteria. If not cured, womb-fury would, according to doctors practicing at the time, result in death. Other animals
Due to similar reproductive system development, many mammals have hymens, including chimpanzees, elephants, manatees, whales, horses and llamas. See also
Artificial hymen

References
External links

Magical Cups and Bloody Brides—the historical context of virginity
20 Questions About Virginity—Interview with Hanne Blank, author of Virgin: The Untouched History.
Li and Fraumeni identified four families in which siblings or cousins of rhabdomyosarcoma patients had a childhood sarcoma, which suggested a familial cancer syndrome. Identification of TP53s the gene affected by mutation was suggested by the same approach. Over half of the cancers in LFS families had been previously associated with inactivating mutations of the p53 gene and in one primary research study, DNA sequencing in samples taken from five Li–Fraumeni syndrome families showed autosomal dominant inheritance of a mutated TP53 gene. See also
OSLAM syndrome

References
Further reading
Li–Fraumeni Syndrome by Katherine Schneider, MPH, Kristin Zelley, MS, Kim E Nichols, MD and Judy Garber, MD, MPH, in GeneReviews, a section of GeneTests, published online by the University of Washington with funds from the National Institutes of Health
Li–Fraumeni syndrome, in the National Library of Medicine
Li–Fraumeni syndrome; LFS1, entry in Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), published by Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health