The Vagina Spa
A beauty day with the girls just got a whole lot more interesting. Where we once booked in for facials, manis, pedis and body scrubs, we can now extend the list of beauty treatments available. Welcome to the vagina spa! ( There are words I never thought I would write).
A few weeks ago in New York, the first Medi Spa in Manhattan opened, wholly dedicated to strengthening and grooming a woman’s genital area. We spend so much money and time on everything else, why not our vaginas too? Let’s not neglect the most important part of our body!
The spa is essentially a fancy examination room down the hall from Dr Romanzi’s, a gynaecologist’s medical practice. Instead of botox or laser, their signature treatment is a $150 gynaecological exam, which involves a client contracting her pelvis muscle around Dr Romanzi’s fingers to determine by feel whether muscle tone is weak, moderate or strong.
Dr Romanzi does not prescribe medication to these patients, but what she likes to call “ personal training”. ( I’m not sure my personal trainer would quite be in to this form of a workout) There is also an in office electro stimulation machine that clients can use to improve pelvic muscle tone or customers can purchase a device for home use. It’s like fitness first for our genitals.
Why go to all this trouble you ask? Dr Romanzi states that such treatments will improve bladder control and can also lead to more intense orgasms (yes please) And botox just gets rid of wrinkles, which would you prefer? This new phenomenon, coined pelvic fitness, is aimed at women hoping for better sex lives or new mothers with reduced bladder control.
At a time when we are so concerned with hair removal down there and will go to all extremes in order to be silky smooth, why shouldn’t we also be concerned about our vulvas’ overall health and wellness? Will the vulva gym be next?
I recently saw on a twitter post, a comment about the vulva police. Yes when I see the word vagina when it should be vulva I will say something! I am the vulva police. In this instance, we are dealing with pelvic strength but we are also dealing with the overall grooming of that area which then should be referred to as the vulva. Really I should have called this article “ the vulva spa”. Who knows the difference between a vulva and a vagina? Please contact me if you don’t (or you can soon see my seminar how to make your vulva happy at Sydney sexpo). Think of the Vulva has the entire area and the vagina the hole that is the larger opening (the smaller one is the urethra). Maybe here is one of the biggest problems, so many of us don’t know the difference between a vulva and a vagina. Before we take it for a work out, lets work out what exactly it is we are working out.
Now over the other side of the USA where Korean vaginal steam baths are gaining popularity in Southern California, which is said to help fertility and general health. ( We give it a work out, now it gets a relaxing sauna).
This old remedy involves women sitting nude on an open seated stool above a boiling pot of pungent mugwort tea mixed with warmwood and a variety of other secret spices and herbs. (Sounds lovely?).
These stem baths with a difference, called Chai Yok or just vaginal steam baths are not just for fun. They are believed to fight infections, reduce stress, clear haemorrhoids, regulate menstrual cycles and aid infertility plus much more. Apparently women in Korea regularly steam their vaginas after menstruation. A steam facial with a difference perhaps?
And just when you boys thought you were left out, one spa in Santa Monica is also offering a similar treatment for guys to steam their pubic area. (Brings all new meaning to the term tea bagging).
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But it does not stop there. A strip wax bar in San Francisco is offering the vajacial, a facial for your vagina. This particular type of facial is meant to be performed a week after waxing. First the skin is cleaned with an antibacterial body wash and witch hazel, then a papaya based exfoliating gel goes on before ingrown hairs are extracted and after this an anti freckle, anti acne or calming mask is applied. It is finished off with an application of lighting cream. Do we really need all of this or is it just someone else cashing in on our vaginal insecurities? (And do we really need anti freckle, anti acne or a calming mask down there?).
So is this all affective or just a bunch of voodoo medicine? The jury is still out on that one, but isn’t it about time we payed more attention to our area down there and took care of it just like we take care of the rest of our body? Most women get a bikini wax of some sort and go to the doctor every so often for a pap smear, but maybe that’s just not enough. Why do we differ our vulvas from any other part of our body, if anything should we be taking care of it more?
I support anything that helps people to pay closer attention to their genitals. We are not given enough permission to touch ourselves, therefore vaginal health is not always something we are on top of. We need to look after it, clean it, even moisturise it, but is a vaginal facial or vajacial going a bit too far? Is this a great way to keep healthy too or just another way of telling us (and our vulvas) we are just not good enough? Could this potentially be leaking shame to our beautiful bits? Yes we should worry about our health, focus on our vulvas more and strive for stronger orgasms, but should we try and change what they look like all for the sake of beauty and youth? Lightening cream?
I don’t think we pay enough attention to how our vulvas actually work or what is down there, so should we really be concerned about how it looks? All these treatments might help us to be more confident with our genitals but my concern is like with other parts of our body, are we also too focused on how we look? (down there).
Be happy with what you have, as long as you keep it healthy,
Happy down there
Dr Nikki G
