Yeast infection dangerous: Why It Should Be Diagnosed and Treated
Why It Should Be Diagnosed and Treated
Without treatment, a yeast infection could become more serious. There’s a chance that it could resolve on its own, but it could also worsen.
A vaginal yeast infection (vaginal candidiasis) is a relatively common fungal infection that causes thick, white discharge along with irritation, itchiness, and swelling of the vulva and vagina.
Keep reading to learn more about the downsides of ignoring yeast infections.
If left untreated, vaginal candidiasis will most likely get worse, causing itching, redness, and inflammation in the area surrounding your vagina. This may lead to a skin infection if the inflamed area becomes cracked, or if continual scratching creates open or raw areas.
Uncommon side effects of an untreated yeast infection include:
- fatigue
- oral thrush
- gastrointestinal problems
Invasive candidiasis
Invasive candidiasis occurs when the yeast infection affects other parts of the body, such as the:
- blood
- heart
- brain
- bones
- eyes
Invasive candidiasis is usually associated with an open sore that’s exposed to a yeast infection.
It isn’t typically related to vaginal yeast infections. It can cause serious health complications if not promptly treated.
Candidemia
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), candidemia is one of the most common forms of invasive candidiasis in the United States. It’s also one of the most common bloodstream infections in the country.
Yeast infections are common during pregnancy due to fluctuating hormones. If you’re pregnant and think you may have a yeast infection, see a doctor so that you can get the right diagnosis and treatment.
Topical antifungals are safe to use during pregnancy, but you won’t be able to take oral antifungal medications.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), oral fluconazole (Diflucan) taken during the first trimester of pregnancy may cause birth defects. A 2016 study also linked the use of oral fluconazole taken during pregnancy with an increased risk of miscarriage.
A mild yeast infection is expected to clear up in a few days to a week.
Moderate to severe infections may take 2 to 3 weeks.
Can yeast infections go away on their own?
There’s a possibility that a yeast infection can go away on its own. The probability varies from person to person.
If you decide not to treat the infection, however, it might get worse. There’s also the possibility that you’ve misdiagnosed your condition, and what you thought was candidiasis was a more serious problem.
According to the Mayo Clinic, 75 percent of women will experience a vaginal yeast infection at some point in their lifetime.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) indicates that about 5 percent of women will experience recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC). This is defined as four or more vaginal yeast infections in 1 year.
RVVC can occur in healthy women, but it’s more common in women with diabetes or weak immune systems from conditions such as HIV.
According to the HHS, about 66 percent of women who buy yeast infection medicine don’t actually have a yeast infection.
The symptoms may be caused by an allergic reaction or irritation due to sensitivity to tampons, soaps, powders, or perfume. Or they may have another vaginal infection, such as:
- bacterial vaginosis
- chlamydia
- gonorrhea
- trichomoniasis
- herpes
You should see a doctor if you’re not 100 percent sure that you have a yeast infection. They may diagnose you with a yeast infection, or they may discover a more serious condition.
If you’re treating what you think is a yeast infection without doctor diagnosis and it doesn’t clear up in a week or two, see a doctor. The medication you’re using may not be strong enough, or you may not have a yeast infection.
You should also visit a doctor if the infection returns in a couple of months. Having more than one yeast infection in a year could be an indication of an underlying medical condition.
Don’t put off seeing a doctor if your symptoms include:
- fever
- foul-smelling or yellow discharge
- bloody discharge
- back or stomach pain
- vomiting
- increased urination
Vaginal yeast infection should be properly diagnosed and treated.
If left untreated, a yeast infection may lead to health problems, such as:
- skin infections
- fatigue
- oral thrush
- gastrointestinal problems
- invasive candidiasis
Diagnosis is a critical step, as the symptoms of a yeast infection are similar to more serious conditions, such as:
- bacterial vaginosis
- chlamydia
- gonorrhea
Why It Should Be Diagnosed and Treated
Without treatment, a yeast infection could become more serious. There’s a chance that it could resolve on its own, but it could also worsen.
A vaginal yeast infection (vaginal candidiasis) is a relatively common fungal infection that causes thick, white discharge along with irritation, itchiness, and swelling of the vulva and vagina.
Keep reading to learn more about the downsides of ignoring yeast infections.
If left untreated, vaginal candidiasis will most likely get worse, causing itching, redness, and inflammation in the area surrounding your vagina.
This may lead to a skin infection if the inflamed area becomes cracked, or if continual scratching creates open or raw areas.
