Welcome back! On our channel, you’ve seen me review many surgical treatments, therapies, and medications that can improve your health and quality of life. But what about all of these OTHER products out there? They’re not FDA-approved… You can buy them on Amazon… Don’t worry — we’re on your side! Today I’m going to review four over-the-counter feminine healthcare products. As a urogynecologist/healthcare provider, I’ve trained for tens of thousands of hours on all products that relate to female sexual issues and sexual health. And we’re going to tell you which over-the-counter products are good news — and which are bad.
Don’t have time to read this post? Watch the video here instead!
First up is the Virginity Wand. Okay, Buyer beware — this product is total horse$%*#. So the product claims are that it improves pH balance, it improves vaginal tightening, orgasm, confidence — none of these things have any evidence to support these claims. And since it falls outside of medical devices (it’s an over-the-counter product), it doesn’t have to go through any type of rigorous FDA trials to prove that it actually does the thing that it’s claiming to do.
Whether it’s actual surgical tightening (where you go to the operating room and physically tighten the vagina, which is really the only procedure that has evidence that shows that it physically narrows the caliber of the vagina) or some laser treatment (which has no data that supports its use for that fashion), most of the laser therapies that your doctor’s going to do in a doctor’s office are for postmenopausal vaginal dryness. And there’s good evidence that it supports that. You can check out our video on the vaginal laser here. But this virginity wand is over-promising and assuredly under-delivering — and it preys on people’s insecurities (and their pocketbooks) with absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support that claim.
Next on the list of stupid ways to lose $74 is the Vaginal pH Balancer. This “cures” your body of pelvic inflammatory disease, trichomoniasis, yeast infections, and cleans your vagina.
All complete nonsense!
In fact, this is deliberately dangerous information because you’re allowing a patient to believe that they can do an over-the-counter treatment to treat an infectious disease. They will think they’ve treated it, the disease will progress — and that can lead to infertility, sepsis, and death. So let’s not buy into this product!
We mentioned on our channel many times how the vagina is actually a self-cleaning organ. There’s a layer of bacteria called lactobacillus that creates a certain vaginal pH between 3.8 and 4.2. That naturally prevents other organisms and infections from growing there! This product introduces a foreign body — which if anything, is actually going to INCREASE your risk of infections! So avoid this at all costs!
Now, one thing that you CAN do to actually promote better, more healthy vaginal bacterial flora is a probiotic. You can get vaginal health probiotics or combined gut and vaginal health probiotics — but stay away from the wand!
Next up on the list of torturous therapies that have no benefit is the Yoni Pot. So this beckons back to the Gwyneth Paltro vaginal steaming debacle of 2019.
Actually, Dr. Mike did a very glorious takedown of the entire product line of goop. Suffice it to say that steaming your vagina with water or essential oils does nothing to balance the vaginal pH. It does nothing to prevent infections — and actually can be dangerous because it can cause burns to a very sensitive area of your anatomy!
I definitely understand that women suffer with recurrent vaginal infections, and they’re desperate. But having products like these takes advantage of people’s desperation. It doesn’t have the intended effect, it doesn’t cure the issue, and it actually can cause harm. So any abnormal discharge or recurrent infection needs to be managed under the care of a competent medical provider.
Next step, we have boric acid suppositories. So this one actually does have some scientific evidence that supports its use. Using boric acid sounds scary, but essentially all it does is help maintain a normal low (or acidic) vaginal pH. Now, boric acid under the direction of your medical provider can be a very effective strategy for stopping recurrent vaginitis, but it does need to be done in conjunction with a professional. You can do over-the-counter products if you have a hard time getting into your provider, but preferably you want to do this under the direction of your medical provider.
Thank you for joining us for my over-the-counter feminine hygiene product review! I know that you know someone that could use this video. Please share — and hit that subscribe button.
