No, Your Vagina Does Not Need ‘Detox Pearls’

Pearl jewelry is always in style, but pearls for your vagina? Not so much. Unfortunately, vaginal “detox pearls” have been making the rounds as yet another type of questionable gynecological health product.

Vaginal detox pearls, sometimes referred to as yoni pearls, are small suppositories formulated with ingredients such as herbs, like motherwort and wild celery. They are inserted with an applicator and left in the vagina for up to 48 hours. The companies behind these products claim the pearls will purge the vagina of dead skin cells, increase sexual wetness and tightness, and even rid the energy of past partners.

One particular product, Goddess Vaginal Detox Pearls, was barred from sale in Canada in 2019, Vice reported at the time. The ban came after a CBC investigation found the company was marketing the detox as something that could cleanse users of sexual trauma, increase sexual wetness, and encourage blood flow to the vagina without going through any assessment process for safety, quality, or effectiveness. Jen Gunter, M.D., ob-gyn and author of The Vagina Bible, told CBC the claims are “very predatory.” But the product is still available online in the U.S. at Urban Outfitters and the company’s site.

Experts tell SELF that vaginal detox pearls, like so many “vaginal cleansing” products before them, are unnecessary at best and potentially dangerous at worst.

Your vagina doesn’t need a special detox—in fact, trying one could be harmful.

Vaginal detoxes are unnecessary because the vagina can generally clean itself, Kecia Gaither, M.D., an ob-gyn, maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and the director of perinatal services for NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, tells SELF. The vagina’s environment contains healthy bacteria and an acidic pH, which help protect it from unhealthy bacteria, viruses, and other sources of infection, she says. The vagina also cleanses itself regularly by producing discharge.

Thanks to this setup, you don’t need detox pearls (or any other special cleansing product) to clean the vagina. What’s more, vaginal detox products tend to contain ingredients and fragrances that can be irritating to that tissue. For instance, Goddess Vaginal Detox Pearls contain several herbal extracts including borneol, an ingredient that is known to cause skin irritation in some people. Using borneol in this particularly sensitive area can irritate the epithelium, the inner lining of the vagina, Dr. Gaither explains. (SELF reached out to both Urban Outfitters and Goddess Detox to respond to various claims in this piece. Neither company responded to multiple requests for comment.)

Beyond that, introducing a product such as detox pearls can actually disrupt the vagina’s delicate pH balance and make infections more likely. (Goddess does acknowledge on its website’s FAQ section that the product can contribute to yeast infections, but recommends using boric acid or another “natural yeast infection remedy.” However, experts typically recommend using an over-the-counter antifungal medication to treat a yeast infection or talking to your doctor about getting a prescription version.)

In the worst-case scenario, disrupting the vaginal ecosystem could lead to toxic shock syndrome, a very rare but serious bacterial infection, Dr. Gaither says. Toxic shock syndrome can cause flu-like symptoms such as a high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, a sunburn-like rash, muscle aches, and headaches. If it’s not treated quickly, the infection can be severe and potentially deadly.

Toxic shock syndrome is specifically caused by some types of staphylococcus and streptococcus bacteria that produce toxins, the Mayo Clinic explains. Using certain types of menstrual products, such as tampons and menstrual cups, for prolonged periods of time can make toxic shock syndrome more likely. That’s not because those products directly introduce toxin-producing bacteria to the body, but because they create a type of environment that allows the bacteria to flourish, according to current thinking. The worry with products like detox pearls, which are designed to be left inside the body for up to two days at a time, is that they might also produce a favorable environment for potentially dangerous bacteria.

It’s also not possible for a vaginal product to “cleanse” you of things like sexual trauma.

As for the claim that Goddess Detox’s vaginal pearls can remove “old trauma, past sexual partners, and abusers” from “the womb,” Maria Sophocles, M.D., ob-gyn and medical director at Women’s Healthcare of Princeton, calls this “frighteningly inappropriate” because sexual trauma cannot be healed by any vaginal product. “I have seen many women who are victims of sexual trauma, and there’s no cleanser on the planet that can undo the emotional damage that sexual trauma causes,” she says.

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