Uncommon side effects of an untreated yeast infection include:
- fatigue
- oral thrush
- gastrointestinal problems
Invasive candidiasis
Invasive candidiasis occurs when the yeast infection affects other parts of the body, such as the:
- blood
- heart
- brain
- bones
- eyes
Invasive candidiasis is usually associated with an open sore that’s exposed to a yeast infection. It isn’t typically related to vaginal yeast infections. It can cause serious health complications if not promptly treated.
Candidemia
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), candidemia is one of the most common forms of invasive candidiasis in the United States. It’s also one of the most common bloodstream infections in the country.
Yeast infections are common during pregnancy due to fluctuating hormones.
If you’re pregnant and think you may have a yeast infection, see a doctor so that you can get the right diagnosis and treatment.
Topical antifungals are safe to use during pregnancy, but you won’t be able to take oral antifungal medications.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), oral fluconazole (Diflucan) taken during the first trimester of pregnancy may cause birth defects. A 2016 study also linked the use of oral fluconazole taken during pregnancy with an increased risk of miscarriage.
A mild yeast infection is expected to clear up in a few days to a week. Moderate to severe infections may take 2 to 3 weeks.
Can yeast infections go away on their own?
There’s a possibility that a yeast infection can go away on its own. The probability varies from person to person.
If you decide not to treat the infection, however, it might get worse. There’s also the possibility that you’ve misdiagnosed your condition, and what you thought was candidiasis was a more serious problem.
According to the Mayo Clinic, 75 percent of women will experience a vaginal yeast infection at some point in their lifetime.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) indicates that about 5 percent of women will experience recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC). This is defined as four or more vaginal yeast infections in 1 year.
RVVC can occur in healthy women, but it’s more common in women with diabetes or weak immune systems from conditions such as HIV.
According to the HHS, about 66 percent of women who buy yeast infection medicine don’t actually have a yeast infection.
The symptoms may be caused by an allergic reaction or irritation due to sensitivity to tampons, soaps, powders, or perfume. Or they may have another vaginal infection, such as:
- bacterial vaginosis
- chlamydia
- gonorrhea
- trichomoniasis
- herpes
You should see a doctor if you’re not 100 percent sure that you have a yeast infection.
They may diagnose you with a yeast infection, or they may discover a more serious condition.
If you’re treating what you think is a yeast infection without doctor diagnosis and it doesn’t clear up in a week or two, see a doctor. The medication you’re using may not be strong enough, or you may not have a yeast infection.
You should also visit a doctor if the infection returns in a couple of months. Having more than one yeast infection in a year could be an indication of an underlying medical condition.
Don’t put off seeing a doctor if your symptoms include:
- fever
- foul-smelling or yellow discharge
- bloody discharge
- back or stomach pain
- vomiting
- increased urination
Vaginal yeast infection should be properly diagnosed and treated. If left untreated, a yeast infection may lead to health problems, such as:
- skin infections
- fatigue
- oral thrush
- gastrointestinal problems
- invasive candidiasis
Diagnosis is a critical step, as the symptoms of a yeast infection are similar to more serious conditions, such as:
- bacterial vaginosis
- chlamydia
- gonorrhea
Thrush in women: danger of self-treatment
In our article, we will try to figure out whether it is possible to effectively, and most importantly, safely cure thrush on our own.
First, let’s consider what kind of disease it is and why it occurs.
What in everyday life is called “thrush” in medicine is called vaginal or genital candidiasis . The name owes its origin to the microorganisms that cause this disease. The fungal parasite Candida albicans (Candida albicans) is normally present in the body of every healthy person. For the first time, each of us meets him in the natural environment – the birth canal. In quantities not exceeding the norm, the microbe Candida albicans may even be needed by the human body: it serves as food for beneficial bacteria involved in the synthesis of vitamins K and B12. But quite often, when certain conditions arise, uncontrolled reproduction of the fungal flora occurs, which leads to the occurrence of thrush.
What can serve as an impetus to the accelerated rate of reproduction of the fungus? The reasons for this are numerous. The most important of them, according to doctors, is the modern lifestyle – uncontrolled consumption of drugs, in particular, antibiotics and hormonal drugs; consumption of unhealthy foods, especially those rich in sugar; high levels of stress; unprotected sex.
Also, the cause of thrush can be a decrease in the protective functions of the body, weakening of the immune system, the presence of certain diseases that weaken the body and some drugs for their treatment.
Having understood the causes of the disease, we will consider how reasonable it is to treat thrush at home. TV commercials and pharmacists in pharmacies assure us that thrush is very easy to defeat with just one capsule of the hyped drug; articles on the Internet call for the use of folk remedies: soda, honey, herbal preparations and even laundry soap.
