TikTokers Claim ‘Vabbing' Will Help Dating, Here Are The Issues

Forbes

29-03-2025

Various TikTokers have been pushing the practice of 'vabbing,' which is a portmanteau of the words ... More 'vagina" and 'dabbing.' It's when you get secretions from your vagina and then dab them on the so-called pulse points of your body like your wrists, neck and the inside the elbows. (Photo: Getty)
When dating, you may be looking for more fluid interactions. But this may or may not necessarily be what you have in mind. Various TikTokers have been pushing the practice of 'vabbing,' which is a portmanteau of the words 'vagina" and 'dabbing.' It's when you get secretions from, guess where, your vagina and then dab them on the so-called pulse points of your body. These would be places where you can feel a pulse like your wrists, neck and the inside the elbows. And why would you do such a thing? Well, the claims are that such fluids contain pheromones and other natural attractants. After all, isn't the 'v' where many men want to be? But are such claims actually backed by that thing called science?
Searching PubMed for 'vabbing' returns the following statement, 'Showing results for dabbing, Your search for vabbing retrieved no results' and a whole lot of scientific publications on cannabis. Apparently, there haven't been any rigorous clinical studies having women dab vaginal fluids, perfume and something else like motor oil versus nothing on their pulse points and comparing how men react to each.
In fact, it's not completely clear whether vaginal fluid even has pheromones and how other humans may react to them. Pheromones are chemicals that many other animals secrete and use to communicate with each other in many different ways. This includes pheromones that serve as 'love chemicals' that help other animals attract each other so that can basically do the wild thing. But whether pheromones play any role in humans getting hot-and-heavy remains hotly debated.
Currently, there isn't scientific consensus over whether humans even secrete any type of pheromones, as evidenced by the chapter in the book Neurobiology of Chemical Communication entitled 'Human Pheromones Do They Exist?' It's also not clear whether humans can even sense pheromones. A number of other mammals have structures inside their noses called the the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and main olfactory epithelium (MOE) designed to detect pheromones. However, the VNOs in humans are relatively smaller and may be too underdeveloped to process pheromones in the same way. A 2012 review article in the Journal of Advanced Research pointed out that although some studies do suggest that pheromones may play a role in human arousal, these studies are 'weak, because they were not controlled.'
Don't confuse pheromones with hormones even though they kind of sound the same. Hormones are chemical messengers that work inside your body to regulate and control various things whereas pheromones are supposed to work outside your body on other folks. So, when talking to your doctor, there would be a big difference between asking, 'What do you think about my hormone levels,' versus asking, 'What do you think about my pheromone levels?'
Also, don't confuse things that smell nice with pheromones. Just because you associate certain smells with good feelings doesn't mean that they are acting as pheromones. The reaction to different smells can be a subjective, trained thing. Your personal history can determine what smells evoke positive feelings versus negative ones.
Moreover, your perception of a smell can be very context and circumstance dependent. Say you love the smell of bacon and naturally gravitate towards any restaurant that emits such aromas. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will be writing on your dating profile, 'Potential partners must smell like bacon.'
So, how then have TikTokers been supporting their claims that vabbing is effective in attracting men? Well, much of their evidence has consisted of personal anecdotes, you know, stories most often about themselves. They've been essentially telling you that it's worked like a charm for them so it should work the same for you. But whenever someone, especially a completely stranger, tells you anything about themselves, how do you know whether there's even a dab or a vab of truth?
Here's a news flash: people can lie or come up with 'alternative facts.' Unless you know these TikTokers personally or follow them around constantly even when they are off video, which would be kind of creepy, it's difficult to verify how accurate such stories may be. I've written about other TikTok trends where it's not clear whether the TikTokers are doing what they are actually claiming that they are doing like eating dirt. This doesn't necessarily mean that all TikTokers touting vabbing are lying. But how can you tell whether they actually attracted all the men that they claimed they attracted?
Even if these TikTokers have been relaying their successes and conquests quite honestly, you can't really tell what details are being left out from their stories consciously or unconsciously. For example, did they happen to do something else differently at the same time that may have been what attracted the attention of men like change their hairstyle, alter their outfit or not wear any pants?
Furthermore, there's the whole placebo effect or in this case maybe the vacebo effect. Believing that something works can change your mentality, attitude, confidence and other things in positive ways that end up making you more attractive to others. After all, you can be pretty darn confident that confidence in itself can be considered attractive. So, perhaps thinking, 'Yeah, I've got vaginal fluid on me so the world is my oyster' will give you enough confidence to get the deal done.
Finally, there's the selection bias issues. People are probably a whole lot more likely to post 'success stories' rather than failures on TikTok. You may not get the same amount of attention and number of likes if you were to post, 'Dabbed some vaginal fluids on me. Went to the club. No one really paid attention to me. Took an Uber home. Watched Netflix by myself.' Therefore, what you see on social media may not be an accurate representation of the true win-loss percentage for vabbing.
Therefore, the jury is still out on whether vabbing even works to attract anyone. Another question is whether there is any harm in trying vabbing. Well, while it may not be as risky as following social media trends such as dropping heavy objects on your feet, it is not completely without any risks.
Keep in mind that your vagina is not a perfume bottle. Or any kind of bottle for that matter. It's important to be careful about what you put in there in more ways than one. A finger that's not been thoroughly cleaned before insertion could bring in some harmful microbes, leading to various infections that you don't want to have.
Also, if you've got harmful microbes in your vagina already such as with a sexually transmitted infection, dabbing vaginal fluids elsewhere could potentially spread such infections to other parts of your body or other people. That's the risk of body fluids, any type of body fluid. It's also one of the reasons why you wouldn't want to hear 'Oh, that's just someone else's body fluids on it' at a restaurant or costume rental shop.
Finally, it's not clear how a given guy will react to vabbing or even the idea of vabbing. It could be a turn on for some and the opposite for others. Many might fall somewhere in between. Regardless, vabbing in and of itself is probably not the magic potion that will get guys to fall for you. What will matter ultimately is what's inside you in a different way.