Thrush

I’ve had reoccurring thrush for sometime now and have been put on a 6 month treatment but everytime I have sex it comes back, can someone help with the issue ?

[Galen70]

The first thing you need to do is identify if it is indeed "thrush " - I would recommend attending a sexual health clinic for this, if in the UK. Often the diagnosis is something else , like bacterial vaginosis. And an STI screen if appropriate , which the clinic will offer.

[Hidden in reply to Galen70]

Yeah it definitely is thrush I went to the doctors and got tested, I did some research lastnight and I think the reason I got it is because i was starting to get rid of it and then I had sex and it’s made it come back because it wasn’t completely gone

[Galen70 in reply to Hidden]

Ok well sexual activity is not related to the recurrence or the persistence of candida. What treatment did you use previously ? Reviewing your previous message - a six month treatment course I would consider excessive . What is this treatment ?

[Hidden in reply to Galen70]

I’ve been struggling with reoccurring thrush for months now that’s why I’ve been put on the 6 month treatment. It’s called an oral tablet called flucazonole which I take once a week, it just doesn’t seem to be going away and when it finally started to go away and I had sex it came back, it’s came on after sexual intercourse before so this isn’t the first time and it’s not an Sti becuz we used protection

[Galen70 in reply to Hidden]

Ok - you need to go to a sexual health clinic. We specialise in discharge. The first step will be to establish that you genuinely have candida and no other issues - including BV, which our tests are more sensitive for than the GP. If this is the only and confirmed issue, we can send the yeasts for identification and resistance profiling . 95% yeasts are candida albicans with no resistance. In the 5% that aren't, candida glabrata is the commonest and it is often resistant to fluconazole , in which case we would use clotrimazole pessaries. And look at other factors that can lead to recurrence - type II DM , high oestrogen containing pills, other meds like immunosuppressants or steroids.

[Hidden in reply to Galen70]

Okay thank you! I will make an appointment at a sexual health clinic, I have tried the pessaries before but it’s never seemed to work for me

[Galen70 in reply to Hidden]

No problem. I hope you see a good doc in managing this . Some larger clinics have clinics set aside for people with recurrent BV, candida, herpes etc. If we do put people on suppressive antifungals ( which is rare, and for which there are no national guidelines ) its usually for 2-3 months. Best of luck.

[Hidden in reply to Galen70]

Yeah me too! Hope it gets sorted soon as it’s really putting me down. Thank you for ur help

[Galen70 in reply to Hidden]

most welcome

[Hidden in reply to Galen70]

Update: so I phoned up the sexual health clinic and they said they couldn’t help me with my problem so now I’m back to square one!

[Galen70 in reply to Hidden]

Well I apologise for this. I would call them again for an appointment. I am not sure who you spoke to , but managing this is something that sexual health clinics are the specialists in, as we have microscopy which other services do not. Are you sure it was a sexual health service , not a reproductive health service ? If it was the latter , they don't have microscopy. If you can post the link of the clinic, I can check it out.

[Hidden in reply to Galen70]

Yeah I asked for an appointment and then they got one of the nurses to give me a phone and she explained that there’s nothing they can do as they’re a sexual health clinic the website is sexualhealthscotland.co.uk

[Galen70 in reply to Hidden]

This is a real shame as I used to work in Scotland and can tell you 100% sexual health clinics do this. Can you private message me what city you are in, as the website link is for all of Scotland.

[OptimisticSunflower in reply to Hidden]

4 years on - any improvement? Or solutions?