Persistant thrush - any advice please...

[mumblecrumble]

AM going mad with thrush. Has been on and of, mainly on, for about 9 months now. Itch like anything, I have very sore bits and not had sex for weeks

Treated with tablet, pessary and cream but still persistant. Seen GP, had diabetes tests, infection tests and thrush test. Day I went to GP was a rare day I didn;t have thrush [took 2 weeks to get theappointment...]

Tis very sore and am missing intimacy. Also very uncomfortable and painful.

ANy advice or ideas?

Oh yes, I posted on this just yesterday!

Hang on ...

Here you go:

"Avoid wearing tight stuff - sorry, thongs and skinny jeans will be your worst enemy! Let as much air get to you as you can - wear a skirt and go commando if you dare!

Cut out all sugar - not just the obvious stuff like sugar in tea/coffee, sweets and chocolate, but also fruit and alcohol

Avoid anything with yeast or that is fermented (bread, alcohol, Marmite, soy sauce, vinegar)

Avoid white pasta and rice

Avoid fungus - mushrooms are obvious, but also don't eat left over food. Even if it's been in the fridge there can be spores in it

If you're on the pill, consider coming off it.

And don't use anything fragranced to wash yourself as it can irritate.

As well as Canestan, you could also buy some Diflucan - or the Boots/Tesco equivalent. It's a one tablet dose. But make sure that your DH also treats himself with Canestan cream as you probably are passing it too and fro.

Sorry - it's a really awful thing to suffer from. I had it every month for almost 3 years before I finally got shot of it."

Try taking an iron supplement. Persistant thrush can be an indicator of iron deficiency. Doesn't show up in the standard tests they do for anemia (sp sorry) though.

Worked for me.

You should try and get a book about candida, as it explains how it occurs and what the various symptoms are. It can be, for example, linked with irritable bowel syndrome.

Should say - it doesn't necessarily show up in the standard tests.

Eat plenty of yogurt (natural or greek natural preferably) and keep your sugar and yeast (incl bread) intake as low as you possibly can. The canesten etc should work, but is fighting a losing battle if you are taking in alot of yeast or sugar in your diet.

Also keeping to looser fitting clothes, natural fibres, especially knickers. And don't wear pads all the time - they might catch stuff, but they also aren't breathable and in my opinion are an ideal breeding ground.

Oh and, boil wash your knickers if you can, and put your socks on before your pants, in case you are keeping reinfecting from athletes foot type issue.

Really feel for you as I have been like this in the past and its horrible.
Diflucan worked when it first came out (nothing else touched it) but when that stopped working I had to try something radical. Went on an anti-candida diet - no yeast, sugar, etc (ie I can't remember what else ) and took acidofolus (you don't spell it like that but its late!) tablets. After about 6 weeks it cleared up and has only come back since if I have to take anti-biotics. Even then I can sometimes fend it off by going back to the diet for a few weeks whilst taking the anti-biotics.

The diet is hard as EVERYTHING has sugar in it - I was the mad woman swearing in the aisles whilst reading the labels! I was starving as well - even woke up at 3am and made pancakes as so hungry one night! Once I worked out how to snack it was much better.

Well worth researching and having a go because anything is better than constant thrush.
HTH

No sugar

No bread

no leftovers

3 years!!?!??!?!

And no alcohol ...!

It wasn't that bad ultimately - but it was infinitely better than suffering every month, honestly.

I (mostly) follow a low carb diet, although I do still drink a lot of wine.

Just get it under control first.

Diflucan, canestan pessaries and canestan cream for your DP/H should also help.

Once I got it under control I slowly came off the diet and now eat as much rubbish normal a diet as most people

It is hard but worth it.

What is Mr doing? He is treating himself - isn't he?

I am glad I stumbled across this thread, I get thrush once a month just before my AF is due....

Mr? To be honest, don;t hink he's infected. We've not been able to make contact in that area for about 4 weeks [sob] and he's circumsized. Hav treated him with cream too.

Am booking another appointment with GP to get tablets etc... will try to lay of sugar, yeast etc as much as possible [mumble crumble recalls that this week we made bread and pizzas.... and pumpkin pie.....]

Have been up half the night trying to scratch... any tips there? Besides mittens

Are you showering and not bathing?
Avoiding bubble baths and perfumed soaps?
Letting the air get toyur bits- wear a skirt in the house and no knickers.

Cut out all refined sugar and carbs, yeast and so on as others have said.

Are you sure it is thrush? swabs at GP?

Your partner should be treated too- it can be symptomless in men but they can carry it.

No sex til you are 100% better anyway.

Have you tried Diflucan then repeated a couple of weeks later?

Maybe your partner needs treatment with the diflucan and not just cream as cream is not that effective with men.

what you are eating wont really affect the thrush .

Have you had a course of metronidazole tablets or dalacin c cream....have you been swabbed. there is also a metrogel vaginal gel 0.75%.

If it is this bad you should go and see a gynae as the ph of your vagina may be too alkaline ( and what they call hostile)and there are products like acijel(now discontinued ) that hospitals may have,that will bring the ph back to normal.
Just because DP doesnt have any symptoms does not mean he hasnt got it....alot of men are asymptomatic and carry the bugs without knowing in the urethra.

also if you have a hormone imbalance there are other products too

Alypaly - marvellous..... are you a medical person?

been in medicine as a dispenser and medical rep for 32 years

Feetheart - are you me?

I had suffered for months and months, and the anti-candida diet plus pro-biotics solved the problem completely. I did cry a fair few times in the Tesco chocolate aisle, though.

I had been completely addicted to chocolate, pizza and so on - and it was horrendous at first. By the end of it, though, I had no desire to eat chocolate at all.

I do eat it now, though, and it doesn't bring on a thrush attack. If I feel an attack coming on, I cut everything out again, and that normally does the trick. I still take acidophilus just in case!

Have just called doctor. No infection of any kind. repeating blood test o tuesday, follow up with doc theweek after.

Will ask pharmacy about tablets and hubby

(I did draw the line at wholemeal pasta. Bleurgh.)

okay ,so if you have no candida or flagellate infection canestan,diflucan and metronidazole are no use.

it could be this alkalinity problem that needs exploring or a hormone problem.If you have a hormone problem you can get something called atrophic vaginitis which makes everything including sex really painful. If you dont mind me asking ,how old are you

if you havent got an infection then it is unlikely that hubby will have one

TheCaller I too have done the anti-candida diet and have also cried in Tesco at all the things I couldn't eat! But hell, rather that than the persistent thrush.

And I have to say that imo diet most definately does contribute to candida.

when i was a sufferer i did actually use live yoghurt on the exterior and although it is messy it takes the raging soreness away and i once recommended it to a friend and she thought it was fantastic. Although it is something you can only do at bhome as it is a bit messy