Yoni steams or vaginal steaming is an ancient healing form that is quickly becoming popular again. If you haven’t heard of yoni steams prepared to be amazed at what twenty minutes of self care can accomplish.
What is a Yoni Steam?
In the simplest terms, a vaginal steam is like a facial steam, but for your vagina (for the both the external and internal tissues) .
This ancient healing method involves sitting over a pot of warm water infused with healing herbs. The steam helps to tone, soften and rejuvenate the tissues. When the right herbal allies are utilized, it can also help to:
- reduce pain associated with menstruation
- regulate menstrual cycles
- improve fertility
- improved blood and lymphatic flow
- address spotting (both pre and post-menstrual)
- cleanse the uterine lining
- improve menstrual blood colour and tone
- alleviate symptoms associated with menopause (hot flashes, vaginal dryness etc.)
- aid in the healing and tone of the reproductive system after childbirth
Selecting Herbs for a Yoni Steam
There are so many different herbs you can use for a vaginal steam that it may seem overwhelming. Below I’ll list a few of my favourites and after becoming familiar with these, you can branch out and try some new combinations.
I highly recommend using your intuition or meditating on which herbs are best for you and your body. Yoni steams are very personal and what works for one person may not work for you. Listen to your divine feminine inner voice… she may guide you to the perfect selection of herbs.
Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
- anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial (bacterial, viral, fungal), hemostatic (helps with excess bleeding) uterine tonic, vulnerary (helps to heal tissues)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial (bacterial, viral), antispasmodic, uterine hemostatic, stimulating emmenagogue (excellent for irregular or absent periods)
Mugwort (Artemesia vulgaris)
- antimicrobial (bacterial, fungal), circulatory stimulant, stimulating emmenagogue, uterine antispasmodic, tonic and relaxing nervine
Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
- uterine antispasmodic, tonic emmenagogue (balancing to the hormones of the female reproductive system), uterine tonic and relaxant
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
- antibacterial, analgesic, antispasmodic, vulnerary, relaxant
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
- antimicrobial (bacterial, viral), antispasmodic, stimulating emmenagogue, relaxant, nervine
Red Raspberry leaf (Rubus idaeus)
- anti-inflammatory, tonic emmenagogue, uterine hemostatic, uterine tonic, vulnerary
Marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis)
- this is a specific for vaginal dryness
How to do a Yoni/Vaginal Steam
To partake in a yoni steam at home you will need either a yoni steam chair or a clean sterilized stainless steel bowl you can place in your toilet bowl.
- Place 30 grams (just over an ounce) of chosen herbs in a pot with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for ten minutes.
- Steep/simmer herbs in the water for 10 minutes
- Strain out the herbs and transfer the tea to your yoni steam chair or stainless steel bowl (if it’s still very hot allow it to sit for a few moments before sitting down)
- Disrobe from the waist down and wrap your waist with a blanket or towel (this keeps the steam contained)
- It is wise to keep your feet warm during this process (warm socks or slippers)
- Steam your vagina for 20 minutes (it will be a pleasant experience)
- This is a lovely time to meditate, journal, or read your favourite book
How Often Should you Steam?
I would recommend if you are steaming with an intent or purpose (fertility issues, irregular flow, painful menstruation etc) that you start with twice a month. This can be increased to 3 times a month, but I would not exceed that.
If you are steaming simply to enjoy the process and for some self care, 1-2 times per months is likely enough.
Yoni Steam Precautions
Vaginal steaming is not recommended if you are pregnant, have an IUD or menstruating. If you have any sort of infections, open wounds, cuts, stitches or have any chronic reproductive conditions please consult a herbalist or natural health practitioner prior to steaming.
If you have vaginal piercings they should be removed.
Essential oils should never be used in a vaginal steam.
Your first cycle after steaming may be heavier and darker as your body may be purging excess blood and/or toxins.
Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post on the revitalized ancient practice of yoni steams. If you do not feel comfortable making your own blends, or do not have access to herbs yourself, you can contact me or any other local herbalist for a custom blend.
Happy steaming!
Regular Readers/Watchers
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I love this. Can you use this to make a soap ?
I don’t see why not! I would imagine you could infuse the herbs into the oils you would use for soap making. That would be quite lovely. Enjoy experimenting with it!
Hi, can you give us a recipe for BV, cleansing, and spotting all in one ?
Hi there! Unfortunately due to Health Canada regulations I cannot do any specific and individualized formulations for anyone outside of clinic. I am required to have a consultation. However, I can say that this generalized formulation would still provide benefit.
What is the ratio for the herbs mentioned above? Are they all equal parts?
Hi Emily,
You could definitely just do equal portions of the plants and have a lovely end product. But if there are areas that you need to address that one particular plant would be better suited for, I would have a higher amount of that. This allows for customization of the yoni steam to your needs. I hope that helps!
Ia just used what it is on my yard and obviously I do t have any of these ones.
Using what we have is a common occurrence in herbal medicine. As long as you positively identified everything and know their general properties, I am sure it was fine. 🙂
Are you offering the yoni steams for purchase?
Hi there! Yes I do. You can find it here: https://spiraeaherbs.ca/product/triple-moon-yoni-steam-60g/
Hello, I was wondering if you think it would be beneficial if I were to grind motherwort into a powder and infuse it into a yoni oil blend?
Hi there! Would your plan be to strain out the powdered herbs before using the oil? I am uncertain how irritating that could be if you apply ground herbs directly. My preference would be to infuse fresh herbs into an oil, strain them out and then use the oil. Hope that helps!
Do you offer herbs for yoni cleaning?
Hi Debra! I do offer one general blend that can be found in my online apothecary. Thanks so much!
https://spiraeaherbs.ca/product/triple-moon-yoni-steam-60g/
Hey there
Im in the process of starting my own yoni steam studio. Any suggestions on a good, fresh, and reliable source that i could order my herbs in bulk?
Your video are awesome ands extremely informative!
Thank You
Hi there! I highly recommend Harmonic Arts for bulk dried herbs. Good people and excellent quality.
https://harmonicarts.ca/?aff=28
Best of luck!
Thank you very much for this information. I just wanted to give you a heads up, when I searched in your search bar for this blog, it only showed the 1st paragraph of your article. I had to enter the URL in the webpage bar, to get the full blog info. Thank You again, your website looks really great for information.
That is strange indeed. I just repeated the same action and when I clicked on the title of the blog (because it does bring up ALL blog posts that contain the search words you enter), it took me right to it. Did you click on the title by chance? I would like to fix this if I can 🙂
Thank you for this overview, that helps me a lot choosing my blend for yoni steaming! I wanted to try marshmallow root and was wondering -since it is a root and is differently processed than the leaves often- how to steam with them to get the benefitial effects for vaginal dryness..
Would you let them sit in cold water for a while and then heat the water up?
Thank you and greetings from germany,
Lilith
You do lose some of those mucilaginous when you use hot water, so you could do a cold brew first and then add it to your steam. However, you don’t want to reduce the temp of the yoni steam too much. So I would try it both ways… just toss it in with the rest of the herbs AND try the cold brew ahead of time and see if there is a noticeable difference in the end product.