In what seems like post #323 explaining that vaginas don’t need cleaning, I present the cucumber vagina cleanse.
Apparently some women are peeling cucumbers inserting them vaginally and then twisting them around for up to 20 minutes to refresh or cleanse or flush or something. This isn’t just a weird Facebook thing one person did once. I Googled “cucumber vagina cleanse” (God help me, I did) and WAS HORRIFIED. There are even videos but I’m not giving them the traffic. If you want to watch you are on your own.
If you have a vagina you should definitely not do this.
VAGINAS ARE NOT DIRTY
That is in capitals because I am yelling.
This idea that some kind of vaginal cleansing is required, be it with a peeled cucumber or the “feminine washes” sold at drug stores, is misogyny dressed up as health care and I am having none of it. Vaginas are not dirty.
ATTEMPTS AT “CLEANING” THE VAGINA ACTUALLY DAMAGE THE VAGINA
Also yelling.
Study after study after study tells us that douches, cleanses, steams, vinegar, pH-balancing products, aloe, colloidal silver,
garlic or whatever else passing as the vaginal snake oil du jour
at best do nothing but have real potential for harming good bacteria and/or disrupting the mucosal surface. I mean 20 minutes of cucumber twisting? (As a side note, I don’t spend 20 minutes cleaning anything. Ever. Even a surgical scrub only takes 5 minutes!)
By damaging lactobacilli and the mucosa, attempts at vaginal cleaning increase a woman’s risk of contracting HIV or gonorrhea if she is exposed. Paradoxically it will also cause odor.
