Oh no sweetie, we’re not talking about the bird kind of thrush, the other kind!

Most women and girls will suffer from Thrush at some stage and usually its starts with a rather awkward itch. Luckily for us, we’ve spoken to our medical professional friends and asked them to explain it in full, and tell us how to get rid of the blasted thing….

 

What’s Thrush anyway?

Thrush or Candida infection is a common yeast infection that can affect women and men.

What causes it?

There is a usual balance between the good bacteria and bad bacteria in our bodies. However, certain factors can upset this balance, causing the bad bacteria and yeast to exceed the normal good bacteria. This then can cause a range of symptoms. Vaginal thrush is the most common infection with symptoms such as white thick cottage cheese-like vaginal discharge, vulval and vaginal redness, and itching as well as some stinging when passing urine.

Oral Thrush can also occur, which causes a sore mouth with a white coating on the tongue and gums. You wouldn’t think it, but being on a course of antibiotics is a common cause of Thrush. We all know antibiotics help us recover and fight some form of illness/virus we are currently dealing with, but antibiotics often can upset that balance between good and bad bacteria we were just talking about. However, being run down and having diabetes or a diet high in sugar are also common causes of Thrush.

How is it diagnosed?

It is often diagnosed based on symptoms alone, but your doctor may also do a vaginal swab to confirm the diagnosis. This is likely if it’s not your first-time getting symptoms. Home test kits are also available in pharmacies.

With vaginal symptoms, it is also important to exclude other causes of the symptoms such as sexually transmitted infections. While Candida or Thrush can be spread by sexual contact it is not classified as a sexually transmitted disease.

What is the treatment?

Usually, treatment is easy and involves applying a cream to ease the itch and sometimes vaginal pessaries (which are tablets that are inserted into the vagina). Canesten is the usual brand used and there are also oral tablets that can be taken as a once-off, the common brand of these is Diflucan. It is very important that, if sexual activity has taken place, the partner of the affected person is also treated. Thrush is super common, so please don’t stress or worried. Once you seek treatment, you should feel back to normal in no time. 

What if I Keep getting symptoms?

However, it is important to see your doctor if Thrush is a reoccurring thing for you. They can advise you on what could be causing it, and how best to treat it. They’ll discuss a longer course of treatment for you along with excluding other causes of your symptoms such as STIs or Urinary tract infections. It’s important to know that they may suggest doing blood tests to out rule diabetes. Again, no need to worry, it could simply be down to needing a slight change in your diet such as opting for a low-sugar and/or low-yeast diet which would exclude highly processed sugary foods along with things such as pizza dough, bread, mushrooms, grapes, and alcohol may also help.

All righty then, we think that’s all you’ll need to know about Thrush! However, if you are in any doubt, please reach out to your GP. We can’t stress this enough. We know it can be daunting but we guarantee you that they have talked about weirder things than your itchy lady bits. Anyways, thanks for reading, have an itch-free week everyone… x

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