Vagina steaming, also called yoni steaming or a vajacial, is one of the latest trends in sexual wellness spa care, following in the famed footsteps of vajazzling and yoni eggs. Celebrities are huge fans, lots of trendy spas are offering it, and you’ve probably already heard about it.
So here’s the question. Is it a good idea? And does it work?
Vagina steaming is exactly what it sounds like: steaming your vagina. You expose your vagina to very hot steam, and it’s supposed to benefit you in all sorts of ways.
To do it, you sit or crouch over a pot of hot or boiling liquid. Most spas will have a seat or “throne” that you can sit on with a hole for the steam. For the process to “work,” you have to be naked, obviously.
The liquid isn’t just water, which really surprised me. It’s actually infused with herbs, which make this process seem more credible to some. Here are some of the herbs that are used most often:
Honestly, chamomile sounds like it’s going to put your vagina to sleep, and basil and oregano will give it a nice Italian seasoning.
Once your junk is over the pot, you’ll stay there for between 20 and 45 minutes, depending on how much you’re willing to pay. Since you’re at a spa, you usually will be expected to calmly chill while the steam does its job, rather than reading a book or scrolling through Instagram.
Some spas will offer you other treatments while your yoni steams (for a price, of course). For instance, a spa near me offers a Deluxe Yoni Steam for an extra $29. It includes an oracle card reading, guided meditation, intention setting, and energy cleansing with sage. Some yoni steams come partnered with reiki healing, too, so get ready to get in a new age, eccentric space.
Once you get off the throne and put some clothes back on, you might feel sweaty and a little bit swampy. However, you’re not supposed to shower directly afterwards so the herbs can absorb into your skin and your body can re-regulate its temperature.
A spa in my city that offers vagina steaming recommends it for young girls, and they can start going even before they have their period. You can even do a Mommy and me steam. So there’s basically no boundaries of a) who can have a yoni steam and b) who the spa thinks it’s appropriate to get it done with.
Some people choose to do vagina steaming at home. They make the liquid basically in the same way you’d brew tea, then find a way to easily sit over the steam. This isn’t the best thing to DIY, which we’ll talk about later. Put your pasta pot and Italian seasoning away.
If this whole process sounds good to you, don’t make your yoni steaming appointment just yet.
There are a couple of first-hand accounts online where someone got a vagina steaming done at a spa.
Kate from The Sun got one done in LA. She had to take off her clothes and change into a floor-length purple plastic dress without underwear on. She described the throne as “a particularly elaborate toilet.” Kate’s spa actually had an infrared light under the chair as well, which is a completely different wellness practice that would take awhile to unpack.
At first, it was warm and relaxing, like taking a bath. However, as the water started to heat up, she found it uncomfortable, like “squatting over a boiling kettle.” At one point, she was concerned her legs and vagina were burning.
Dana from The Huffington Post seems to have liked it more. She only had to undress from the waist down and got a robe to cover everything. Her setup was very different. Her legs were propped up like they would be for a pap smear. Then, the spa worker inserted a sachet of herbs into a machine and turned it on.
It was kind of like a vagina steaming vaporizer, in that the steam was shot right at her cooch. It had to be positioned perfectly so she wasn’t burned but also got the full effects (at least in theory). Once it was in the right place, the lights were turned off and she sat there for 20 minutes.
She said it took her about five minutes to feel the steam because it had been a while since she waxed her pubic hair, and then she started to drift off to sleep. Then she felt a pulsing sensation in her vagina, which apparently was a good thing. When she got done, she said her pussy felt moisturized and warm to the touch.
The most interesting side effect was that she felt a little aroused as she walked home to the subway afterwards. This is the main reason she said she’d recommend the treatment.
So it sounds like a vajacial isn’t necessarily unpleasant and might actually be kind of nice. But what is it good for?
28 supposed benefits of yoni steaming
So since vagina steaming is a new age treatment, there are a billion ideas as to what it might be effective for. You know how people who are into essential oils or crystals say they can basically cure anything in the world? Vagina steaming is kind of like that.
Here are some of the benefits of vagina steaming that I found online. Yes, there are a lot. Yes, some of them are bullshit.
Telling someone it can fix PTSD from rape or cure PCOS is a pretty big claim, the sort of thing that should hopefully make you skeptical. Parts of the internet are presenting vagina steaming as a cure-all. The secret is, cure-alls cure nothing.
If it did work for all of these conditions, it seems like every cis woman and person with a vagina would be lining up around the block to get it done. Unfortunately, as we’ll talk about later, yoni steaming isn’t the panacea new age practitioners describe it as.
Later, we’ll talk about whether anyone at all should get their vagina steamed. However, practitioners say that there are certain people who could suffer severe side effects from yoni steaming.
First, you shouldn’t have your vag steamed when you’re on your period. Word on the street is that this is because it increases blood flow to your whole reproductive system, which can result in heavy bleeding during menstruation.
