For thousands of years women have been using a variety of self-care secrets to manage or treat pain and other issues associated with menstruation, naturally regulate their cycle and promote pregnancy, and later heal from childbirth.
Here we reveal in succession, six self-care Traditional Chinese Medicine and East-Asian folk practices that may assist women in modern times.
These techniques might be thought to support the health of the ovaries and follicles, thicken and aid in smooth shedding of the endometrial lining, reduce pelvic and systemic inflammation, modulate immune function, and balance hormones for both menstrual cycle health and natural fertility.
We offer these empirical methods to broaden your knowledge and to stock your tool kit in living your life as a woman. We recognise their value in natural health, because of their time-tested and health-promoting reputation, traversing centuries through lineages of healers. We recognise also that some methods have not yet gained strong evidence, however, we welcome you to reach further into them if they resonate with you, and most importantly experience them for yourself at home.
Women’s Scret #4 is 4. VAGINAL STEAM (aka. yoni steam/V-steam).
What is a Vaginal Steam?
Vaginal steams are an ancient method of self-care for women; an aspect of many healing lineages and indicated in the South East Asian healing practices. If this is the first you’ve heard of V-steaming they might sound a bit intimidating, but the consensus from women is they are a gentle, calming, and therapeutic way to connect with our deeper women’s space. Potentially in this highly masculinised culture that we must interact with every day, connecting with ourselves in this way may feel strange at first but hopefully, as you relax into it, may enhance your women’s intuition and (as focused on in this post) promote women’s health and wellness on a physical level.
The idea is to sit or squat (lower body unrobed) over a warm, gently steaming pot of herbal liquid, then wrapping the low body with a large blanket to contain the steam over the area of the vulva. Its function is to warm and infuse the exposed area and have the herbs seep into the body through this highly vascularized region, to act directly on the vagina and internal reproductive organs.
It has its roots in the tradition of East Asian women’s healing practices, and was used for issues such as infertility, menstrual pain and clots, postpartum recovery and to soothe menopausal shifts. V-steam can also be practiced as a health routine for nourishing, cleansing and strengthening the women’s pelvic organs.
While there is little evidence for vaginal steams in any condition, the folk medicine tradition is compelling. Acupuncture points in the low body (groin, inner thighs, low abdomen, and sacrum) are on meridians that connect to the reproductive organs. These points and body areas are used to affect women’s health and fertility in acupuncture treatments as well, which may help us understand the practice of herbal steaming in these areas.
There is no historical use for v-steam to clean or cleanse an inherently dirty vagina; steaming was used as a delivery method for herbal medicine to treat and manage conditions or promote vaginal health, steaming was for its therapeutic effect.
The herbs selected for use are different depending on the women’s needs and traditional method used however our top 5 include; Mugwort, dried tangerine peel, turmeric, honeysuckle flower, and ginger or better yet, galangal. It may be best if you want to give v-steaming a go to read more about it first in these great articles.
How to do vaginal steaming at home
Collect a handful of your chosen herbs and simmer in 1L of water for 10 minutes.
You can use a cleaned toilet, and put the hot herbal liquid (in its pot) inside the toilet bowl and sit over it, alternatively, you can squat over the steaming pot (this will be great if your hips and low back have no issues) and yet another method is to kneel with knees apart, herbal pot between knees and rest elbows on the edge of the sofa.
Once you have found your preferred method, cover your whole lower body with a large blanket so the steam can collect under and around you and your legs and vulva, relax for 10-20 minutes (some ladies steam longer), and enjoy the warming penetrating effects of the steamy herbs the meridians traveling deep within the body. For optimal results do this once to three times a week, for three months. Let us know what changes you notice!
SAFETY: With the vaginal herbal steam, be very careful as your learning how to perform it.
It is not unsafe inherently, but there is a risk of genital tissue burns if things get too hot and steamy! Go slowly, if there is pain or discomfort in any way, stop and let the steam and yourself cool. Apply cold water immediately to the affected area for 10 minutes if any (even mild) burns or discomfort occurs.
For women using v-steaming and also looking to conceive, your window to steam is between the end of the menstrual cycle to ovulation, not afterward. For all other women; don’t steam while bleeding, it may cause heavy bleeding, and don’t steam with any overt vaginal issues or infections
We wish you well in discovering this women’s secret further through your own trials and experiences. Check-in with us if you have any questions or concerns and don’t forget this is not a replacement for medical advice or treatment. It is a complementary therapy home practice, We hope you enjoy it and let your body tell you what is right for you.
Remember to always be safe!
For more women health secrets check out
- Secret #1 MOXIBUSTION
- Secret #2 MEDITATION
- Secret #3 SELF ABDOMINAL MASSAGE
- Secret #4 VAGINAL STEAM
- Secret #5 HERBAL FOOT SOAKS
- Secret #6 WOMENS EXERCISE
To get further help with a course of acupuncture treatment for your women’s health, natural fertility, or assisted fertility care, book online today.
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