Can You Treat Yourself Safely For Recurrent Thrush?

Recurrent thrush is a very common disease which most people self diagnose and self treat. But the question has been raised "Can you treat yourself safely for recurrent thrush?"

Recurrent or chronic thrush has a devastating affect on a person's life in terms of discomfort, emotional stress and relationship embarrassment. Treatment of thrush with antifungal pharmaceutical creams and medications gives immediate relief but within a short amount of time the symptoms often return for no apparent reason.

If you have recurrent thrush it is important to at first seek medical advice to ensure that the diagnosis of thrush is correct and that there are no other underlying medical reasons why you are susceptible to thrush.

There are other infections which can cause symptoms similar to thrush, or thrush can be secondary to other infections. A doctor may want to take a swab or scaping of the infected area and send it to the laboratory for testing. It may take several days to get the results so treatment is usually started before the results come back.

Laboratory tests include looking for the typical yeast cells under the microscope and culturing onto specific agar for 24-48 hours and looking for the typical yeast colonies of Candida albicans, which is the most common cause of thrush.

If you have recurrent thrush symptoms it is important to determine what the underlying cause may be and rule out things like diabetes. Most people become aware of what triggers their thrush e g. tight jeans or certain washing powders or douches, so it is important to avoid these triggers.

Superficial symptoms of yeast infection are usually so typical that it is easy to diagnose. Many people are well aware of their own symptoms and self diagnose and treat and provided you are sure that your symptoms are typical and the same as before it is safe to treat yourself for recurrent thrush.

Candida albicans, the causative organism of recurrent thrush lives normally on the body and when the body's defences are lowered it can overgrow and cause infection. It is important for you to determine what the conditions are that cause your yeast infection to flare up. Some of the things to consider when you have recurrent thrush symptoms are:

• The symptoms may not be due to thrush. There are other causes of a vaginal discharge and skin rashes. Thrush can also occur at the same time as another infection so you may need tests such as vaginal or skin swabs to clarify the cause of your symptoms.

• Most cases of thrush are caused by Candida albicans. However, about 1 in 10 thrush infections are caused by other strains of Candida species such as Candida glabrata which may not be so easily treated with the usual anti-thrush medicines.