You shouldn’t have your vagina steamed if you have an IUD. Practitioners say “the herbs combined with the steam are intended to cause your uterus to soften and contract which could make your IUD shift or come out altogether, which would make it less effective.”
Pregnant people shouldn’t get their yoni steamed, and this is legit. Doctors tell them they shouldn’t go in saunas or hot tubs, and this would extend to vajacials. An increased body temperature can result in birth defects during the first trimester of pregnancy. Stay away, and get reiki healed or something to get your new age fix.
Don’t go in if you have any sores or an infection. The extra moisture and the herbs may cause these problems to get worse. Lastly, if you have any genital piercings, you’ll need to take them out before you can have your vagina steamed. They can get too hot and cause burns.
Again, just because you don’t have any of these risk factors doesn’t mean you should run out to get a yoni steaming, though.
Many people who are into vagina steaming will say that it’s an ancient practice. However, it’s hard to find any evidence that this is the case, especially in a similar way as it is today.
One example of steam + vagina goes back to the Middle Ages. Steam was forced through a tube into the vagina, and it was made of herbs and water like nowadays. It was said to help with infections, menstrual cramps, and even cancer. But actually, it ended up causing more infections than it cured because it caused serious vagina burns. No me gusta.
This isn’t a medicinal practice, but the ancient Greeks did shoot steam up women’s vaginas for one weird reason: they thought that it could determine whether a woman was a virgin. If the woman wasn’t a virgin, the steam put through her vagina would go all the way up and out of her mouth and nose. Looks like a lot of women were able to con some men about their virginity with that practice. (Good for them!)
Currently, yoni steaming is practiced all over the world. However, it’s particularly popular in Mozambique, South Africa, Indonesia, and Thailand. It’s most often used in these countries after a woman gives birth, and women in these countries said it was good for “maintaining wellness and feminine identity.” However, some women used vaginal steaming to try to please their partners because they thought it tightened their vaginas. (Not a thing, just FYI.)
So basically, steam has been put near a vagina throughout history. However, the idea that the practice has strong ancient roots for healing is unfounded.
So if we’re not practicing yoni steaming because of ancient practices, why has it entered our culture?
Well, yet again, blame new age queen Gwenyth Paltrow.
She posted a review of Tikkun Spa on her website goop, talking about their Mugwort V-Steam. It included infrared lights and the herb mugwort, and she gave it a glowing endorsement. In another article, she even says that steaming your vagina can help you after you’ve had a miscarriage (which seems pretty inhumane, tbh).
Gwenyth has endorsed lots of ridiculous stuff, but the yoni steam went viral, greatly increasing press and undoubtedly causing more spas to open up and offer vaginal steaming services.
Another celebrity who’s come out in favor of steaming your yoni is Chrissy Teigan. She posted a photo of herself on Instagram mid-vajacial captioned:
“face mask / heat pad / vagina steam no I don’t know if any of this works but it can’t hurt right? *vagina dissolves*”
I don’t know why Chrissy posted this photo on Instagram. But it got a lot of people talking about yoni steaming again when it came out.
Many people make wellness decisions based on endorsements from celebrities like Gwenyth Paltrow and Chrissy Teigan. But is it the right idea to do that if you don’t look for evidence that the treatment works?
Unfortunately, if you’re looking to get medical benefits from a yoni steam, you won’t find any. There’s no scientific evidence to back up any of the claims that practitioners make. The only possible perk is that it might relax you.
Because of the way your body works, very little steam will enter your vagina during a steaming, and very, very little to none will enter your reproductive organs. This is because your cervix locks everything up real tight. That makes claims that it will help anything to do with the uterus pretty suspect.
If you get a steam done with mugwort, there is a reason to suggest this could be successful. In traditional Chinese medicine, mugwort is burned on or over whatever part of the body is causing trouble. However, there’s no strong evidence that mugwort actually helps anything to do with the reproductive system except possibly turning a breech baby. Plus, a vaginal steaming is not the most efficient way to get your mugwort.
Claims about vaginal steaming working to clean your vagina are unfounded, too. Say it with me now: the vagina is a self-cleaning organ! You don’t need to be cleaning your vagina. Douching, using harsh soaps, or getting a yoni steam isn’t necessary. Just rinsing it with water is enough. Leave it alone!
Of course, we can’t necessarily speak to the emotional benefits of getting your vagina steamed, like increased mood or decreased PTSD. However, there’s no peer-reviewed data suggesting that vajacials work for anything, much less extreme issues like endometriosis or PTSD.
Plus, you might be less likely to want to give vagina steaming a try once you hear about the risks of the treatment.
Here’s the main reason to avoid having a vajacial: they’re just not safe, for several reasons.
