Don't Use Chewing Tobacco in the Vagina for Smoking Cessation

Ask Dr. Jen

Someone told me their friend put chewing tobacco in their vagina for smoking cessation and asked if it was effective. I am currently only capable of a dumbfounded blank stare as an answer. Please feel free to write anything at all about why this is a bad idea.

• Sarah, via The Vajenda

Short Take

This is harmful, likely ineffective, and should be avoided.

Tell Me More

Chewing tobacco is a smokeless tobacco and is sometimes promoted as a safer alternative to cigarettes as it isn’t linked to lung cancer, but it has numerous other health risks. Tobacco in all its forms is most certainly harmful to the vagina. For example, smokers have a higher rate of HPV infections and cervical cancer, and smoking damages the vaginal microbiome. In addition, chewing tobacco is associated with cancer in the mouth, so it is reasonable to worry that putting it against vaginal tissues could also be cancer causing. While I have no studies to go on (yes, I looked), I can make an educated guess that putting tobacco directly in the vagina is likely even more harmful for the vagina than smoking.

Why might someone do this?

It’s possible this person thinks they can absorb the nicotine vaginally, basically using chewing tobacco as a DIY nicotine patch. Some products are absorbed well from the vagina, and chewing tobacco generally has more nicotine than cigarettes, but how much nicotine is absorbed this way is unknown. Most importantly, there are safe ways to get nicotine for smoking cessation–nicotine patches.

There was some talk a few years back about using a form of moist chewing tobacco called snus for smoking cessation, based on this article from Sweden. Researchers have pointed out there are numerous reasons why this wouldn’t translate to the American population. Also, no one in the study was using snus in the vagina.

It’s possible that your friend’s friend is spinning a yarn, in the same way that people embellish escapades about soaking tampons with vodka to get drunk. For the record, tampons hold less liquid than you think, getting a wet tampon in the vagina is a challenge (especially without wringing it dry in the process), and alcohol is very irritating to the vagina, meaning this is likely urban legend.

But it’s also possible that tobacco is being used vaginally more often than we think. After digging through some corners of the American internet previously unknown to me, it seems some people may indeed be inserting chewing tobacco vaginally. How often, I don’t know, but often enough that there is a term for it in Urban Dictionary–cooter dip. As I had to learn it, so you do.

Products that dry the vagina are common in many cultures, think oak galls, bleach, over the counter douches sold in American pharmacies, vinegar and so-called yoni pearls that are pushed relentlessly on Instagram and TikTok. And yes, tobacco powder is on this list. Sometimes these vaginal products are marketed as having health properties, such as “cleaning” the vagina or uterus, but often they are explicitly marketed for dry sex. So people come to use them for a variety of reasons. Regardless of the why, all of these products damage the vaginal microbiome and vaginal tissues, increasing the risk of bacterial vaginosis and sexually transmitted infections if exposed. It’s possible there was a vaginal tightening/smoking cessation cross over sentinel event. It’s also very possible that your friend tried the chewing tobacco for vaginal “drying” or “tightening” and you only heard part of the story. And it’s also possible they tried it while experimenting sexually.

Most of of the vaginal products for “cleaning” or “dry sex” are astringents, so they dry tissue and give a sensation of tightness. But this is tight in the same way your face feels tight when it is sunburned, meaning not healthy for the person with the vagina. The resulting sex may be more pleasurable for some men due to the friction, but it’s often painful or uncomfortable for the woman. It’s also possible that tobacco may tingle when it’s inserted in the vagina, but that’s not a sign good things are happening, it’s a sign of tissue injury.

Online rabbit holes of disinformation are like unstable wormholes, they open and close with no warning. One video goes semi-viral and people get ideas, and then the trend is gone. It’s possible there are videos out there promising the “the vaginal snuff smoking cessation cure”. Certainly those AWFUL videos and Instagram posts about the incredibly harmful “yoni detox pearls” have swayed a lot of people, so it’s possible there are equally awful videos about vaginal tobacco. Check out this video I made about the “yoni detox pearls” so you get an idea about the harm.

Almost every harmful vaginal product owes its existence to “prepping” the vagina for men. The persistence of these products and practices around the world is testimony to enduring harmful legacies about a wet vagina being a sign of being sexually experienced, and hence of being “dirty” and having a "lower value”. Even today I see women in the office concerned because they are “too wet”. They have been told this by men or they have seen videos online with women bragging about their lack of discharge in something called “the underwear challenge”. In addition, there is a long legacy of using vaginal astringents as medical therapies for a variety of unscientific reasons (all of which have thankfully been abandoned), but these products sound familiar because they are familiar. And we are more likely to believe something when it is familiar to us.

What I’m getting as is many women are vulnerable to messages about a dry vaginal being a good or healthy vagina. And why wouldn’t they be? People rarely talk about normal vaginal wetness and the drugstore shelves are filled with products to “improve” the vagina. While many people may think they are using these products to “clean” in the traditional sense, the dryness that results isn’t a sign of being clean, it’s a sign of injury. What they see in the drugstore reinforced what they hear elsewhere. “Why do they sell douches, if they are so harmful?”, is a common question that I am asked.

Douches in America have a warning label about their health risks. Just like cigarettes.

As a reminder about normal vaginal discharge, I made this video several years ago. And if you want to quit smoking, which I definitely endorse, talk with your health care provider to find the best option for you. And please don’t use tobacco products vaginally.