Treatment for thrush?

[embarrassednamechanger13]

I get thrush every 6 to 8 weeks. I'm on immunosuppressing meds which are believed to be the culprit. I get the 'obvious' symptoms but also very bad lower back and stomach pain, which is odd because I take strong painkillers due to another condition. I also feel incredibly tired and sleep all day/all night with it.

It's pretty horrendous and the I require 7 pessaries to even touch the symptoms. I cannot take the oral capsules (fluconazole) because they interact with another medication I'm on. Is there anything else I can take/do?

I wonder if I have it in my stomach/bowel too because when it flares up, my bottom appears to have some sort of thrush too...?

(Btw I have had so much medical advice. I've seen a dermatologist, gynaecologist and every GP in my surgery. I have tried various creams which do help a tiny bit but not much. I'm also not sexually active and don't wear tight trousers etc.)

It's making me really fucking miserable.

I have used acidophilus capsules from the health shop as a direct pessary inserted into the vagina. They take about a week to get rid of thrush. Once you get rid of it maybe if you inserted them once a week it might keep the vagina thrush free. Also take them orally . This works for me .

I've used those capsules too - go for ones kept in fridge as usually have more active bacteria
I'm using lamberts acidophilus plus which have 10 billion live bacteria

Hi Good. Did you use them internally as a pessary too? They work but take a bit longer than the chemicals.

I didn't no just orally
But when mine was v bad they gave me 6 months of pessaries to use once a month for 6 months whether I had it or not and that helped

Do they always give you canesten pessaries? when I was pregnant they gave me a cream called gyno daktarin for internal use which you shot up there with an applicator. it was fantastic and it was about 15 years before I succumbed to thrush again. Might be worth asking for something different if the standard issue treatment is not doing much good.

Can you just shove the regular acidophilius up your fanjo? I do them orally all the time anyway but they seem to make no difference.

I'm allergic to gyno daktarin.

I use betonovate cream for the sores and fissures and the canesten cream just to soothe the area.

Yep, I do use the canesten ones - clomitrazole - is that's how it's spelt?

Just not convinced that it's normal to get such bad pain with vaginal thrush. I've been told to visit GUM clinic, so I'll try to get there this week if I can get time off work.

Raaaaawwrrrrr!

Sounds silly, but have you had thrush proven on swabs? I have seen a lot of people who have been around the houses seeing gynae, dermatologists etc, and never actually had the correct diagnosis proven.

If it is definitely thrush, have you had the type checked and sensitivities tested? The big standard thrush is Candida albicans, but there are other varieties and this may be a reason why it isn't easy to treat. Also, it is is thrush, have you become resistant to standard thrush treatments? A lab test can show which treatments would work best; and if certain treatments are ineffective with the thrush you have. Your GP can request these tests, as can your local GU medicine clinic.

Again, if you know it is definitely thrush, I would recommend a weekly course of treatments, over a series of months, like goodasitgets describes. This does reduce the risk of it recurring.

It would be very unusual for thrush to cause systemic symptoms like stomach problems (certain painkillers will do this though!) and tiredness - although having regular thrush is usually a side effect of another problem, being immunosuppressed, like you say you already are, or an underlying skin problem, like psoriasis, eczema or something.

Hope that helps!

It's not silly. I've actually had 2 swabs which have come back negative for everything. They were all a bit baffled. Derm suggested possible vulval eczema but the discharge (sorry...) looks like thrush and there's bloody loads of it.

I think you're right, I'm just so run down when I get the thrush (or whatever it is) that I get so much pain and everything else.

GUM clinic is open on Saturday, so I'll see if I can get an appt.

Thanks for your reply. :)

Thrush can be a side effect of other conditions such as candida in your whole system- which is why you get a sore bottom!

You don't say why you are taking the immunosuppressant drugs - but if you have an illness then it may be hard to cure the thrush if it's in your whole system.

You can also treat it with diet- thrush lives on sugar and yeast- so you need to cut out all sugar, which included dried fruit and fresh fruit, refined carbs and anything with high yeast content ( eg beer and bread!)

It might take a month to see any difference.