Pseudoscientific form of alternative medicine
Vaginal steaming
, sometimes shortened to
V-steaming
[1]
and also known as
wormwood steaming
, is an
alternative health
treatment wherein a woman squats or sits over steaming water containing herbs such as
mugwort
,
rosemary
,
wormwood
, and
basil
. It has been practiced in Africa (
Mozambique
,
South Africa
[2]
), Asia (
Indonesia
,
Thailand
[2]
), and
Central America
(among the
Q'eqchi' people
[3]
).
Vaginal steaming is described in spas as an
ancient Chinese treatment
for reproductive organ ailments and is claimed to have other benefits. No empirical evidence supports any of these claims.
[4]
It has become a fad for women in the Western world.
[5]
There is no evidence that vaginal steaming has any benefits,
[6]
while there is evidence that it can be dangerous.
Prevalence
[
edit
]
According to a study on
vaginal
practices by the
World Health Organization
published in 2011, one of the ways in which women practice vaginal care is by "Vaginal steaming or smoking: the 'steaming' or 'smoking' of the vagina, by sitting above a source of heat (fire, coals, hot rocks) on which water, herbs, or oils are placed to create steam or smoke".
[2]
For that study, over 4,000 women in Tete (Mozambique), KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Yogyakarta (Indonesia), and Chonburi (Thailand) were asked about their vaginal care. When it came to vaginal steaming/smoking, very different results were obtained, and very different reasons were given: in Chonburi, 67% of women reported having performed vaginal steaming or smoking, "which they associated with maintaining wellness and feminine identity", especially after
having given birth
(85.5%). In Tete, only 10% of women practiced steaming or smoking, "mostly intended to enhance male sexual pleasure by causing vaginal tightening (64.1% of users) and drying (22.9%)". In the two African locations, 37?38% of women said they practiced it to enhance "male sexual pleasure"; in the two Asian ones, 0% gave that answer. Conversely, of the Asian women 26% reported their "feminine identity" was a reason, compared to 0% of the African women.
[2]
Risks
[
edit
]
Side effects
and potential dangers include
allergic reactions
,
second-degree burns
if the steam is too close,
[1]
[7]
and
vaginal infections
.
[4]
[8]
Society and culture
[
edit
]
In a paper for
Culture, Health & Sexuality
, Vandenburg and Braun argue that the rhetoric of vaginal steaming mirrors sexist Western discourse about the supposed inherent dirtiness of the female body, and that its claims of improved fertility and sexual pleasure continue the view that the female body exists for male sexual pleasure and childbearing.
[9]
Marketing
[
edit
]
Vaginal steaming is marketed with the
pseudoscientific
notions of "balancing" female hormones and "revitalizing" the
uterus
or vagina. In an article for
Goop
, actress
Gwyneth Paltrow
in reviewing a Santa Monica, California spa, described several of their treatments and said of one, "[y]ou sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al".
[4]
[1]
A report in
The Guardian
responded by debunking the claim of the heat, steam, and mugwort having any benefit, and noted it could be harmful.
[4]
[8]
A 2017 survey by Vandenburg and Braun
[9]
(taking as its title one observer's characterization – "Basically, it's sorcery for your vagina")
[10]
analyzed "90 online items related to vaginal steaming", including from newspapers and magazines, blogs, and providers of the practice. They identified a general theme, that of the "self-improving woman", which they argue fits in perfectly with modern constructions of what scholarship has called the "neoliberal" woman, a woman who, free of outside influences, seeks to optimize herself and her health (see
Healthism
). Within that theme, they found four attitudes that promote healthist practices such as vaginal steaming:
- The female body is inherently defective and dirty, and deteriorates with age: "the female body [is] situated within this biologically-determinist narrative of inevitable decline" which can be resisted.
[9]
: 475
- Western medicine and bodily care (including tampon use, for instance) make the female genitalia unnaturally full of toxins, a process that can be reversed by the natural practice of vaginal steaming (the authors note that such accounts use language derived from Western medicine?"symptoms", "decline", "ailments").
[9]
: 476
- Health enhancement, and the optimization of the body, specifically fertility and sexual pleasure, with much of the language used by advertisers of spas focusing on "maintenance" and "restoration", reinforcing both healthism and the fetishization of youth; vaginal steaming, it is claimed, improves marriages and the male libido. According to the authors, "the sexual and reproductive enhancement focus mirrors the two modes through which Western societies have traditionally valued women: sexual availability for men (within marriage) and childbearing".
[9]
: 478
- The pampering of the self-assured woman, a luxury as well as a right that they have earned, with advertising playing on the "reawakening" of the "inner goddess": "To awaken your inner goddess, please call us at..." The idea is that the practice allows a woman to reach her true potential, her true self.
[9]
: 479
The authors conclude that vaginal steaming is one of many practices that fit "neoliberal, postfeminist and healthist ideologies, colliding with pervasive sociocultural understandings of the female reproductive body both as core of womanhood and as 'embodied pathology
'
".
[9]
: 480
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Ghose, Tia (January 30, 2015).
"No, Gwenyth Paltrow, Vaginas don't need to be steam cleaned"
.
LiveScience
. Retrieved
9 March
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Hull, T; et al. (July 2011). "Prevalence, motivations, and adverse effects of vaginal practices in Africa and Asia: findings from a multicountry household survey".
Journal of Women's Health
.
20
(7): 1097?109.
doi
:
10.1089/jwh.2010.2281
.
PMID
21668355
.
- ^
De Gezelle, Jillian (2014).
Q'eqchi' Maya Reproductive Ethnomedicine
. Springer. pp. 21?22.
ISBN
9783319107448
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Robinson, Ann (30 January 2015).
"Sorry, Gwyneth Paltrow, but steaming your vagina is a bad idea"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
9 March
2017
.
- ^
Oliver, Dana (20 April 2016).
"I Tried A Vaginal Steam Treatment, And Here's What Happened"
.
Huffington Post
. Retrieved
9 March
2017
.
- ^
"What is vaginal steaming?"
.
Cleveland Clinic
. 2022-04-19
. Retrieved
2023-07-19
.
- ^
Robert, Magali (June 2019). "Second-Degree Burn Sustained After Vaginal Steaming".
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada
.
41
(6): 838?839.
doi
:
10.1016/j.jogc.2018.07.013
.
PMID
30366886
.
S2CID
53101127
.
- ^
a
b
Gunter, Jen (27 January 2015).
"Gwyneth Paltrow says steam your vagina, an OB/GYN says don't"
.
Dr. Jen Gunter Wielding the Lasso of Truth
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Vandenburg, Tycho; Braun, Virginia (10 October 2016). "
'Basically, it's sorcery for your vagina': unpacking Western representations of vaginal steaming".
Culture, Health & Sexuality
.
19
(4): 470?485.
doi
:
10.1080/13691058.2016.1237674
.
hdl
:
2292/41205
.
PMID
27719108
.
S2CID
8176129
.
- ^
Beck, Laura Hopper (January 27, 2015).
"I Went To A Spa For My Uterus And This Is My Story"
.
Fast Company
.