Doctors Are Urging Women To Stop Putting Wasps In Their Vaginas

What's in your wallet vagina? Because apparently, putting wasps in vaginas is a thing…

Naturally, we want to take care of our bodies, especially our private areas. Too often, however, someone comes up with a ridiculous plan or cure for any array of vaginal issues. From Gwyneth Paltrow's steamed vagina and jade eggs to some non-scientist’s bright idea to turn weed into suppositories to ease PMS cramps, people are doing the absolute most with their vaginas. And just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, women are now putting wasps nests in their vaginas.

Oak galls, as they are called, are indigenous to Malaysia and India. Oak galls are basically wasp excreta and dried wasp nests. One Etsy shop describes some medicinal uses of oak galls as containing "tannin and small amounts of gallic acid and ellagic acid [that] have antimicrobial qualities and are used in South East Asia especially Malaysia and Indonesia by women after childbirth to restore the elasticity of the uterine wall. In India it has been used as dental powder and as a treatment for toothache and gingivitis." Other uses of oak galls are to tighten the vagina in order to improve sex life as well as to help cure facial acne.

OB/GYN, Dr. Jen Gunter came across this method while googling "unusual vaginal therapies" as a distraction from "the hot mess in the White House." Dr. Gunter is urging women not to put these oak galls in their vaginas. In fact, don't put any food or other oddities into your vagina. Just don't. Dr. Gunter warns, that in addition to the advertised benefit of vaginal tightening it could also cause drying. "Drying the vaginal mucosa increases the risk of abrasions during sex (not good) and destroys the protective mucous layer (not good)." It could also wreak havoc with the good bacteria. In addition to causing pain during sex, it can increase the risk of HIV transmission.

There are so many dangerous practices and methods out there and we have to be careful. Just because someone markets a product as being ancient medicine does not mean that it is healthy for our bodies. A general, common sense rule: if a product says that it will burn, especially because of how strong it is, it does not belong in your vagina. If you know any woman who is putting wasps nests in her vagina, please tell her to stop.