Constant thrush for nearly 2 years! Ruining my life!

[Foreveryawning]

Hi all,
I've had thush since getting pregnant with my son, he's 8 months now and the thrush is still here. I have tried EVERYTHING. Throughout pregnancy I used the cannesten pessaries. After pregnancy I used the cannesten oral tablet. When that didn't work after about 4 tries I went to my sexual health clinic. They confirmed it is definitely thrush and that I'm clear of any STIs and they gave me 12 weeks worth of the oral tablet to take once a week. After about 6 weeks it seemed to have worked and then by the 8th week it was back. So then I was given gyno dactarin cream pessaries to use every day for 2 weeks. This seemed to have been the cure and I was symptom free for 2 weeks and now today it's back. I am so at my wits end with this that I actually burst into tears about it this morning. It's so much worse after sex so I put off sex with my partner for as long as I possibly can but he starts getting down about the lack of sex and then makes me feel bad about it but sex is honestly so painful when the thrush is there. I also have tried not washing with soap, wearing cotton underwear, not using fabric softener ect and nothing is getting rid of this. Please tell me I'm not alone and someone else has experienced thrush like this? It's so awful and is getting me so down.

I had this for about a year. Every month, just before my period. My gp prescribed me the oral capsules, said pessaries etc weren't going to cut it. I used to take 1 capsule a day for 4 days. This used to cure it but then it would reoccur the following month.
I just started doing the 4 capsule treatment when I started to feel that warm, itchy feeling, not full blown symptoms.
Eventually it stopped and I keep a stock of the tablets and take 1 for 2 days if it comes back.

Hope that's helpful, keep going back to your gp if it's not shifting. It took a few visits to a few gps before getting serious treatment.

You are not alone. Off to the GP today for exactly this issue. Just keeps coming back. Think mine is in some way linked to my episiotomy scar though which I'm now waiting for surgery on. I've found washing with aqueous cream really helpful. The nurse practitioner recommended it. Definitely worth a try

Is your husband getting treated too?

Why are you having sex if it hurts? Could it be your partner passing it back to you constantly? Please don't let someone make you feel bad about not waiting sex when you're ill.

Sorry I have no advice for the though. My partner gets thrush when he eats too much white bread and drinks certain beers. Maybe have a look at diet and pro biotics?

Is your husband being treated and is he circumcised ?

Oh, forgot to say, my husband was getting symptoms after sex so he was prescribed the tablets as well, I think just once a month. It took a while to convince the gp and pharmacist as it's unusual for men to get thrush.

We get the tablets from pharmacy direct now but see your gp first and try and get them on prescription.

Has the GP done any tests at all? Constant thrush can be a sign of diabetes and high sugar levels. Do you have any other health symptoms.

This sounds awful!!! It sounds like you are being reinfected by your partner.
I'd also be hot washing all your clothes and bedding. The fungus may just be hanging around.

Yy to pp who suggested diabetes. A friend of mine has recently been diagnosed after having thrush for a long time. Take a urine sample with you.

Good advice here already. I'd also say both of you need treatment, with no sex so you can't reinfect each other.

See GP again to get your general health tested, especially diabetes. There are a variety of oral medications to try and you may need to take something for six months.

Cotton pants, changing your washing products, boil wash, and yoghurt can all be useful. 💐

Yeah you need to treat your partner as well.

Sounds miserable, thrush really sucks.

In 15 years as a nutritionist, cchronic unshiftable thrush was one of my staple regular clinic visits. You have to take a multi pronged approach as it is all to do with bacterial imbalance.

1. eliminate all sugar and yeast from your diet (starve it) limit fruit to 2 per day.
2. take a high strength probiotic orally. Also use a live probiotic yoghurt vaginally - coat a tampon and insert. You can also add powdered probiotic powder to the yogurt, and alternate with aloe Vera gel with a drop of tea tree oil.
3. kill the fungus with a range of natural anti fun gals. Caprylic acid to high doses was my favourite - bio are so a great supplement, taken multiple times per day. Alternate with garlic tablets, oregano tablets, grapefruit seed extract.
4. I always recommended some milk thistle alongside.

