Pregnant and in agony with thrush. Canesten not working.

[househunter84]

Hi all

I have had issues with thrush over the last 9 months. I am 7 weeks pregnant and have been suffering for 3 weeks now. Dr recommended canesten pessaries 2 or 3 times a week. It isn’t touching the sides. I am in agony and concerned the candida is going to become systemic. Can anyone help? Is there a pregnancy safe alternative? Worried I may have to have a termination as can’t cope with this for 9 months.

Thank you

It won't cure it alone but I've found taking a women's probiotic helps (I'm also prone to thrush when I have to take antibiotics). I used the 500 mg Canesten pessary twice (1 pessary 7 days apart) along with applying the Canesten external cream 2/3 times daily for the 2 weeks plus also a double dose (2 tablets daily) of a women's oral probiotic for two months to make sure it had totally gone.

The probiotic I used Jarrow Fem Dophilus (1 million), which is from the US so a bit pricy but I now take Women's Optibac (1 tablet, 2.5 million), which is UK made so cheaper - they both contain the same strains which are proven to reach the vagina and are pregnancy safe.

Hope you can get some relief!

Ask your GP about Nystatin. Some Candida infections are resistant to clotrimazole (active ingredient in canesten) so you need a different antifungal to treat. I know a couple of women who have had it prescribed during pregnancy so it should be safe.

I'm allergic to clotrimazole (pessaries & creams) so I took fluconazole tablets when I was pregnant. They are safe (midwife checked plus I took it twice and my daughter is fine) it's just less common to take them when there's the pessary option. The tablets work quite quickly.

Hi can I ask if you know if this product is safe in pregnancy? Thanks so much!

https://www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/Clotrimazole/

https://www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/Fluconazole-standard-dose/

For fluconazole I checked the original evidence and assessed it's reliability and decided it was safe enough as the original research likely overestimated risks. This is a lot of work to do and requires expertise...