Thrush - just wont go away

[Generallyok]

I have always suffered from Thrush. It was so bad during so bad in pregnancy I had to have gas and air to be examined as I was so sore. I treated myself 2 weeks ago with a pessary but although I started to get a little better I have now finished a period and I'm so sore again. I have has lots of swabs taken over the years so I'm confident that's what I'm dealing with. Do I buy another pessary or should I go to the Drs?

Drs. Recommendation for me was a 3 month course of weekly pessarys. Am fine now. Good luck, it's awful.

I'd take the oral tablet...pessaries never worked for me...cut down on bread and sugar...more water and probiotic. .

Get down to your Drs. I was prescribed three months of fluconazole.
It’s awful! Poor you.

I suffer with thrush.
Managed to keep it under control for over a year but a course of antibiotics got the cycle going again!

Anyway here is what I’ve observed and learnt from my google PhD.

First, you need to blitz the Candida, which unfortunately kills all the bacteria - good and bad!

I find I have to use a mixture of pessaries and oral tablets over a few days. I have had thrush twice on holiday in Europe and both times the pharmacists have given me products that you use for several days rather than a single does treatment that you get here. The longer treatment has always worked better for me.

Then you need to restore all the bacteria that you wiped out.

I use multi gyn acijel. This stuff is amazing! It works simply by keeping your vagina at ph level that inhibits the Candida from growing. They also sell a version for thrush, but it comes in separate single use tubes and works out quite expensive. It probably works slightly better than the multigyn but the multigyn will last me ages.

When the thrush is active it really stings for a short while. I use it daily for about a week, then every over day, then twice a week. Then once a week, then eventually just when I feel a bit dry/sore (usually week before period due to changes in hormone levels) I also use the morning after sex or after I’ve been swimming or had a bath. I also use instead of lube.
It comes with an applicator but I use an old carpool syringe. I find 2.5ml is enough for me, anymore and (tmi) I can notice it leaking.
I usually buy it in multipack from amazon.

Also only 100% cotton underware, cut down sugar/yeast, drink lots of water, take decent probiotics.

Ask for a referral to a gynaecologist. I was treated for thrush for years until I saw someone who diagnosed vulval psoriasis (the treatment for which is sort of the opposite of thrush). It went into remission for many years and when I began to get symptoms again I was referred and diagnosed with lichen planus. They present in similar ways and the treatment is the same so I don't really mind if I was misdiagnosed the first or second time iyswim, it's more that someone looked deeper than the knee-jerk thrush dx and the treatment works.

Don't just keep being fobbed off with thrush, if you've been treated repeatedly and you're suffering like this there's possibly something else going on. Just because you're positive for thrush doesn't mean that's solely responsible for this whole ordeal.

I was diagnosed with thrush for years, but that's not what was causing my problem. They always found thrush when swabbed. Because there was always thrush there, but in a benign way most of the time. But I had an external patch of eczema in the pubic region which suddenly appeared, I also have a smaller patch on my ear.
It was triggered by hormones, certain conditioners/shampoo used in the shower, swimming pool, alcohol esp white wine, and always came back at the end of a period. I got a mild steroid cream called Betnovate ointment from the GP and this ended my problem literally overnight. I use the past tense as I am menopausal now and its disappeared completely.
If there is any external itching at all, and if you have little or no whitish thickish discharge, it may not be just thrush as the other poster said.

@sadie9 yes, just like if your main symptom is fatigue and you're found to be anaemic you might be told to take iron supplements but if you're still tired you may need your thyroid checked, or it could be perimenopause or any number of things, but at some stage you have to think, hmm, this person is bursting with iron now, maybe this is not just anaemia causing the symptoms.

It's upsetting to read posts like this where people continue to suffer and the treatment isn't giving them lasting relief but no one stops to think about what else could be going wrong.

Op, if you're so sore you need gas and air to be examined that doesn't sound like thrush (unless maybe if you were tearing yourself to pieces scratching). Other things (eg psoriasis) can make you more susceptible to thrush (and candida infection can be symptom-free), so its presence on the swab doesn't exclude other issues.
www.nhs.uk/conditions/lichen-planus/
www.nhs.uk/conditions/lichen-sclerosus/
www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis/specific-locations/genitals

If you have any problem getting a referral, go to your local GUM clinic and they should be able to help. They've seen everything there is to see on the genitals. They referred me to their chronic clinic, then that doctor referred me to a dermatologist whose speciality is blistering diseases, and she made the dx.

Good luck!

Generallyok - Both fluconazole and itraconazole have recommended 6-month oral dosing schedules for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (thrush) as well as the common over-the-counter single-dose administration. If pessaries aren't helping and the thrush keeps recurring I think you should be seeing a doctor. There's no point persisting with something that isn't working.

Waterlemon - antifungal drugs (fluconazole or itraconazole, or any of the topically applied azoles) shouldn't wipe out bacteria. In fact, there would be a risk of bacterial overgrowth when you remove the fungi that normally compete for space & nutrients.

I had a month of oral antifungal tablets to really knock it on the head.

Have you been tested for diabetes? Persistent thrush can be a symptom. Worth looking into if you haven't.

Currently on a 6 month course of Fluconzale (150mg once a week) to combat back to back episodes of thrush. It's working! Go back to GP and good luck

I had persistant Thrush so badly a few years ago my labia was bleeding from the soreness. My dh took a tablet too and it sorted out my Thrush... mine got better, so we would have sex and then it would return. Men don't always get symptoms so don't know they have it.

I have had it after my 2 pregnancies, I think the dryness from hormone changes are to blame.

Forgot to say, last bout I had three fluconazole tablets to take a few days apart. The pessaries weren't working and this dose did. I was breastfeeding too so it took a while to get something other than pessaries.

I haven’t had it as bad as you describe but I did go through a cycle of recurrent thrush for the best part of a year - in the end I saw a private dietician - as well as cutting wheat I took various supplements including probiotics and it cleared up almost within days - definitely worth exploring