Vaginal thrush is a common infection which is the result of a yeast known as Candida Albicans. Thrush is also referred to as candidiasis, and the majority of women get this condition at least once in their lives. The symptoms of vaginal thrush include a general itch, which often gets worse before your period, soreness or burning of the vagina during or after sex, change in the smell and colour of your discharge, redness and inflammation of the vulva, pain when you’re urinating, and small white spots on the vaginal wall. Vaginal thrush is diagnosed based on your symptoms, but there are many other conditions of the vagina and vulva that could result in similar symptoms, so your doctor should be the person who diagnoses you to ensure that it is indeed thrush that requires treatment. This usually involves taking a swab to diagnose the bacteria. There are plenty of treatments available in the anti-candidal creams which soothe the inflammation on the skin and kill the bacteria. Such creams are readily available from pharmacies and have proven to be very effective. You can also take anti-thrush tablets which are taken orally, but these are usually reserved for more severe cases of thrush. However, if you’re pregnant, you shouldn’t take these.
You should seek medical advice from your GP if this is the first time you’ve experienced thrush symptoms, if you’re not sure what you have is thrush, if you’ve had thrush more than once in the past year. if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding or if you’ve not responded to the treatments. Make sure that your diagnosis done through a swab test if you’re not responding well to the treatment, in case you’ve been misdiagnosed. The yeast that causes thrush enters the body through the food that you eat, and can live in the bowel without causing any problems. It then spreads to the vagina from the anus via the perineum, which is the area between the vagina and anus. This is known as a perineal spread and other species of yeast often colonise in the vagina but aren’t damaging.
Women are more prone to vaginal thrush between puberty and menopause because the cells lining the vagina produce sugar under the influence of the hormone oestrogen. The yeast bacteria is attracted to these sugars and thrives. This is why thrush is so rare before puberty, because these hormones haven’t developed yet. There have been a number of lifestyle changes which have been suggested to help reduce the risk of thrush, such as avoiding sugar in your diet, limiting the wear of tight clothing and altering your sexual practices. Antibiotics also promote the growth of yeasts, so unless they’re really necessary these should be avoided. It’s been thought previously that the oral contraceptive pill increases the risk of thrush, but this isn’t actually true. However, long-lasting contraceptives such as the implant and the contraceptive injection do lower the incidence of thrush because they suppress the production of oestrogen. Most women will get thrush a couple of times in their lifetime, but a minority of women will get thrush more than a couple of times a year. This is known as recurrent candidiasis and will require medical intervention in order to treat it. You’ll probably need to see a specific doctor who specialises in this condition, if you’re suffering regularly with thrush.