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STDs (Expert Forum)
Chronic thrush
Answered by
University of Washington
Seattle - WA
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This forum is limited to questions about STDs other than HIV/AIDS. For questions about HIV prevention, or if you have general questions about safe sex (e.g., condoms, how to protect yourself from HIV and STDs), please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum
Some of the most common types of questions concern the risk of HIV or STD after a particular sexual exposure, and about symptoms that might or might not be due to HIV. If your question is along these lines, please visit the HIV Prevention and Safe Sex Forum.
Chronic thrush
by JBrown, Sep 05, 2005 12:00AM
I am posting this on behalf of my wife, who has suffered from chronic thrush for almost eight years.
It began after I passed herpes to her via oral contact. It was something I didn't even know I had as I had never had any symptoms, orally or genitally. It was a bad time for the two of us and at the STD clinic they gave her a course of antibiotics, just to be on the safe side I suppose.
Since then her thrush has been pretty bad, varying monthly with her cycle. Pessaries & cream haven't worked. She's tried diet/homeopathic approaches but with no consistent results. She's terrfified of selecting for a resistant strain of candida and making things worse.
We're based in the UK and doctors here seem really unsympathetic and don't have a clear approach, with regard to drugs etc. Some have said there's a 'pulse' regimen of anti-candida drugs that takes 6 weeks?
We're thinking of having kids and this is a major block.
I greatly appreciate any advice you might have.
It began after I passed herpes to her via oral contact. It was something I didn't even know I had as I had never had any symptoms, orally or genitally. It was a bad time for the two of us and at the STD clinic they gave her a course of antibiotics, just to be on the safe side I suppose.
Since then her thrush has been pretty bad, varying monthly with her cycle. Pessaries & cream haven't worked. She's tried diet/homeopathic approaches but with no consistent results. She's terrfified of selecting for a resistant strain of candida and making things worse.
We're based in the UK and doctors here seem really unsympathetic and don't have a clear approach, with regard to drugs etc. Some have said there's a 'pulse' regimen of anti-candida drugs that takes 6 weeks?
We're thinking of having kids and this is a major block.
I greatly appreciate any advice you might have.
Doctor's Answer
by H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D., Sep 05, 2005 12:00AM
, Sep 05, 2005 12:00AM
With apology, I'm not sure I even know what you're talking about. "Thrush" typically means yeast infection of the mouth and throat, but it sounds like you are speaking about a genital infection. (Maybe "thrush" is used in UK for candida (yeast) vulvovaginitis, but I'm not aware of that.)
So for the moment, I'll assume you mean candida vulvovaginitis. There are some strains that are resistant to the standard treatments, but usually it isn't particularly difficult to find other treatments that work. I have never heard of true genital yeast infection in women that persisted for 8 years; that makes me skeptical of her diagnosis. Yeast infection should not interfere with conception or pregnancy, by the way.
I also don't know how to relate this to your herpes history. Herpes doesn't trigger yeast infection, nor does herpes treatment. (Other antibiotics sometimes do that, however.)
As you may know, the UK has a network of genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics, equivalent to STD clinics in the US but generally more sophisticated than their US counterparts. There are GUM clinics in most large and mid-size cities. With few if any exceptions, the care is the best a person can get for problems like your wife's. By contrast, my impression is that the quality of knowledge about STDs and other GU infections often is poor among GPs and other non-GUM-speciaty physicians in your country. So if you haven't done so, your next step should be evaluation at a GUM clinic.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
So for the moment, I'll assume you mean candida vulvovaginitis. There are some strains that are resistant to the standard treatments, but usually it isn't particularly difficult to find other treatments that work. I have never heard of true genital yeast infection in women that persisted for 8 years; that makes me skeptical of her diagnosis. Yeast infection should not interfere with conception or pregnancy, by the way.
I also don't know how to relate this to your herpes history. Herpes doesn't trigger yeast infection, nor does herpes treatment. (Other antibiotics sometimes do that, however.)
As you may know, the UK has a network of genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics, equivalent to STD clinics in the US but generally more sophisticated than their US counterparts. There are GUM clinics in most large and mid-size cities. With few if any exceptions, the care is the best a person can get for problems like your wife's. By contrast, my impression is that the quality of knowledge about STDs and other GU infections often is poor among GPs and other non-GUM-speciaty physicians in your country. So if you haven't done so, your next step should be evaluation at a GUM clinic.
Good luck-- HHH, MD
Member Comments (2)
by JBrown, Sep 06, 2005 12:00AM
Thanks. yes, over here thrush refers to a vaginal yeast infectiona s well in the throat etc.