At the opening to the vagina which is really just a ring of muscles covered with skin there are several things that could be this loose skin that you talk about. First, in a girl who has not actually delivered a baby there is the loose skin of the hymen. The hymen is very thin tissue like skin that covers the opening of the vagina. It has openings in it so that menstrual blood can come through but it could be almost any shape and look like the loose strand you are talking about. When a person has intercourse that hymen tissue gets moved around, stretched and pushed to the side but until a vaginal delivery it is always present.

There are other pieces of skin that some women think may be a result of masturbation as well, but none of them are. For example, the vulva which is the outside area of the female has labia which are larger strands of skin, often called lips, which protect the opening into the vagina as well. When women masturbate they also may stimulate the clitoris which is a pea shaped organ at the front end of the vulva, in front of the urinary tract opening, and the opening into the vagina.

I don't know which strands of skin you may be talking about but none of them are a result of masturbation, they are just the way different women are built. And no two women look exactly alike. We are as different in that area as we are in our face and head shape.

I hope this answers your question, and if you have any more please feel free to write back and ask.

Reviewed by Sexual Health Editorial Team