Ep 14. Yoni Steaming 101
LISTEN to the PODCAST
READ the FULL TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to the Radiance Podcast. My name is Irene, and I’m your host.
If you’re new here, this podcast is in devotion to the illumination and liberation of the feminine. My intention is to share personal stories for inspiration, but also offer educational content to support you in your journey—your journey of connecting more deeply with your body, your womb space, your universe, your feminine energy, and your power as a woman.
So today, I want to talk about yoni steaming.
A lot of my clients and patients have been asking:
What is yoni steaming? What is it about? What are the benefits? What does it actually do?
Yoni steaming—also called vaginal steaming or perineal steaming—involves kneeling, squatting, or sitting above steam that’s often infused with specific herbs. This steam rises and helps nourish and cleanse the vulva, the vagina, and the womb space.
It’s a practice that’s been used for millennia—an ancestral medicine that’s supported postpartum healing and gynecological wellness in so many cultures. You can find it across Africa, Mexico (where I’m from), with the Mayan peoples, in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia.
I’m also a Chinese medicine practitioner—and I love seeing these cultural crossovers. It’s a reminder of the original ways. The tools and practices rooted in inner knowing, in shamanic wisdom, in nature. In learning through experience.
Now, scientifically, there aren’t a lot of clinical trials on yoni steaming. So much of what we know is experiential, passed down through generations. But this is what I love about medicine—not everything that works is proven in a lab. Especially in traditions like Chinese medicine, we have thousands of years of case studies, and they matter.
This is ancestral healing. Ancestral medicine. And there is so much for us to remember, to reclaim.
So let’s talk about how it works.
You boil water and add herbs—ones like mugwort, which is known as the “mother herb.” It’s deeply supportive for women’s health. In Chinese medicine, it’s used postpartum to warm and tone the womb. It’s also the herb used in moxibustion (or “moxa”), if you’re familiar with that technique. We apply it to certain points on the body to bring warmth and healing.
If you’ve given birth before, you know the incredible transformation your womb goes through—from a small organ to a vast, expansive home for your baby, and then back again. The womb is muscular, vascular, and incredibly intelligent. Yoni steaming helps support that transformation—by bringing warmth, increasing circulation, and helping discharge any stagnant blood or tissue that might remain after birth.
It also supports conditions like endometriosis. In Chinese medicine, we often look at it through the lens of blood stagnation. The warmth of the steam—especially when combined with herbs like calendula, rose, or mugwort—can help break up that stagnation and bring relief.
It can support pain relief, especially if you have painful periods. It’s also helpful for symptoms related to PCOS, which we associate with dampness in Chinese medicine. The steam is moist, but it’s clean. It helps clear the turbid fluids—the murky waters—from the pelvic bowl.
If you deal with frequent infections, yoni steaming can help bring balance—especially when paired with things like probiotics, fermented foods, and good gut health. It’s all connected.
It also supports fertility. I see many patients who come to me because they want to conceive, and I love walking with them on that journey. From conscious conception to conscious pregnancy to conscious birth—it’s such a sacred process.
Yoni steaming brings warmth and circulation to the womb, making it more receptive. If you’re trying to get pregnant, avoid sitting on cold surfaces like concrete or damp grass. Keep your womb and your lower back warm. That’s part of fertility support—creating a soft, inviting environment for life to grow.
And it’s not just about pregnancy. Yoni steaming helps regulate your cycle, support healthy shedding of the endometrium, and create space for what’s new.
It can also help reduce dryness. For those of us entering perimenopause—I see you, I’m right there with you—this is such a powerful tool. Our culture tends to scorch our yin. We’re all go-go-go, and we burn out. Yin is water. And when there’s too much fire, we get dryness—dry mouth, dry skin, dry vaginal tissue.
We need to nourish our yin. That means stillness, rest, nature. Putting our feet in cool, clear water. Letting it come in through the ankles—connected to the womb meridians—and drawing that yin energy up through the body.
Yoni steaming, though warm, is a yin-nourishing practice. It brings moisture, softens the tissues, and creates a space for deep relaxation. So many of us hold tension in our pelvic floors, in our perineums. We’ve heard we should be doing kegels, but some women can’t even access that movement because they’re holding so tightly.
We need to learn how to soften again.
This is what yoni steaming offers—it brings us into that quiet, inward, nurturing space. A space where we can listen to our bodies, reconnect with our wombs, and create sacred time for ourselves.
The benefits aren’t just physical—they’re emotional, spiritual, energetic.
Your womb is your creative center. It receives and holds energy—not just from sexual partners, but from emotions, responsibilities, stress. If we don’t clear it, we carry all of that.
So even if you’re not trying to get pregnant, womb clearing is important. Maybe you’re calling in a project, a relationship, a new season of life. Clearing the womb clears the path.
If you're still bleeding, your cycle does some of this naturally. But most of us are so busy, we don’t tune in. Yoni steaming gives us a monthly ritual. A moment to honor our bodies and support our feminine power.
If you want to go deeper, I created a Womb Medicine Bundle—a ceremonial experience where you don’t just receive information, but truly embody it. It includes embodiment practices, guided meditations, journaling prompts, and ritual. You feel it in your body.
The first step is to take the Womb Quiz I created. It will help you discover your womb type through the lens of Chinese Medicine, so you can receive the most aligned practices for your body and where you are right now.
All the info is below. I hope this episode serves you. Let me know how it lands, if you have questions, insights, or reflections.
I’m here for you—and sending you so much love.
