Once upon a time on TikTok, there was a very popular trend called 'vabbing'.
The trend, exclusively for women, was a bit of a strange one, but those who did it swore by it, leading many others to follow suit.
For those of you who do not know what vabbing is, it is a not-so-subtle combination of the words 'vagina' and 'dabbing', and is basically the practice of utilizing one’s own vaginal fluids as perfume.
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Women would do this as they would swear that it helped them attract potential dates, as the liquid contains pheromones that can trigger sexual desire in members of the same species. However, what those women didn’t know is just how harmful doing such a thing could be to their bodies.
The trend took over a subsection of TikTok, with videos regarding the subject amassing millions of views.
However, while some claimed that the trick worked, many of them had a change of pace when they discovered what the medical community had to say about the practice.
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The most obvious issue with vabbing is a matter of hygiene, something that Hana Patel, a doctor and female health specialist in south London, spoke to Women’s Health about, noting how dangerous the trend truly is.
"There is the potential to get an infection," she said. "We have bacteria and fungi on our skin, and if we upset the vagina’s natural balance, it can cause a localized infection."
Furthermore, London gynecologist Paraskevi Dimitriadi told the Daily Mail that the trend can also lead to things such as vaginosis or thrush, noting that bacteria from your hand can very easily take its toll when vabbing.
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"If you have bacterial vaginosis or thrush your discharge can be malodorous and will not help you attract a partner," she said.
Vabbing can even cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and potentially lead to infertility. However, both PID and infertility would only occur in very severe cases.
Plus, for those committed to vabbing in spite of all those issues due to its properties as a tool of attraction, those same medical professionals broke the news that it quite simply doesn’t work.
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Dimitriadi explained: "We secrete the same pheromones throughout the glands of our body. We have pheromones in our sweat. We also secrete pheromones through urine and we don’t put that on our bodies.
"There is absolutely no need to use your vaginal discharge on other parts of your body to attract a partner."
Fortis Hospital gynecologist Uma Vaidyanathan spoke further about the trend’s lack of scientific backing to the Indian Express, stating: "The concept of pheromones exists in animals, but, we are an evolved species. All of these [trends] have no scientific basis at all."
Dylan Murray