Vaginal thrush. Canesten not working. What can Dr give me now?

[alphabetspaghetti]

I have had thrush for at least four months. I think it could be longer but I went through a stressful time and may not have noticed.

Initially I was prescribed the pessary and cream, but have moved onto 150mg of Fluconazole and I have been prescribed to take this every three days for a week and then on a weekly basis...but it's still here.

I have been looking for natural solutions so have tried natural yoghurt, acidophilus, garlic, lavender, tea tree etc. I have also eliminated all sugars and yeast from my diet.

I wear cotton pants and 'air' the area at any opportunity I get. I have also been tested for every STD known to man and had a diabetes test which was negative.

I am not constantly itchy and do not have constant discharge but it's still lingering. On a positive note, my test tesults have gone from +++ to just +.

I realise that there are different strains of thrush so I must ask the Dr to check that I am being treated for the right one. I'm not sure if that would show up on the typical thrush test.

So, I am going to head to the doctors this week because I have had enough. I want to have a sexual relationship (which we are not at the moment so not passing it back and forth) with my husband and this is just getting in the way and making me feel anxious and down.

I would rather do this the natural way but that just doesn't seem to be working so I am going to ask the doctor for something stronger. Has anyone had any luck with another med?

[Mynewmoniker]

Can't help about meds OP but to say keep having the diabetes check done. You could be pre-diabetes. Do you have it it your family?

How about trying a low GI diet (not so sugary) anyway?

[alphabetspaghetti]

Funny you should say that. I do have pcos which I think is linked with insulin levels. I have been thinking that maybe this is a warning sign for something else.

[Mynewmoniker]

Well try the low/no sugar diet and see if it helps. You can't NOT have diabetes once you've got it.

[CoteDAzur]

If Canesten and Fluconazole have not worked, your infection might not be a yeast infection.

Have it tested so you can have properly targeted medication.

[MoChan]

How long have you tried the low sugar diet for? I found it took more than three months (combined with probiotics) to really see it off, but it was the only thing that would. I'd been on Canesten and diflucan and various other things for MONTHS. Tea tree oil is good.

[alphabetspaghetti]

Thanks to you all. Its coming back as definitely thrush but I will push for a more detailed examination.

I have been on a no sugar/yeast diet for two weeks now so looks like I have a long way to go with the eating. On the plus side I have a flatish tummy that hasn't happened in years. Every cloud...

I was thinking of getting a private gynae appointment but don't know if I'm jumping the gun a bit there.

[Mynewmoniker]

Same here re the diet length. I have more energy and am not as itchy. I didn't have thrush but had a none healing intimate rash.

Don't go private. Make more of a fuss at the GP and let him/her know how much it's getting you down.

Refuse to leave his/her office and tell him/her all at MN are waiting with bated breath to hear how good he/she is. .

[CoteDAzur]

I'm puzzled by these diet recommendations.

You have an infection in your vagina, which needs to be treated with the proper antibiotic or anti fungal. What do you think is going to happen when you eat or don't eat yeast & sugar?

[hermioneweasley]

Really, a sugar free diet would make you less miserable than thrush? I'd kill myself! Try a broader spectrum anti fungal - itraconazole worked for me.

[mercibucket]

Check b12 levels as well to see if they are low

[mercibucket]

Check b12 levels as well to see if they are low

[MoChan]

The diet is supposed deal with deal with an overgrowth of candida in the gut. I was advised that this can and will transfer to other areas, and therefore to try the diet. It seemed to work for me eventually, when prescription stuff achieved nothing.

[alphabetspaghetti]

Yes, my doctor suggested low sugar and from my extremely notice internet research it seems that candida thrives on yeast and sugar.

I really would prefer to get this sorted in a more natural way but it looks like I'm needing something stronger.

Who would have thought fungus could cause so much misery?!

[CoteDAzur]

"diet is supposed deal with deal with an overgrowth of candida in the gut"

And how do you expect that to affect the infection in your vagina? Considering that there is no passage between the two organs, that is.

[CoteDAzur]

"it seems that candida thrives on yeast and sugar."

As long as you don't rub sugar on your fanjo, I can't see how the candida there can possibly thrive on it.

The sugar you eat is digested and completely absorbed within your digestive system. It cannot possibly make its way to your vagina to boost the candida there.

As for yeast used in food, it wouldn't even do anything even if you were to rub it on your fanjo, because the species we use in baking (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) or in probiotic yoghurts (S. boulardii) do not cause infections in humans.

[ovenchips]

I found the probiotic Threelac (not cheap unfortunately at about £35 box) to be the best thing ever for the chronic, hideous thrush I had. It was deep in breast tissue from breast feeding (we're talking months and months of infection, despite topical creams, 3 week courses of fluconazole etc).