The most common issue with a yoni steaming is burns on the vagina or areas near it. If you use boiling water, the steam coming off the pot will be very hot, hot enough to cause serious burns. You’re even more at risk for burns if you try to do a vajacial by yourself in your home, but it can happen in a spa, too, no matter how professional they seem. In fact, one woman suffered severe burns after hearing about yoni steaming from none other than Gwenyth Paltrow.
Honestly, I can’t think of any place worse to be burned than my vagina. Plus, think of the awkward visits to the ER and the healing process. No, thank you.
Your vagina needs to be kept at approximately body temperature to avoid infection. Plus, the heat is moist when it comes from the steaming process. This can lead to serious infections, like bacterial vaginosis or yeast infections. The warm, damp environment can also cause thrush. These risks are increased when you factor in the herbs used in the machine, and they’re even worse if the machine is not kept clean.
It’s possible for people to have an allergic reaction to the herbs used during vaginal steaming. Just because you can eat them or drink them in your tea doesn’t mean you can have them steamed at your vagina for an hour. Some people will develop rashes, and again, I really don’t want a rash on my vagina if I can help it.
Steaming doesn’t hydrate the vagina. Instead, it strips away the natural vaginal oils. This makes the vagina poorly lubricated and makes it more vulnerable to microabrasions, which also makes you more vulnerable to STIs. So even if steaming increases your sex drive directly after, you probably won’t want to be having penetrative sex anyways.
Lastly, as we mentioned above, pregnant people or people who have a chance of getting pregnant really shouldn’t have their vaginas steamed. It can negatively affect the growth of the fetus, resulting in birth defects.
So yeah, yoni steaming probably isn’t a good idea. Sorry to burst your bubble.
There’s a few things to be learned from the yoni steaming fad.
First of all, don’t listen to celebrities like Gwenyth Paltrow for your health advice. When talking about her odd sexual wellness schemes going wild, she called them “cultural firestorms.” Then she joked, “I can monetize those eyeballs.”
These people are in it for the money. Gwenyth gets money when you buy a stupid yoni egg or crystal roller off her website. She even gets money when you share a ridiculous new wellness trend on Facebook, because not everyone thinks it’s so crazy. Even if they do, she still gets the ad impressions. But I can guarantee you, someone will buy this stuff, which gives her the money to do this over and over again.
You know who’s not out to make money on you? Your doctor. Talk to them about your issues and ask for help with problems like low libido, PTSD, or depression. If you don’t like your doctor, find a new one. And if you’re interested in a new age treatment for one of your conditions, bring it up first if it seems like it could harm your body or it includes a significant money investment.
It also says something about us that we feel like the vagina needs treatment in this way to be healthy. A group of researchers looked at 90 pieces of media about vagina steaming, including news/magazines, health/lifestyle, spa/service providers, and personal blogs to see what they said about attitudes towards women and vaginas.
Here are the four themes they identified:
This fits into the cultural framework that vaginas are not good enough and gross. Even though many women try to frame yoni steaming as empowering, the entire practice sends the message that vaginas need to be fixed.
Don’t fall into this trap. Your vagina is perfect just the way it is.
Okay, so vagina steaming is out. But what if you still want to carve out some pussy pampering time?
Don’t worry. There are ways to do that that don’t put you at risk for infections or burns.
First, buy yourself a new pair of panties. Or a few. Many lacy panties aren’t very breathable (or very comfortable) so consider getting some cute lingerie as well as some comfy pairs. If you’re just lounging around the house or going to sleep, men’s boxers are awesome. These let your vag breathe. Choose cotton for your comfortable undies, because they breathe better and are less likely to cause vaginal issues.
You know what will make your vagina feel good? Masturbating. If you don’t have a good vibrator, get one. Even if masturbating isn’t a normal part of your routine, it’s not a bad idea to try it out every once in a while. It helps you learn about your body. Plus, your brain produces all sorts of cool endorphins when you get off, and your partner isn’t always gonna be there to satisfy that need.
Want to avoid those microtears we were talking about and make masturbating much smoother? Invest in some high-quality lube. Literally no one has ever regretted using lube during penetrative sex.
One kind thing you can do for your vagina is buy better menstrual products. Many tampons you get at the grocery store are bleached, which can be no bueno. Tampon manufacturers legally don’t have to say what they put in their products so there’s no way to know if there’s any chemicals or allergens in the product you’re about to stick up there. Opt for fragrance-free, organic, unbleached cotton tampons.
Perhaps the closest experience to getting a yoni steam would be to take a nice warm bath. Baths have all of the upsides of the steam without the downsides. Although you get the warm sensation in your genitals, you don’t have to worry about throwing off pH levels or feeding bacteria. Just make sure you don’t wash your pussy with soap. It’s just not necessary!
So maybe steaming your vagina isn’t the best use of a Saturday. However, there are lots of nice things you can do for your pussy that don’t involve such high risks.
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