(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Alternative medicine can often seem pretty ridiculous.

First it was wasp’s nests, which we were apparently meant to shove up our vaginas to ‘tighten them’.

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And now we’re being told to insert toxic ozone gas in there for “anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal effects on unhealthy cells”.

One website claims that it can help with ‘yeast, bacterial and viral vaginal infections’, ‘unexplained pain in the vagina’, ‘labia pain, ‘pain with intercourse’ and ‘pelvic pain.


The gas is administered by inserting a cannula into the vagina, where it’s ‘introduced’ to the body. It takes five to fifteen minutes and patients will apparently suffer ‘no pain or pressure build up’.



Some websites are even instructing women on how to perform the procedure themselves at home.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it definitely, definitely is.

Ozone is a toxic gas – even low concentrations of ozone can be destructive. Websites instructing women on how to conduct the procedure warn that there’s a small chance they could experience a gas embolism – a bubble trapped in the blood stream which can potentially cause death.

Probably shouldn’t be putting ozone in your vagina then, really.

When Broadly journalist Theodora Sutcliffe tried the treatment, she found the actual procedure surprisingly easy to handle.

But that doesn’t mean that it had any benefits to her vaginal health.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Vagina expert Dr Jen Gunter explains on her blog that inserting ozone into the vagina has huge ‘potential for harm’, noting that the gas can damage the mucous membranes which are essential to the vagina’s wellbeing.

She points out that the FDA calls ozone a ‘toxic gas with no known useful medical application’, and explains that vaginas absolutely do not need these kind of germicides to be put anywhere near them.

Dr Gunter writes that the main issues with ozone therapy for the vagina are the following: a risk of gas embolism (which, as we mentioned, could kill you), the toxic effect of ozone on the vagina’s healthy bacteria, irritation of the vagina (whichy could leave you saw), damage to the vaginal mucous, and the risk of inhaling some of the ozone while you’re in the room getting it shoved up your vag.

‘Ozone is natural in the way that cyanide is natural,’ she writes. ‘It has some uses in nature but it’s really, really bad for people.’

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