A Real Housewives of New York-Founded “Vaginal Rejuvenation Spa” Is Opening in Philly
It specializes in services supporting women's sexual health and wellbeing.
Photo courtesy of VSPOT
If you’re looking for an orgasm shot, a kegel-chair treatment, a V-steam, or a 24K gold wax and vagina facial — you’ve come to the right place.
Philly’s latest Rittenhouse addition, VSPOT Medi Spa (1920 Chestnut Street 2nd Floor) focuses on intimate health treatments for women (and asks questions like, “Is your V as good as gold? It can be!”) It’s the second outpost of the spa, the first of which has been welcoming clients on Madison Avenue for the past three years. The brand has plenty of NYC celeb clients, has been covered in Harper’s Bazaar and Elite Daily, and won Cosmopolitan’s Sex Excellence Award for their “O-shot” in 2019.
Yes, some of the treatments are over the top. But, there’s a twist differentiating this from your typical beauty spas — VSPOT is meant to be the go-to spot for women “suffering in silence from natural changes, including menstruation, childbirth, and menopause.” It’s an empowering idea: women come to the spa postpartum to enhance sexual satisfaction and empower themselves — as well as freely talk about body changes often not discussed. Other non-invasive services include post-childbirth vaginal tightening, the vampire breast lift (suited for those looking for a lift after breastfeeding), v-lightening, and v-steam. They’re meant to “aid in lessening the discomforts of natural feminine changes.”
VSPOT was founded by Cindy Barshop of “The Real Housewives of New York” Season 4, who also founded the spa chain Completely Bare. To open VSPOT, she partnered with Dr. Carolyn Delucia, MD, FACOG, a gynecologist, “vagina guru” and author of the award-winning Ultimate Intimacy: The Revolutionary Science of Female Sexual Health. For their Philly location, they’re partnering with husband and wife team, Dr. Thomas E. Young and Paula Di Marco Young, BS, RN, CLO/A. The grand opening is January 24th, 2020. We chatted with Cindy Barshop to find out more about what we can expect — and to be honest, we’re very in on anyone normalizing conversations about normally hard-to-discuss women’s health issues. Viva La Vagina!
Philadelphia magazine: So what is VSPOT?
Cindy Barshop: It’s an intimate health spa that actually corrects and prevents all the different issues that women face. And they don’t even know that they have these options, from menstruating, from looseness after childbirth, to menopause, or painful sex. I don’t know how much you can write with that stuff.
We can definitely write about that stuff.
Good. Because it’s all the stuff that women suffer in silence with, and they don’t talk about, and they don’t really know that they have all these different options.
Why did you think creating a place specifically for women’s vaginal and sexual health was so important?
After having my own kids, I had a problem with incontinence. I started researching, and the options for incontinence are terrible. They tell you to have surgery! And then I heard of something in Europe. I looked at all the technologies and I couldn’t believe when I found that one in four women have some type of urinary leakage throughout their lives. So this is like a massive problem, and people just — I don’t know how old you are, you haven’t had children yet, right?
Not yet, no.
Well, you know the joke, “Oh I laughed so hard I peed my pants?” Well, after you have kids, it’s not a joke anymore! That’s the norm [laughing]. Anyway, I found out about the technology to help with this — the first CO2 laser that came to the States, I went and got that treatment done. It worked so well, that literally three months later I decided to go into the business. I bought the machine and partnered with Dr. Carolyn DeLucia, who is a world-renowned gynecologist.
VSPOT partners Dr. Carolyn DeLucia, MD FACOG, (left), internationally renowned for her expertise in vaginal tightening and women’s sexual health, and Cindy Barshop, VSPOT founder, and expert in women’s taboo subjects, Real Housewives of New York, Season 4 (right).
It’s powerful to create a place where women can go to address these issues. What else are we not talking about?
It’s so important. Every doctor you go to — whether it be a gynecologist or not — they’re like, “Oh, go kegel.” Well, it’s pretty much impossible to kegel your way out of that issue! Because if you sit on our chair, it does 11,000 kegels in 28 minutes. We call it the Kegel Throne. And it’s FDA-approved for incontinence. But, the 11,000 kegels in 28 minutes on our chair is equal to 69 hours of kegeling on your own. So, it’s impossible to kegel and see significant results. I mean, like, stop trying to kegel, because you just can’t kegel for that many hours!
What are some of the other interesting services you offer?
There’s spa services and there’s medical services. One is a wax, but we use a 24 karat gold wax, and golds helps with inflammation. The V-steam is done in a unique way, too. You lay in a spa bed; you don’t sit on the toilet. You get an abdominal massage with natural herbs, while the steam flows in. It helps with blood flow and menstrual cramps.
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What’s the service you recommend for after women give birth?
After you have a baby, things change down there — the tissue can atrophy, and your vagina doesn’t just pop back, there’s some looseness. The FemiLift is a tissue regeneration over three treatments. The tissue regeneration, also helps a bit with the incontinence. Because you know, if you stretch tissue, it’s like a rubber band — it doesn’t pop back all the way. The FemiLift increases the thickness, tightens, and increases friction. Also, when women go through menopause, there’s dryness and painful sex. I never knew where the painful sex comes from. It’s from the thinning of the tissue. So we do the FemiLift with that, too.
And I saw something called an Orgasm shot?
Yes! There’s a lot of women who have thin tissue as they age or after childbirth, and end up with difficulty in having an intense orgasm. The O-Shot utilizes platelet-rich plasma, injected into the clitoris and the G-Spot to generate healthier and more functional tissue, which also intensifies orgasms. We also do things like the Vampire Breast Lift. If you’ve just finished breastfeeding and they’re feeling deflated, we can enhance them.
Why is VSPOT so relevant to moms?
After I became a mom and had twins, I used to have to walk around with a shirt wrapped around my waist. When you have leakage, you don’t know when it’s gonna come. One time, I was at a party, and I was laughing, and I had to spill a drink on myself, because all of a sudden — these issues are embarrassing, and they really affect your everyday life. You have to really think about how it affects you! It affects what you drink that day, what you’re wearing that night, who you’re going with, if you can go at all. I want to empower women to be able to talk about, and take control of, and address these intimate issues. I want to feel good about myself, and to help others feel good about themselves.
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