Yoni Steaming

Steam baths among the highland Maya

An anthropological study by Kevin Groark describes therapeutic steambathing among the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya of highland Chiapas, Mexico, and states that the cultural history of Maya steambathing spans more than two millennia. It has largely disappeared from the lowlands but persists in household use in several highland communities, where it is understood through ideas of vital warmth and the thermal state of the body. The abstract describes whole-body steambathing and does not describe vaginal steaming, so it should not be read as documenting that practice.

Genital steam baths in Suriname

A 2007 ethnopharmacological study in Suriname collected plant vouchers, surveyed markets and interviewed 140 women who used vaginal steam baths. It recorded 177 plant species in use. The authors report that Afro-Surinamese women used the baths for dry sex, which they describe as using plants to dry and contract the vagina, and also to cleanse the uterus after childbirth and menstruation. These are reasons given in interviews, and the study did not test whether the baths achieve them.

Postpartum steam practices in Lao PDR

A survey in Lao PDR based on 65 interviews in 15 villages with women of four ethnic groups documented traditional postpartum recovery that includes hotbeds, mother roasting, steam sauna and steam baths, with medicinal plants playing a central role. The authors describe steam bath cleansing of the perineal area as one possible component. This documents a postpartum tradition in one country and does not establish that it is the same practice as modern yoni steaming.

Wellness attention and unverified origin claims

A thematic analysis of 90 online items by Vandenburg and Braun states that vaginal steaming made global headlines in 2015 after promotion by a celebrity, and places it among female genital modification practices offered in Anglo-Western nations. The authors analyzed news, lifestyle, spa and blog texts and did not trace historical origins.

The sources reviewed for this page did not verify a single origin for the modern practice, and none documented the Korean name chai-yok that some spas use. Statements that yoni steaming is one unbroken ancient tradition therefore rest on material not examined here.

Names in use

The literature uses several terms. Robert and Vandenburg and Braun write of vaginal steaming, van der Helm and colleagues of vaginal steam baths with herb leaves, and van Andel and colleagues of genital steam baths. The word yoni appears in wellness marketing: a content analysis of 83 feminine hygiene products found that products marketed to Black women disproportionately used spiritual or empowerment language such as yoni. That study examined hygiene products broadly, and the sources reviewed here do not define the term.

Related but distinct practices

Vaginal steaming is often studied alongside other vaginal practices. Hull and colleagues use the term for practices that clean or modify the vulva and vagina, surveyed among 3,610 women in Mozambique, South Africa, Indonesia and Thailand, and Nsereko and colleagues write of intravaginal practices such as douching and insertion of herbs. These categories are wider than steaming, and findings about them do not transfer automatically.

Whole-body steam baths and saunas, such as those described among the Maya and in Lao PDR, also differ from steam directed at the genital area, so findings about whole-body steam baths should not be applied to genital steaming without direct evidence.

What the sources describe

In the sources reviewed, the practice involves steam from heated water, often with herbs, applied to the genital area. Van Andel and colleagues recorded 177 plant species in Surinamese vaginal steam baths, and van der Helm and colleagues describe vaginal steam baths with herb leaves. Robert reports a case in which a woman used vaginal steaming in an attempt to reduce vaginal prolapse. None of the abstracts or pages opened gives a standardized method, so water temperature, distance from the steam source, duration, frequency and herb choice are not verified here.

Settings and sources of information

Vandenburg and Braun drew their online sample from news, health and lifestyle sites, spa and service providers, and personal blogs, which indicates that the practice is promoted both commercially and informally. In a qualitative study of eight Black women in the United States, information about vaginal steaming circulated mainly through interpersonal and digital networks. In Suriname, by contrast, the baths were described as a household tradition used by women of several ethnic groups, most commonly Maroon and Creole women.

Claims made in wellness settings

Vandenburg and Braun state that vaginal steaming is claimed to offer benefits for fertility and for reproductive, sexual or general health and wellbeing. Robert describes it as having gained popularity as a way to achieve empowerment, vaginal tightening and a freshened vagina. A content analysis of hygiene products marketed to Black women found unsubstantiated claims to treat fibroids, infertility and menstrual irregularities in some marketing, though those products were not steaming devices specifically. These are claims made by providers and marketers, and the sources reviewed did not test them.

