CAN TAMPON USE CAUSE HYMEN CHANGES IN GIRLS WHO HAVE NOT HAD SEXUAL INTERCOURSE - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Since tampon availability has become ubiquitous, several authors have opined about their effect on the virginal hymen, but only one paper ha s scientifically addressed the subject of tampon use and clefts in the hymens of never-sexually-active adolescent girls. It naturally has be come an authority used by the courts. The Emans et al. (1994) study as serts that 'for physicians testifying in court about sexual assault ca ses, complete clefts in adolescents cannot be attributed to prior tamp on use'. On closer inspection, however, it appears that the authors ha ve interpreted their statistical finding using a strict scientific con vention (chi(2), P = 0.06 as not having statistical significance) that may mislead in a clinical or legal situation. Indeed, there is a defi nite possibility that tampon use compared to not having used tampons i n their never-sexually-active sample was associated with an increased percentage of complete hymenal clefts (14% vs. 6%; P = 0.06). Neverthe less, clefts were found in both the sexually active and the never-acti ve groups: 20 of their 200 never-sexually-active subjects possessed co mplete hymenal clefts, as did only 84 of their 100 sexually active sub jects. Caution should be used by all physicians asked to testify in co urts regarding possible causes of a hymenal cleft. (C) 1998 Elsevier S cience Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.