Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle website GOOP has become a major part of popular culture in the last few years. From fashion tips to healthy recipes, you can copy every part of Gwyneth’s life. We’re a big fan of some of her advice – she’s championed pelvic health and made a big effort to educate women on their pelvic floors.
But some of Gwyneth’s ideas are a little… out there. Read on to find out which tips you should definitely not follow – and which you should!
Jade Vaginal Eggs
The latest GOOP scoop is on ‘jade eggs for your yoni’. Yep. Gwyneth Paltrow suggests that you use jade eggs to tone your pelvic floor (conveniently available to buy from her for $66!). The article on GOOP says that this isn’t just for making things tighter, but that jade will balance hormones, ‘female energy’ and chi. We’re not wholly anti-alternative medicine at Kegel8, but there are more than a few problems with this statement.
For starters, jade is a porous substance; this makes it vulnerable to bacteria and not something you should put in your vagina. Jade looks very nice but it will do absolutely nothing to your hormone levels, and we’re not even totally sure what ‘female energy’ is. However, one thing that using an egg like this will do is tighten your pelvic floor and improve your sex life. Rather than sticking an expensive and potentially dangerous table weight up there, we recommend Kegel8 Vaginal Cones. Made from body-safe, medical grade materials, they come in three sizes and have been clinically proven to improve pelvic floor strength – unlike Gwyneth’s rotten eggs!
Vaginal Steaming
This was one of the biggest GOOP stories to hit the news. Gwyneth Paltrow recommended that you regularly go to a spa and squat over some herbal steam to ‘cleanse the uterus’ and balance hormone levels. This is a variation on an old Korean tradition that uses wormwood and mugwort as they are thought to have healing and antibiotic properties.
Needless to say, there is no scientific basis for these beliefs. As anyone who has a decent understanding of the female body will tell you, the vagina and uterus are self-cleaning. There is absolutely to reason to use steam, douches or even soap on your private parts! Aside from the risk of scalding yourself in an extremely sensitive area, putting steam anywhere near your vagina is a bad idea because it can mess with your pH balance and cause infections. Don’t do it!
Avoiding Bras
Nobody has to wear a bra. If you feel more comfortable not wearing one, go for it (and who doesn’t at the end of a long day!). However, a dangerous myth about this has been going around the media for a few years. You may have read about it – that a study showed that wearing an underwire bra increases your risk of breast cancer. GOOP picked up on this study in 2015, publishing a blog by a doctor who recommends going braless to reduce your risk.
Don’t go throwing those underwires in the bin! We’re here to tell you that this is nonsense. The study come to this conclusion about underwires because women with larger breasts have a higher risk of cancer. This isn’t because of the type of bra they wear. It’s because larger breasts are more difficult to screen properly. There is also a higher risk of cancer among obese women. Much better advice would be to check your breasts regularly and try to maintain a healthy weight – unfortunately not headline material!
Pelvic Floor Exercises
One thing we do love Gwyneth Paltrow for is her attitude towards pelvic health. Over the years, she’s published many articles on the benefits of pelvic floor exercise. Gwyneth recommends that you regularly exercise your pelvic floor to protect yourself from incontinence and maintain a fulfilling sex life. We totally agree! Doing regular kegels with a Kegel8 Tight & Tone Electronic Pelvic Toner will help you stay healthy and happy for years to come. It may not be able to balance your chi, but it’s proven to work wonders on your body.
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