Would You Detox Down There?

Vaginal steaming is the latest craze to sweep Hollywood, but Sasha Gonz Ales wonders if the treatment’s claims to cleanse, tighten and rejuvenate the vagina are just a load of hot air.

- Sasha Gonz Ales

You’ve heard of vaginal douching, the process of cleaning or washing out the vagina with a mixture of water and vinegar, baking soda or iodine. But have you heard of vaginal steaming?

Also called V-steaming, this centuries old practice is said to impart a range of health benefits, from detoxifying the womb after childbirth to tightening the vaginal opening, improving blood circulation to the pelvic area, minimizing vaginal odor, helping with vaginal and urinary infections, relieving menstrual cramps, aiding fertility, and balancing your female hormones.

LIKE A SPA TREATMENT FOR YOUR VAGINA

It is not clear exactly where V-steaming originated, but the ancient Greeks, Mayans, Koreans and Indonesians were all known to practice some form of vaginal cleansing or other, using steam. In Korea, the ritual is called chai-yok; in Central America, it is called bajo; and in Indonesia, it is called gang gang.

To do a vaginal steam, you sit on a toilet-like apparatus over a large bowl of steaming hot water containing a mixture of medicinal and aromatic herbs. A tented skirt or large towel prevents any steam from escaping.

For about 20 to 30 minutes, the herb-infused steam travels upwards to your genitals. The vapor carries the volatile essential oils from the herbs to your labia, where they are supposedly absorbed through the delicate skin. The steam is also said to enter the vagina, where it detoxifies the tissue and warms the muscles.

In 2015, Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow preached the benefits of vaginal steaming on her lifestyle blog, Goop. Of her regular mugwort-infused V-steam sessions at the high-end Tikkun Holistic Spa in Los Angeles, the 42-year-old wrote: “You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic release – not just a steam douche – that balances female hormone levels.”