A myth that exists out there, and has been experienced by many woman is, that the tightness of your vagina and length of your labia is dependent upon your sexual history, and that it is possible to tell the number of partners a person has had just by looking. There is a misconception that sex alters a female’s genitals permanently with each sexual encounter and that it permanently changes.

This is a complete myth. A female’s genitals do not change with sexual encounters and the length of the labia and the tightness of the vagina are not dependent at all on past sexual history.

So first off lets look at what the vagina is. The vagina is composed of three main layers endothelium (so similar to your skin), muscular (similar to the types in your arms and legs) and connective tissue (which is found everywhere in your body and does what it sounds like, connects). Now, under normal circumstances, when these types of tissues have force applied to them, there is no change in the tightness of them. For example, if you go to the gym regularly what is the expected result? Is it that you muscle will get floppy and loose or is it that your muscle will get bigger and stronger? Everyone knows the latter to be true. If at the gym you damage your muscle then there can be a change in it and it can lose definition.

What you can take away is this. Under normal sexual intercourse the muscles in the vagina will not get “looser” as the urban myth states. What is actually more probable is that the vagina will get tighter with more sexual intercourse. The more you contract a muscle and use a muscle the stronger it gets. People are familiar with kegels and how they can create more developed pelvic floor muscles, which can add to a tighter sensation. Well, that is having one to two balls inside your vagina and contracting. This is, honestly, similar to sexual intercourse.

Where you can get a change in the vagina is typically childbirth. A child is large enough that is can stretch the muscles and connective tissue to the point of causing some damage. After this has occurred, scar tissue will fill in the muscles where they were damaged. This could actually cause some change in the tightness of the vagina, however that strength can typically be regained by strengthening the muscles through kegel exercises.

So, through that long description about vagina’s tightness, you can take away this message. Sex does not create a loose vagina. The only way a vagina will loosen is if it is damaged by an object that is larger than it can comfortably accommodate.

The labia (there are two of them the labia minora and the labia majora) are skins folds that are designed to protect the vagina and clitoris. The labia can be thought of as being fairly similar to skin. Now if we look at skin it can become stretched over time with lots of force. People who gain lots of weight and lose it have excess skin, people who grow fast get stretch marks, people who get pregnant can get stretch marks. But that is force applied consistently over many many months. Sexual intercourse occurs typically for 3-7 minutes a couple times a week. And during that time the labia are gently spread apart. There is hardly any force on them. So, although it is hypothetically possible to stretch a labia (in the same way that some people stretch their earlobes for example), sexual intercourse will not have that effect. It is just simply ridiculous that sexual intercourse could cause larger labia.

What does determine how long your labia are though? And the answer to this is genetics. The length of a labia correlates to nothing. And shows nothing. It is simply how you were born and how you are. Some people have very short ones, other people have very long ones. And I, personally, think all are beautiful and no one should feel self conscious. So, again we see that there is no way sexual intercourse would permanently change the length of a woman’s labia.

There are lots of people who get sexual plastic surgeries. I have read articles where apparently getting surgery to make your labia smaller is quite common in the porn industry. I think myths like having large labia means you are a slut, propagate such surgeries and incur costs and inconvenience to women when it is unnecessary. If people understood that a vagina and a labia are just naturally how they are, I think there would be less pressure and more confidence in a lot of people.

I want to end off this article with a post from another site called Reddit from an account named bluefringe. I will say I do not own the rights to the post, but Reddit allows reposting of material to other places. The post is in response to a discussion about labia length and vagina tightness, too. And I think it really shows the damage this myth has. Here is the post:

“I just wanted to thank you for posting this and share a story of mine that is relevant to this issue. About two years ago I was a sophomore in college and had just met this amazing guy at the restaurant I worked at and fell hard. He was so sweet and we started the dating process. About two months in, we finally had sex and it was amazing. While exchanging some pillow talk, he brings up the question of how many guys I'd been with. I answered, "Well, 4 now." He just laughed and callously responded, "There's no way that's true. Look at your lips down there. I don't care if you've slept around, but don't lie to me about it." Well that statement hit my like a ton of bricks. I burst into tears and ran to my bathroom. This is my vagina. Its been like this since puberty and isn't going to change. And there I was being punished for something that is completely out of my control and irrelevant to my sexual history. I have been so self-conscious and have at times given up on sex because I was so nervous that some asshole would make another comment like that and shred my confidence to pieces. So thanks for posting this. I'm much more confident in myself today than I was back then, and luckily haven't had any similar encounters. More people need to understand this and stop shaming women for something that is completely beyond their control.”


So hopefully through education this sexual misconception can eventually become outdated and no longer believed. If you have any questions or want to share you own personal experiences feel free to do so in the comments.