Reasons reported by users

In a Suriname survey of 1,040 women, hygiene was the most frequently cited reason for vaginal herb use (51.6 to 71.4 percent across groups), followed by sexual enhancement (0 to 48.4 percent). Interviewees in the Suriname ethnopharmacology study also described cleansing the uterus after childbirth and menstruation. In rural Limpopo, South Africa, some of 16 interviewed teenagers practiced vaginal steaming as an infection-prevention measure, a belief the study reported and did not evaluate.

Searches and what they found

On 2026-10-06 a PubMed search for vaginal steaming in titles and abstracts returned six records: a burn case report, two qualitative studies, a discourse analysis, a case-control study in which steaming was one of several exposures, and a product content analysis. A broader PubMed query on yoni, vaginal steam and steam bath terms and a search of a biomedical paper index for vaginal steaming traditional practice returned no randomized or other controlled study. A research-search service was unavailable because its monthly quota was exhausted. No controlled study of vaginal steaming for fertility, menstrual, hygiene or other claimed outcomes was found.

Observational findings

A case-control study in Amsterdam compared 79 women with spontaneous preterm birth with 156 women with term births and found no association between vaginal steaming and preterm birth. Very few women reported steaming (none of the cases and two controls before pregnancy, one case and no controls during pregnancy), so the study could say little about it. The authors list a non-validated questionnaire, recall bias and no adjustment for socioeconomic status as limits.

In the Suriname cross-sectional study, vaginal herb use was not a determinant of infection detected on vaginal swabs, but the design cannot show causation, the authors could not tell whether herbs were applied internally or externally, and they did not study the vaginal microbiota.

Related research and its limits

Hull and colleagues concluded that vaginal practices are not as rare, exotic or benign as sometimes assumed and that evidence on biomedical consequences is limited. Nsereko and colleagues reviewed intravaginal practices among African and African American women and describe the evidence as minimal for some practices and unclear for effects on pregnancy outcomes and the vaginal microbiota. Neither study isolates steaming, and the qualitative and discourse studies describe views and messaging, not outcomes.

Perspectives of Black women in the United States

A qualitative study interviewed eight Black women aged 23 to 70 in the United States using a Black feminist lens. Only one had personal experience of vaginal steaming, yet all offered layered views. Some saw it as potentially empowering or restorative, while others questioned its safety, cost and medical credibility, and the women engaged critically with wellness messages. The sample is small and not representative, so these views illustrate perspectives and do not describe a community.

Commercial framing

Vandenburg and Braun interpret online accounts as fitting constructions of the female body as deficient and in need of constant self-improvement, a reading that is the authors' analysis and not a finding about outcomes. A separate content analysis of feminine hygiene marketing argues that culturally coded language, including the word yoni, is used to market products with unsupported health claims. These critiques concern commercial messaging, not the older household practices described above.

Burns and heat exposure

A case report in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada describes a 62-year-old woman who sustained second-degree burns after vaginal steaming in an attempt to reduce vaginal prolapse. The author notes the practice's growing popularity as a route to empowerment and vaginal tightening and states that clinicians need to know about alternative treatments women use so counseling may reduce potential harm. A single case report cannot indicate how often burns occur, and only the abstract was reviewed here, so details of the setup and treatment are not given.

Infection and microbiome questions

No study reviewed measured the effect of steaming on the vaginal microbiome. The Suriname survey authors state that the effect of herb use on the microbiota and mucosal barrier is unknown and recommend research. Nsereko and colleagues report that intravaginal insertion of substances is associated with abrasions, disruption of vaginal flora, bacterial vaginosis and HIV and other infections, while stating that effects on pregnancy outcomes are unclear. Those findings concern insertion practices and do not show that steaming has the same effects.

Van Andel and colleagues state that drying herbs used for dry sex damage vaginal tissue and facilitate the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and Hull and colleagues found genital irritation common at African study sites. Both findings concern wider vaginal practices, and the Suriname authors also suggest the baths may reduce womb infection, a view that was not tested.

Suitability and care boundaries

The sources reviewed do not provide a verified list of contraindications, recommended temperatures or durations, and none addresses use in pregnancy beyond the small Amsterdam study that found no association with preterm birth. No professional register, training standard or consensus statement for providers was identified among the sources reviewed. Because the burn case arose from steaming used for prolapse, symptoms such as prolapse, abnormal discharge, pain, bleeding or fertility concerns call for conventional assessment, and steaming should not delay or replace necessary care.