It's a powder in a little foil packet, not unpleasant to take. Is it worth having a google to see if this is worth a try for you?

[MoChan]

""diet is supposed deal with deal with an overgrowth of candida in the gut"

And how do you expect that to affect the infection in your vagina? Considering that there is no passage between the two organs, that is."

As I said in my earlier post, I was advised (by a doctor) that the infection could transfer, so I took the advice to try modifying my diet and it seemed to work. It was quite a long time ago, and I don't particularly recall questioning this too much, I just wanted to get rid of the thrush.

It might not be a pleasant thought, but the EXIT of your gut is not so far from your vagina. And no matter how much you try to keep everything clean, there will clearly be a chance of transferring on the outside, if not inside. Presumably this is what my doctor meant.

I do recall reading about a thing called 'leaky gut' - in which the intestinal walls can become permeable and surrounding organs can be affected - but I'm not sure if that's applicable here.

[rempy]

"testing for which kind of thrush" has already happened - its being reported back to you as thrush, because that's the common name for candida albicans. There are other candidas out there, but they are usually not pathological, and do not get called "thrush".

Candida albicans is a normal commensal of the vaginal tract, that is, you can find it in small quantities in many women. It only gets treated when it is symptomatic.

So I would advise you to stop treating your test results, and consider if you are symptomatic. If you are symptomatic, seek further options. If not (which it seems like from the posts) stop the pills, carry on as usual, including sex.

Don't douche, that really does upset the natural balance of things.

[CoteDAzur]

"It might not be a pleasant thought, but the EXIT of your gut is not so far from your vagina. And no matter how much you try to keep everything clean, there will clearly be a chance of transferring on the outside, if not inside. Presumably this is what my doctor meant."

I thought you might say that but the sugar you eat is easily digested and absorbed in the small intestine. As such, sugar does not reach the large intestine and therefore doesn't come out the other end.

In any case, if your poo was "transferring" to your fanjo, you would have other problems. Like, an even worse infection in your vagina.

"I do recall reading about a thing called 'leaky gut' "

And I recall reading about meteor showers, which are about as relevant to the subject of whether the sugar you eat makes its way into the vagina (again: it does not) Normal people's guts don't leak.

Are you trying to say "fistula"? Again, fistulas are not a normal part of human anatomy. And again, if your poo was coming into your vagina, you would have noticed it by now (apparently, it is horrendous) and would have a more interesting set of problems.

[PoshPenny]

My doctor prescribed me something called Gyno Daktarin for Vaginal thrush about 19 years ago when I was pregnant and didn't want to take pills. Similar to yours, it was a well established infection and it was getting me down. That stuff worked a treat. I didn't have another outbreak for years and years. You had to load up the cream on something a bit like a tampax applicator, and "shoot it up" there. It appears it is still available when I googled it.

[alphabetspaghetti]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I seem to have had little or no symptoms for the past few days so will see how it goes. I just hope I have got shot of it and that it won't return.

It was my gp that suggested cutting down on sugar and my internet reading that said to stop the yeast foods...maybe that has helped me to feel better about myself and has then had an effect with the thrush? I don't know.

[MoChan]

CoteDAzur

"I thought you might say that"

Did you? Well why didn't you pre-empt it? To be honest, I am wondering why didn't you respond to my initial comments with "I think your doctor's recommendations were flawed, MoChan, and here's why", rather than making me feel like I had to defend what someone else (a GP) said to me. Meaning that I was groping around for reasons for why the GP might have recommended this, so that you could proceed to knock them down.

In any case, I wasn't talking about sugar reaching the vagina, I was talking about candida reaching the vagina; if I have reached a misconception, it's about the effect of sugar on the gut. I thought that a high sugar diet could lead to an infestation in the gut, and that this infestation, the candida not the sugar, is what might get transferred, one way or another, to the vagina.

I find your meteor showers comment entirely patronising. You may know more about this than me, but that doesn't give you the right to address me like that. And I certainly don't need to have it implied to me that I am some kind of bumbling, un-enquiring idiot for having trusted the advice given to me by a medical professional - I think is what most people do.

[Mynewmoniker]

Well said MoChan. This seems to be becoming a bit of a cat fight rather than a helping thread here

[hermioneweasley]

Actually, as a terminal thrush sufferer, I am finding cote's comments helpful. Good to know that diet isn't making it worse - I love my sugar!

[41notTrendy]

I found that using the stronger thrush cream and drinking shed loads of water got rid of returning bouts of thrush. My GP also advised me to eat yoghurt or even apply it . I know that at times of stress it returns. Hope you get it sorted soon.