In one of her recent GOOP posts, Gywneth Paltrow extolls the virtues of steam cleaning your vagina, a service offered at the Tikkun Spa in Los Angeles. For $50, you can spend thirty minutes getting what the spa calls a “Mugwort V-Steam.”
Says Paltrow:
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. If you’re in LA, you have to do it.
Source: Fortune
Doctors, however, say “Fuck no.“
Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN, responded to Paltrow’s recommendation on her blog, explaining that the vagina is a self-cleaning system, and that this system is really not to be messed with. Which is why douches are bad. Also, she says that mugwort is going to do absolutely nothing to “balance” your hormone levels–never mind the fact that steam isn’t probably too good for your vagina, and that herbal steam could actually be worse for it.
Dr. Gunter says that Paltrow could “use an anatomy lesson,” because “steam isn’t going to get into your uterus from your vagina unless you are using an attachment with some kind of pressure and MOST DEFINITELY NEVER EVER DO THAT.”
Personally, I don’t know that I’d listen to Paltrow about much of anything. I probably also wouldn’t pay $50 steam clean my ladyparts even if it actually was good for me as I am both cheap and uninterested in sitting still for a half hour over some steaming mugwort, even if it is on a throne.
Original by Robyn Pennacchia
