When it comes to the internet, almost everyone has some advice to give, an opinion to express, or a remedy to share. This is especially the case when it comes to health and wellness. Now, not everyone can be a certified medical health practitioner. Wrong. On the internet, more than your real-life qualification, your digital-life followers seem to have more weight. A person gives supposed advice, a few have something to add, and before you know it, it’s already a fad. One such thing on the internet is about vaginal steaming. Yes, you read that right, people steam their vagina. Why? We’ll explore that further in this article. But the act was the topic of the latest reel by Dr Tanaya Krishna, a surgeon and embryologist, who is popularly known as Dr Cuterus on Instagram.
What Is Vaginal Steaming?
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As the name itself makes it quite clear, vaginal steaming is the act of steaming your vagina. For it, what you do is:
- Boil some water and put some herbs in it.
- You then squat over it to steam your vagina.
As per a leading health website, the most commonly used herbs include:
- Basil
- Chamomile
- Oregano
- Wormwood
- Mugwort
- Calendula
Why Is Vaginal Steaming Done?
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Terming vaginal steaming as “one of the most nonsense cures on the internet”, Dr Cuterus said, it is done for three reasons:
- To supposedly get rid of the impurities from menstrual blood.
- To detoxify the vagina
- To boost fertility
There are other reasons, too, as per a leading health website. Vaginal steaming is also done for:
- Hormonal balance
- Managing stress and anxiety
- Curing headache and fatigue
- Dealing with hemorrhoids and infections
- For digestive issues and managing pain in general
Does Vaginal Steaming Help?
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As per Dr Tanaya, vaginal steaming is a “pointless” act as:
- Your vagina isn’t a toxic place so as to need a detox
- Your menstrual blood isn’t toxic
- You don’t need to detoxify anything as your lungs and kidneys already do that
Other than these:
- There is no scientific proof whether vaginal steaming helps accomplish anything it’s claimed of.
- This is because there is very little chance that the steam would penetrate through the vaginal tissues, a leading health website quoted a reproductive health expert as saying.
- At most, it might help you with some relaxation and increased blood flow through the vagina, but neither of these aspects has been studied.
Risks Associated With Vaginal Steaming
Now you might have a much clearer knowledge of vaginal steaming and how it doesn’t help you achieve anything as far as reproductive health and hygiene are concerned. Not only does it lack benefits, but it’s unsafe as well. While steaming your vagina:
- You can get burned.
- You can even fall into the boiling water.
- Your vaginal skin is extremely delicate and sensitive. By steaming it, you can harm it.
- Also, when you steam your vagina, that region gets overheated, making it the perfect ground for the bacteria to breed in. Hence, by steaming your private, instead of improving your fertility, you actually make it susceptible to several infections.
- Then, there are herbs. Since vaginal steaming, in general, lacks scientific evidence, so do the herbs used in it. With a lack of any proper information or guidance, you might be left on your own to choose the herb you want to use on your vagina. This is an extremely risky thing to do, as you don’t know how your vagina would react to it.
- Also, such remedies can be a huge risk when tried during pregnancy. Hence, do not try anything new during pregnancy without consulting your doctor.
Hence, as you saw vaginal steaming, as of now, as no merit. It doesn’t help with either your reproductive health or your overall health. If you want to use a pot of boiling water and herbs, use them differently, in the form of herbal tea. It might be able to provide some health benefits. Also, there are other ways to take care of your vaginal health. Hence, go for regular health check-ups, use products on your doctor’s recommendation, use condoms, and have a healthy lifestyle. These are enough for good vaginal health, and you don’t have to put yourself through any kind of steam.
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