Help 18 months of thrush / Vulvodynia. Will try a healer?

I have had chronic recurrent thrush for a number of years now. Standard medical practice is a 150mg dose of fluconazole (diflucan). If it comes back, then it’s 3 doses in one week, and if it comes back again, then it’s 150mg weekly for 6 months. If your GP doesn’t know this or hasn’t prescribed it, then they’re a pretty rubbish GP. (This is not medical advice, btw, this is knowledge gained by lived experience over years)

I’ve never found a particular cause for mine. I tried changing contraception, cutting out sugar, buying all new underwear, I never go near my vulva with anything other than water but no luck. I’ve been on 2 x 6 month courses of fluconazole and it just kept coming back.

However, I haven’t had it since the end of October now, and this is the longest I’ve gone for years without it, without weekly treatment. What changed for me was getting my IUD removed and starting to use condoms. My husband rarely had symptoms of thrush from catching it from me, but funnily enough, he had a flare up around Christmas and I didn’t. I think we must have been passing it back and forth without knowing it, particularly as men don’t usually have symptoms.

Trust me, I understand your pain and frustration better than most, but what I think you need is a new GP or gynaecologist, not alternative treatments. They’ll waste your money and leave you no better off. Go to a new GP or ask for a referral to a gynaecologist and get proper, sustained treatment. It sounds like the infection never went away in the first place, so just keeps recurring.

One other thing I found through research is that there’s a strong relationship between allergies such as hay fever, and thrush. I suffer badly from allergies anyway, so now I also try to take antihistamines on a more regular basis than I used to. However, don’t do anything like that without consulting with a medical professional first.

I’ve been to see GPS, gynaecologists, all sorts of specialists and they’ve swabbed me multiple times. It’s just normal candida in my case, no weird or wonderful variant, and I’ve been told that some women, like us, are just unlucky.

pwurple wrote: »

what does the colour of your undies do? Thrush can see, Or you can see something on the fabric? This is intriguing.

There’s a hypothesis that the dyes used in colouring underwear could cause thrush.

To eat or to schmear?

Both! Natural yoghurt contains acidophilus which is thought to help regulate yeast to some degree. Eaten, the idea is that it'll regulate from within, like taking a supplement. Then some suggest it can be used externally, like you would with canesten cream. It may not have any curative properties, but could be soothing. Not sure if it’s got any scientific support to it, but it’s commonly mentioned in relation to thrush.