Singer Mel B recently decided to have her vagina scraped in order to eliminate all traces of her ex-husband. The procedure is billed as a deep cleansing of the vagina, but experts warn that it can be extremely dangerous, not to mention completely unnecessary. Here’s everything you need to know about it as well as why you need to leave your vagina alone.
- What is vaginal scraping exactly? As the name suggests, it’s the scraping out of the vagina, specifically its walls, followed by adding new vaginal tissue to the area. It’s sort of like a vaginal rejuvenation or cleanse and quite similar to such treatments, but celebs like Mel B are showing that the procedure can be used for other reasons.
- Your vagina doesn’t need to “look better.” Trust me, your vagina is great just the way it is. You don’t need to resort to such measures to make it appear younger or to write off your sexual history. It might even do way more harm than good. Sure, some people think procedures such as vaginal scraping will make their vaginas fresh, but that’s total BS.
- Vaginal scraping can cause and spread infections. When the vaginal tissues get scraped, this could disrupt the vagina ecosystem and potentially spread HPV as well as increase your risk of infection. An HPV infection can end up spreading to other areas of the body such as the vagina and vulva. Sometimes HPV goes away on its own, but other times HPV can lead to other health conditions, such as genital warts and even cancer.
- It’s not a necessary part of your breakup plan. You might think that getting your vagina scraped after you’ve had sexual relations with someone is a great way to move on from the toxic guy, but it’s just not worth it. As explained on Refinery29, your vagina’s surface cells are shed and replaced every four hours while its epithelium regenerates after 96 hours. Basically, your vagina is doing the work for you. You don’t have to resort to such dangerous measures.
- Vaginal rejuvenation procedures are no joke. Although you might laugh at the claims made by vaginal rejuvenation as well as the hype surrounding these treatments, they can have some nasty consequences. The FDA has found that vaginal rejuvenation treatments have caused scarring, chronic pain, pain during sex, and burns.
- It puts you at risk of bacterial infections. By having your vaginal cells scraped away, you’re removing a physical barrier to microbes, as Dr. Fiona Mattatall, an obstetrician and gynecologist from Calgary, told Refinery29. These are found in the vagina and they protect it from germs and infections.
- You don’t want to mess with your vaginal bacteria. The good bacteria found in your vagina is important in more ways than you might realize. It produces a substance that actually prevents bad bacteria from sticking to the walls of the vagina so they can’t penetrate the vaginal tissue. Good bacteria found inside the vagina also maintains a healthy pH. This is essential to ward off bad odors and infections. By thinking you have to remove vaginal tissue and bacteria, you’re actually giving yourself a problem that wasn’t there to begin with!
- It can cause bleeding. Dr. Fiona Mattatall went on to say that infection and bleeding could be the risks associated with such a procedure, although this is speculation. However, is it really worth the risk? And, who knows what else can happen from such a procedure? Just because celebrities might be having it done, it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s safe or recommended for women.
- It hasn’t been tested enough. As with any procedure, you want to be sure it’s safe. But vaginal cleanses and rejuvenation procedures don’t have any scientific facts to back up their claims. Dr. Jen Gunter, gynecologist and author of The Vagina Bible, states that women shouldn’t be offered procedures that are untested and have “no medical value.”
- It’s making us feel that there’s something wrong with our vaginas. Are men running to medical professionals asking for scrapings and rejuvenation? No! So why should we be made to feel that we need such treatments and procedures? They don’t form part of sticking to a healthy vagina regime, that’s for sure.
- Scraping isn’t the only thing to avoid when it comes to your vagina. Anything to do with vaginal rejuvenation or cleansing must be avoided. The same goes for laser devices that are put anywhere near your vagina. In fact, there are only a few cases when lasers can be beneficial, and that’s when there’s a medical reason for them. According to the FDA, these include serious conditions when there’s the presence abnormal or pre-cancerous cervical or vaginal tissue, and when there are genital warts that require treatment.