Why, trusting such advice, a woman cannot cope with her problem? Symptoms either do not change, or only get worse: itching and burning become unbearable, especially at night; the discharge can be so plentiful that in a short period of time they soak through the underwear and bed linen, while having a very unpleasant odor. And only when the symptoms of the disease significantly reduce the quality of life, completely disrupting its rhythm, the woman turns to the doctor.
According to the leading gynecologists of our clinic, as a rule, patients come to them who have tried more than one remedy in self-treatment of thrush. And this fact does not make the doctor’s work easier at all, but rather complicates it, since prolonged unsuccessful self-treatment of vaginal candidiasis leads to the transition of the disease into a chronic form, which is much more difficult to treat and complicates the diagnosis.
Chronic thrush is characterized by periodic exacerbations, at least 4 times a year. It turns out that, without properly treating the first appeared acute form of the disease, a woman can “earn” herself an endless chain of relapses and life “from thrush to thrush”, which will negatively affect her psychological state. Also, chronic thrush, with the seeming harmlessness of symptoms, is dangerous for its complications. A fungal infection can affect neighboring organs together with other microbes. The chronic form of vaginal candidiasis can also cause inflammation of the appendages (adnexitis), inflammation of the cervix, the formation of adhesions in the fallopian tubes, which greatly complicates the process of conception and can lead to infertility.
Mushrooms, to which the yeast-like fungus Candida albicans belongs, are the oldest form of life on our planet. Their age is more than 2.5 billion years. During its existence, having survived a lot of cataclysms on a planetary scale, mushrooms not only did not disappear from the face of the earth, but also went a long way in their evolution. The viability of mushrooms and their desire for self-preservation is beyond fantasy. In this regard, considering the issue of fungal survivability not on a global scale, but on the scale of an individual person, we must understand that Candida albicans will strive to survive by all means, and every mistake in treatment, be it the wrong choice of the drug, the wrong dosage, or the absence of any therapy at all, will definitely lead to the reproduction of the fungus exponentially, and consequently to the aggravation of symptoms.
In addition, despite the fact that in the vast majority of cases, Candida albicans is the causative agent of thrush, it must be understood that in addition to albicans, there are about 170 types of Candida fungus that are more resistant to drugs.
Each type of fungus has a different sensitivity and susceptibility to therapy, therefore, it requires a special, often qualitatively different, approach to the choice of means on the way to recovery.
What else is the danger of treating thrush at home, besides the risk of worsening symptoms and the transition of the disease to a chronic form? Symptoms of thrush – itching, burning, discomfort of the genital organs, discharge – are characteristic of a number of diseases, some of which can be dangerous not only to health, but also to the life of a woman.
With all the external similarity, the cause of unpleasant symptoms may not be a fungus of the genus Candida at all. Very often, the trigger mechanism for the pathogenesis of the disease is a bacterial infection, the most common of which is bacterial vaginosis.
Bacterial vaginosis is caused by an alteration or imbalance in the bacteria normally found in the vagina. As a result of such a violation, there is an increased reproduction of certain microorganisms, most often Gardnerella vaginalis (Gardnerella vaginalis).
The causes of bacterial vaginosis, as well as its symptoms, are in many ways similar to thrush: an unhealthy lifestyle, stress, pregnancy, the presence of an intrauterine device, a change in sexual partner, wearing sanitary pads and synthetic underwear. But with all the outward similarities, bacterial vaginosis has a significant difference: in comparison with thrush, it is not treated with antifungal drugs. Therefore, trying to cure a bacterial infection with drugs to combat vaginal candidiasis, you can aggravate the course of the disease and get complications. A bacterial infection without adequate treatment multiplies intensively in the vagina, and the urethra is located nearby. Through the urethra, a bacterial infection can enter the bladder and cause urethritis and cystitis.
Many sexually transmitted infections have similar symptoms with thrush – trichomoniasis, gonorrhea, ureaplasmosis and others. The main clinical symptoms are itching, discharge and burning. Sexually transmitted diseases, without timely diagnosis and adequate treatment, can also lead to severe complications, including infertility.
The most important point in the treatment of STDs is the simultaneous treatment of a woman’s sexual partner, without which her full recovery is impossible. Self-treatment without examination and laboratory tests is impossible.
The main danger of self-treatment or ignoring the symptoms of thrush is that their apparent “harmlessness” may hide completely different diseases that are not associated with any infection or vaginal dysbiosis.
So, for example, inflammation of the fallopian tube or even oncological diseases of the cervix and other organs of the small pelvis can manifest themselves. With secondary candidiasis caused by disorders of carbohydrate metabolism (prediabetes), according to our doctors, the patient’s frequent complaint is itching, burning, discharge from the genitals. And there are frequent cases in the practice of our gynecologists, when patients who turned to them with complaints of thrush were eventually diagnosed with diabetes.
