Everything you need to know about vaginal steaming

Vaginal steaming is the health trend of 2021. I brought this news two weeks ago. Popularity increased by 16.9 percent between 2010 and 2020. A significant rise, considering the competition. But on Facebook, the discussion erupted, because what does such a yoni steam actually do? I dove into the world of vaginal steam.

First of all: why are women massively steaming their vaginas? This has to do with a recommendation from Gwyneth Paltrow. She calls it on her lifestyle platform Goop the way to cleanse your uterus and you also seem to get very much in touch with your vagina. Such a cleansing would especially come in handy after menstruation, pregnancy, or abortion. But according to Gwyn, it’s just good for your entire system, from circulation to relaxing yourself. Something that experts don’t completely agree with, by the way.

Okay, okay. But how does it work? Actually very simple, you make a boiling hot bath where (tadaaaa) the steam rises from and you add all sorts of healing herbs and goodies to it. The intention is then to hang over it with your vagina. It’s no coincidence that vaginal steaming has existed since Methuselah. You have traditions in many countries where the Faya Watra, as the V-steam is originally called, occurs.

When you dive into the world of vaginal steam, you discover things. I also wondered, of course, how to do something like this a bit conveniently. I read online stories about women who simply throw four cups of boiled water into a cleaned toilet, dilute this with calendula, lavender, or mugwort, and then sit on the pot for a quarter of an hour. Sounds easy, of course, but I keep thinking about the bacteria that are released from the pot and draw into your vagina. Forgive me this visualization.

Not surprising then that alongside supporters of the yoni steam, there are also many gynecologists who think steaming the vagina is a very bad idea. It seems, first of all, to never have been scientifically proven to work and you can also seriously burn your vulva with the hot steam. Moreover, your vagina has its own flora and fauna, as a gynecologist explains in Spuiten en Slikken, which experts say you better not disturb. The vagina is also dangerously close to the anus, which does not react well to hot steam with herbs.

So it’s just a matter of waiting for scientific research and in the meantime, just be careful with that hot steam and your vagina.

Source: Women’s Health, Spuiten en Slikken