Are You Sure What You Have Is a Yeast Infection?

Yeast infections can be mistaken for many other diseases in women, most commonly bacterial vaginosis. Other common misdiagnoses include gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis.

If you think you have a yeast infection, you probably fall into at least one of the following categories: weakened immune system due to AIDS, pregnancy, menstruation, sterioids, diabetes, antibiotics, or taking birth control pills. If you do not fall into one of the previous categories, you probably do not have a yeast infection.

More dangerous risk factors for Candida include: diabetes, AIDS, and leukemia. If you have a recurring yeast infection, it is vital that you visit a doctor.

If you do visit a doctor to make sure what you have is indeed a yeast infection, the lab technicians will look at your specimen under a microscope. They will be able to state, with a high degree of accuracy, whether or not what you have is a vaginal yeast infection.

Fortunately, unless you are suffering from an infection that is painful or lasts more than one week, you can usually cure a yeast infection on your own. Natural cures are often the best, and will not weaken your body's immune system further.

Best of luck!

Who Is At Risk for Yeast Infections?

Candida albicans is a widespread organism with worldwide distribution. It is normally found in small amounts in the vagina , the mouth, the digestive tract, and on the skin without causing disease or symptoms (approximately 25% of women without disease symptoms have this organism present.)

1. Sexually active people. The best way not to have to worry about getting yeast infections this way is not to have sex. But if you do have sex, using a condom will help prevent transmission of yeast infections, just as it helps prevent transmission of more commonly sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection, and helps prevent pregnancy. Teens should always use a latex condom if they have sex, even if they are also using other forms of birth control.
2. Pregnant women. Signs and symptoms of a yeast infection are more common during pregnancy, although there are little data to know if yeast infection is always the cause.
3. Uncontrolled diabetes. Those with diabetes have too much sugar in their system, which is the food of the bacteria in yeast infections. Likewise, if you are diagnosed with a yeast infection, you would do well to lower the sugar in your diet, and thus get rid of the yeast infection faster.
4. People taking antibiotics. Antibiotics, such as penicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, and amoxicillin, are used to treat and prevent infection by killing and inhibiting the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics can also increase your susceptibility to yeast infections, as you well know, because they change the vagina's natural pH, which is normally slightly acidic, and kill off healthy bacteria. A change in acidity creates or allows for an overgrowth of yeast.

No matter what the cause of your yeast infection, there is a quick, easy cure to yeast infections that can help bring an early end to your yeast infection quickly and painlessly. Especially if you have used over-the-counter or prescription medications before, and yet again, you have a yeast infection. Try a natural approach; I can't recommend it enough.