A lot of diseases similar in clinic are determined by the main symptom – secretions .
But in each state they have their own characteristics, differ in color, texture, smell. The differences can be so insignificant that a woman herself often cannot interpret them somehow and attributes everything to thrush. This approach to your health can be a big mistake. Leading gynecologists at the Smitra Clinic warn: what is usually called thrush in everyday life can be a mask for another, much more serious disease!
Our doctors recommend: if you find yourself having alarming symptoms that, in your opinion, are similar to thrush, do not let everything take its course, do not look on the Internet for folk ways to treat a simple and understandable disease, as you think, do not run to the nearest pharmacy for an advertised drug. The most reasonable solution to this problem will be an appeal to a gynecologist. After a conversation and a thorough examination, the doctor will prescribe all the necessary tests and examinations, based on the results of which the treatment tactics will be chosen.
Only under these conditions is it possible to fully recover and return to normal life as soon as possible.
Clinic “Smitra” provides a full range of services necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of any gynecological diseases: consultations of gynecologists of the highest category and KMN, modern diagnostic equipment, more than 500 types of tests.
The material was prepared with the participation of gynecologists of the Smitra Clinic.
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▶Is thrush dangerous and should it be treated? ✅ ADONIS| Kyiv
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What are the symptoms of thrush? How to properly diagnose and treat it? Is the disease dangerous? These and other questions were answered by the gynecologist of the diagnostic and treatment center ADONIS Victoria Yuryevna Gomon.
Viktoria Yurievna, please tell us how thrush manifests itself? How not to confuse it with other gynecological diseases?
– Thrush is a disease that develops when infected with fungi of the genus Candida. It is very common. According to statistics, 3 out of 4 women get sick at least once in their life. In rare cases, it becomes chronic.
The main symptoms of thrush are itching and burning in the vagina, cheesy discharge with an unpleasant sour smell, pain during urination and sexual intercourse. However, in most cases, the clinical picture is erased, that is, the woman does not show such pronounced symptoms. Because of this, thrush is easily confused with other gynecological diseases. To establish the correct diagnosis, it is necessary to conduct a diagnosis. Do not treat thrush on your own. You need to consult a doctor for qualified help.
You said that thrush can become chronic. Why is this happening?
– Actually, there are quite a few reasons.
The main ones are weakened immunity and general diseases. For example, in diabetes, Candida mushrooms grow rapidly, due to which the thrush becomes chronic.
How is thrush diagnosed if its symptoms are similar to those of other diseases?
– For the diagnosis of the disease, you need to come to a consultation with a gynecologist. He will examine and take a sample of urogenital secretions for analysis. A microscopy analysis will determine whether there are Candida fungi in the secretions or not, as well as detect other infections.
It should be understood that the detection of Candida does not always indicate the need for treatment. If the patient came for a preventive examination and has no complaints, but these fungi were found in the analysis, this can be considered a variant of the norm. Candida is also present on human skin, and in the intestines, and in the vagina, but only in certain cases provokes the development of the disease.
That is, it is necessary to treat thrush only when symptoms of the disease appear?
– Yes, this disease is treated only if symptoms are present.
If Candida is discovered incidentally, treatment is usually not carried out.
How to properly treat thrush? Since this is a very common disease, many women do not consider it a reason to see a doctor and are treated on their own. Can this be done or not?
– It is difficult to diagnose thrush on your own. Many gynecological diseases can manifest themselves in a similar way. At the same time, the tactics of their treatment and the drugs used differ significantly. For example, for the treatment of thrush, a 5-7-day course of treatment can be used, while for the treatment of other pathologies, a much larger one with other drugs. With self-medication, it is easy to make a mistake with the diagnosis and drink drugs that are ineffective in this case. This can lead to an aggravation of the disease.
Can thrush develop during pregnancy?
– Yes, during pregnancy the risk of developing thrush even increases. This is due to changes in the functioning of the immune system.
Since the fetus carries 50% of the father’s genetic material, which is essentially foreign to the body, its immune defenses must be reduced in order for the woman to be able to bear the pregnancy.
Does the treatment of thrush change during pregnancy?
– During this period, we also treat thrush only when symptoms of the disease appear. At the same time, we are guided by internal ADONIS protocols and European recommendations, using drugs that are safe at all stages of pregnancy.
Is thrush dangerous during pregnancy? Can it cause complications or affect the condition and development of the fetus?
– Thrush is not dangerous to the fetus and does not pose a threat of termination of pregnancy. She only causes discomfort to the woman herself, who constantly feels itching, burning and other symptoms of the disease. If the thrush persists at the time of childbirth, then the cracks or ruptures that occurred during them heal longer than with a healthy mucosa.