This is a basic snapshot - for a more chronic case you may need personalised help from a nutritional therapist. Have a look at the Erica white books for further info.

Biocare supplements! Not bio so

Cut out sugar and take probiotics. There's loads of books about this. And yes treat your partner too.

www.thecandidadiet.com

I think your husband should be getting treatment too, else as others have said you may be reinfecting one another. If you're not doing this then nothing else will work.

There's a bigger issue here about feeling like you have to have sex when it hurts. That doesn't sound good to me at all, there are other things you can do to be intimate if you're missing contact but never feel pressured.

Check your pants are cotton and high temp wash them. A probiotic supplement might help but cutting down sugar will as well.

I hope it improves, it must really get you down.

Have the GU clinic typed your thrush? I had nearly constant thrush for about 10 years, and eventually discovered that I had candida glabrata which is a really unusual type which doesn't respond to the treatments for Candida albicans. Maybe ask that question, as mine cleared up permanently with a single course of the right medication.

Deffo needs a swab culture - I had something presenting as thrush for ages, turned out to be bacterial.

Careful re reinfection from your partner. My doctor recommended no knickers where possible (not with trousers but to each wear maxi skirts) and certainly round the house, and to switch to nighties from pjs, again no knickers. Cotton only obvs when wearing them.

I find tampons irritate the whole thing make it likely to flare up.

Canesten HC can be good combined with oral dose of fluconazole and can help stop cracking etc. There used to be a lot of twitchiness about long term use of hydrocortisone but that's all calmed down now so use for a month plus should be okay.

I've cried and cried with thrush before - deffo found sex to massively irritate the whole thing - would suggest pointing out to him that if it gave him huge discomfort he wouldn't be up for it either! You're clearly doing what pu can to fix this, but keep going back to the docs until they can solve.

Apologies if you've already tried everything listed, I expect you have but I do find combining absolutely everything can help.

I now have fluconazole on repeat so I can just order it if I feel it coming on - but obvs for that you have to get rid of it first!

Also try using organic, unbleached sanitary towels/ tampons - available in large boots or online, and make sure both
You AND your partner only use an intimate cleanser on your nether regions. The only one that worked for me was this, from amazon: ‘yes cleanse intimate wash’. The rose scented one available on the yes website was also ok for me. Good luck

Also you can have a skin condition on the external parts which is not thrush but presents with extreme itching. Then if it's scratched the whole area gets really worse. I was told I had thrush for years, because every time they swabbed, yes there was thrush, because I always have a wee bit of thrush all the time anyway....But that wasn't causing my itching problem.
Mine was a type of eczema that suddenly appeared on my nether regions. I got Betnovate ointment from the doc (you can only use it on skin, not on mucus membrane). The itch stopped overnight. Before that I was having to get up at night and rinse myself with warm water and take painkillers to stop the awful irritation so I could sleep.

ShoesGerry can you remember what the single treatment you had that cured you .

Thanks

Sometimes it looks like you have thrush but your hormones balance may be causing your situation. Have you tried organic red Maca root it helps to rebalance your hormones which then put the vagina ph back to normal levels and gets rid of thrush.

What medication did you have?

Like sadie9 I had recurrent 'thrush' which actually turned out to be Lichen Sclerosa. Most of the symptoms are the same - the itching, scratches which bleed a bit, severe discomfort when sitting forward. In the end I was referred to Dermatology, where a biopsy was done. Now I'm regularly using Dermovate which stops the itch but nothing can cure it. Do try and get it sorted or it will affect your life with your hubby

@ShoesJerry what medication did they give you?

@ShoesJerry do you remember what they gave you?

@user1499616908 did you find treatment ?