Vaginal Corona: The Updated Hymen

The Swedish Association for Sexual Education has just published an excellent info booklet about the hymen, which they have renamed the “vaginal corona”.

Apparently, the Swedish word  for hymen is modomshina, which is translated as “virginity membrane.” But as they point out in the booklet, there are many different ways that people define virginity and the presence or absence of a vaginal corona doesn’t reliably tell you if someone has had sex. Plus, they point out that the hymen isn’t a membrane, but rather, it’s a set of folds of tissue that can have many different shapes. In fact, the image to the left is their rendition of some of the possibilities.

So these folks decided to come up with a new word “slidkrans“. According to google, slid means “valve” and krans means “wreath” or “rim”. So a slidkrans is a ring of tissue that partially covers the vaginal opening. In that light, the English term “vaginal corona” makes sense, if you remember that a corona is a crown or circlet.

Whether the term “vaginal corona” catches on or not, the booklet is really amazing. They included information about what virginity means, sexual assault, the truth behind “virginity restoration” procedures, and more. It’s a good read- click on the image above for the pdf. The also have an excellent Guide to Clitoral Sex, and info booklets on condoms, abortion, sexual assault and other topics on this page.