Etsy has removed a vaginal stick from sale after gynaecologists said the product was “stupid” and could potentially “cause harm”.
The Jamu Stick is designed to be inserted into the vagina to “exfoliate” a woman internally, supposedly helping to “tighten the vagina, strengthen vaginal muscles, and increase libido”.
“Jamu Stick sensitises, cleans and regenerates the vagina, has a positive effect on the consistency and aroma of the secretion,” an ad for the stick claims.
Though produced by an Indonesian company, the Jamu Stick was being sold on Etsy for £21.91 on one page and £18.78 on another, making it easily accessible to UK consumers.
Following a backlash to the product on social media, HuffPost UK contacted Etsy to clarify how it monitors products sold by independent sellers and Etsy responded by removing the Jamu Stick from sale.
The makers of Jamu Stick claim it works by removing the dead skin cells of the surface layers of the “vaginal epithelial skin”. A Twitter user posted a screenshot of an advert they’d seen for the product, writing: “Excuse me? Excuse me? Excuse me?”
London-based gynaecologist Dr Shazia Malik told HuffPost UK: “There’s absolutely zero scientific evidence for the benefits that [Jamu Stick] has written about on their website, for any of the ingredients, or the concept of why it might be helpful.”
In fact, she said there is “clear evidence, medically speaking” that inserting foreign bodies into the vagina can pose a health risk.
“We don’t know the exact composition of this product, chemically, so you have absolutely no idea what you’re putting inside your vagina, whether it’s sterile, and you can’t tell the potentially long or short term effects of doing so,” she said.
Californian-based gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter also doesn’t think the Jamu Stick is safe. “The vagina is like a self-cleaning oven. None of the ingredients in the Jamu Stick can help in any way and will likely cause harm,” she told Refinery29.
On Twitter, Gunter called the product “stupid”, posting a link to a blog she wrote back in 2016 warning women not to use such products.
“I am your go-to defender against vulvar and vaginal snake oil,” she said. “Also, the vaginal epithelium turns over about every 96 hours – it is self exfoliating! It’s one of the defense mechanisms.”
Dr Malik added that the product is part of a wider problem, where vaginas are viewed as “unclean” by the wellness and beauty industry. “The premise of products like this is that somehow the vagina is inherently a dirty or unclean organ, which is just not true,” she said.
“By making that basic assumption, we assume that this part of a woman’s anatomy needs some sort of cleansing or treatment to make it okay. You’re feeding into people’s insecurities about their own bodies and in fact, what they have is not only completely normal, but an essential part of the female anatomy for many different reasons.”
An Etsy spokesperson told HuffPost UK the site had removed Jamu Stick products from sale, stating: “As outlined in our policies, we do not allow content that promotes prohibited medical claims.”
A spokesperson from Jamu Stick told Refinery29 that claims the product is unsafe are “not true”. Studies to support Jamu Stick’s use were not available, they added, because the stick is “made based on the traditional recipes in home industry”.
HuffPost UK has contacted Jamu Stick for comment and will update this piece if we receive a response.