Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP Gets Burned By An OB/GYN After Telling Women To Put Jade Eggs In Their Vaginas


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Gwyneth Paltrow, the free-spirited media/lifestyle/quinoa mogul who wants you to live your best life at exorbitant rates, has just given her readers — faithful (but impressionable) GOOPers — a piece of very bad advice. Actually, very bad is putting it mildly. This advice is so bad that we’ve got doctors actually calling out the consciously uncoupled celeb out on her new age practices.

It all started when Paltrow — who’s also recently released a travel app that’s like a cuter, low-rent version of Yelp — suggested that in order for women to experience the best sex they’ve ever had, they should purchase a $66 jade egg (it’s approximately the size of a regulation golf ball) and stick it into their “yonis” for, you know, like six to eight hours. Women could also put the ball into their vaginas as they slept for maximum benefits.

What would this achieve? Let GOOP tell you:

The strictly guarded secret of Chinese royalty in antiquity—queens and concubines used them to stay in shape for emperors—jade eggs harness the power of energy work, crystal healing, and a Kegel-like physical practice. Fans say regular use increases chi, orgasms, vaginal muscle tone, hormonal balance, and feminine energy in general.

“Fans say” should be a tip off. Historically, it hasn’t been wise to crowdsource health advice. This practice is also meant to strengthen your kidneys, if you’re into that. Shiva Rose, the expert GOOP spoke to, says that you won’t feel the effects right away, but just give it a month and your entire life will change (in subtle and immeasurable ways that have no empirical evidence behind them and cannot be tested).

While this is a great way for Gwyneth Paltrow and her confederates to make some delicious affiliate cash and give women just one more way of feeling like their vaginas aren’t good enough, it proved a bridge too far for one OB/GYN who called out Paltrow for her “alternative facts” on her blog.

Here’s what Dr. Jen Gunter, a San Francisco-based physician with Kaiser wrote about the practice, starting with the fact that it’s not only useless but actually sexist:

My issue begins with the very start of your post on jade eggs specifically that “queens and concubines used them to stay in shape for emperors.” Nothing says female empowerment more than the only reason to do this is for your man! And then the claim that they can balance hormones is, quite simply, biologically impossible. Pelvic floor exercises can help with incontinence and even give stronger orgasms for some women, but they cannot change hormones. As for female energy? I’m a gynecologist and I don’t know what that is!? How does one test for it? Organically sourced, fair trade urine pH sticks coming soon to GOOP for $77 I presume?

Could someone get Gwyneth some burn salve? Is there a healer in this party? But it’s not even over, because Gunter goes on to educate Paltrow on the fact that the movie star has literally no idea how vaginas work:

If the word for womb is yoni I hate to break it to you, but the uterus and vagina are different structures. If you are using the Sanskrit, while I admit I am no language scholar, it seems that yoni means the entire female reproductive tract and you should say that. Terminology aside, the vulva, vagina, cervix, and uterus are not intuition repositories and neither are they sources of “power” or “wisdom.” If fact, I find that assertion insulting. Do you really mean a woman who does not have a uterus is less effective? Is a woman without a vagina less intelligent? Is a woman who had a vulvectomy due to cancer less creative?

Don’t even get Gunter started on sleeping with a precious jade egg inside yourself:

As for the recommendation that women sleep with a jade egg in their vaginas I would like to point out that jade is porous which could allow bacteria to get inside and so the egg could act like a fomite. This is not good, in case you were wondering. It could be a risk factor for bacterial vaginosis or even the potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.


And then the mic drop to end all mic drops:

For women who want to use a device to help with Kegel exercises I suggest using weights made with medical grade silicone or plastic and to not wear them for long periods of time. Kegel exercises are not just about the contraction, the relaxation phase is just as important.

The only thing your post got right is to check with your doctor before using one. So let me give you some free advice, don’t use vaginal jade eggs.

We all thought that would be the end, but the stir Gunter’s article created was so huge that reporters began to reach out to GOOP to ask whether Paltrow, Shiva Rose, or the frightened intern who thought she’d be spending a glamorous few months working with a celeb but ended up answering phone calls from angry MDs, had anything to say.

They did, but their response was unsatisfactory, what with all its words about “alternative studies” and “inducing conversation,” which is a really weird way of saying that. Induce conversation? That sounds very strange and if anyone invited me to do such a thing, I’d immediately think of childbirth and never phone that person again.

Dr. Gunter had to get back to the blog:

This post on jade eggs can’t possibly “highlight alternative studies” as no studies were provided. I have read many so-called health practices on GOOP and rarely, if ever, found even a quasi-scientific study in a predatory journal to back them up. It may shock you, Dear Reader, but there are no studies on jade egg wearing. To hide behind the word “studies” is nothing more than chicanery. How many people will check? A more correct, but perhaps less lucrative, term would be “alternative therapies.”

A jade eggthusiast is a “medical practitioner” in the way a magician is a “medical practitioner.” Interviewing an eggthusiast about the pelvic floor is no different from putting up Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. There are actual experts in things, you know? But then again at GOOP it’s all about Brand.

And she had one important thing to say to anyone who is reading:

What bothers me most about the disclaimer is that GOOP is actually claiming they are just proving information and aren’t really promoting the therapy.

IF YOU ARE SELLING THE PRODUCT YOU HAVE GONE BEYOND INFORMATIONAL TO PROMOTIONAL!

(Yes, I am shouting).

Gunter ends her piece with a reminder that GOOP is using their privilege (being in league with Gwyneth Paltrow) when promoting such products and that what they’re doing is effectively gaslighting people who trust Paltrow’s brand to give them the advice they need.

Let’s have a round of applause for her, and a sad, sad sigh for anyone who actually believed that sticking a magical egg in your genitals would turn your life around. Just a another reminder: it won’t