Nonetheless, the hymen is often lost during childhood in the course of normal physical activities such as bike riding, gymnastics, or sometimes falling down the wrong way; it is also possible for the hymen to break while using tampons. Some women can engage in sexual intercourse without the hymen breaking; some are born with no hymen at all, others with closed hymens that require a medical procedure to allow menstruation, while others have overly thick hymens that may require a gynecologist to break the hymen to prevent pain for the woman during sex, a procedure called a hymenotomy. For these and many other reasons, the hymen should not be used as evidence for or against one's chastity or virginity.
Sometimes a woman has the hymen surgically restored in order to feign virginity.
Hymen is also an alternate name for the Greek goddess Hymenaios.