The Sexual Health Benefits Of A Jade Egg + How To Actually Use One

There's been quite a bit of controversy surrounding jade egg practices since Gwyneth Paltrow began promoting them on her website. Many people are claiming that these practices are not only ineffective but quite dangerous.

Most of these protesters, though, have never tried it themselves and therefore don't fully understand the methods or benefits of using jade eggs to strengthen the pelvic floor. Fortunately, mindbodygreen tapped several holistic health experts to discuss the pros and cons of using jade eggs. Leave no stone (or egg, in this case) unturned, as they say!

Having been practitioners of jade egg and jade ball exercises for nearly a decade, our perspective is rooted in an awareness of holistic principles and a respect for the human body. We believe the jade egg practices can be done safely. And we know they provide myriad sexual and health benefits.

First, for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, let us explain:

Jade egg practices are part of ancient Taoist sexual yoga methodology designed to help strengthen and tone the vaginal and pelvic floor muscles.

The pelvic floor is a hammock-shaped muscle structure at the base of the pelvis. The pelvic floor supports our organs, helps us control retention and excretion through our lower end, and is intricately participative in our sexual pleasure and orgasms.

Just like any other striated musculature, it is important to exercise the pelvic floor to maintain optimum health and function. Weight-lifting exercises can be applied to any striated musculature to improve its strength. The most commonly recognized way of exercising the pelvic floor muscles is through Kegels or vaginal weight lifting. But those aren't the only options.

Unlike Kegels, practicing with a jade egg addresses the interplay of the breath and the pranas (energies) of the pelvic region.

Using a jade egg can greatly enhance the efficacy of Kegel exercises by giving the muscles an object to grip and tense around. The movement of the jade egg inside also has the effect of stimulating reflexology points1 for all the major organs of the body.

Vaginal weight-lifting practices are especially recommended to redevelop the muscular tone of the vagina and pelvic floor and before giving birth to ease labor and to create a solid foundation to regain strength after the strain of pregnancy and labor.

According to traditional Taoist practice, using jade is important because of its energy. In energy medicine, jade is believed to help balance, regenerate, and heal the physical body.

This is what makes the practice holistic—meaning that it benefits both the physical body and the energetic body.

Different practitioners suggest different techniques. Some recommend leaving the egg in all day or night. This recommendation could understandably cause some concern for pelvic floor specialists.

For most women, it will come out quite easily and naturally. You just have to squat down and push, like you are having a bowel movement. In fact, one of the reasons we don't recommend using a jade egg all day is that if you do, they'll come out in the toilet. And who wants to fish something out of the toilet bowl?

Depending on the size of your jade egg, there can be an issue with retrieving them if you have a retroflexed uterus, simply because the egg can get trapped between the cervix and the posterior (back) wall of the vagina.