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!

Why Are Natural Cures for Yeast Infections Best?

If you decide to consult a physician about your yeast infection, there are two tests he or she can do on you. One involves looking at some of your cells under a microscope. If the doctor sees an unusually large number of yeast cells, you probably have a yeast infection. The other test uses a culture, which takes several days to mature. But most women don't want to wait that long for the diagnosis to their itchy problem!

Remember, using antibiotics can be one of the reasons women get yeast infections in the first place: the medicine wipes out the good bacteria that normally keep Candida under control.

If you get yeast infections often, visiting the doctor and buying over-the-counter medicines can get expensive very quickly. Fortunately, there are several proven natural remedies that can hopefully provide the cure to yeast infections once and for all. Or, at the very least, they should clear your symptoms up within a day.

Some suggestions you might want to try:

• Insert unpasteurized yogurt inside your vagina. Eating yogurt helps, too.
• Drink unsweetened cranberry juice.
• Leave a gauze-bound garlic clove inside your vagina for 12 hours.
• Douche with vinegar and water, or yogurt and water.
• Insert a tampon dipped in Potassium Sorbate and leave in overnight.

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.

What Are the Causes of Yeast Infections?

Really, there is a whole list of yeast infection causes. If you know what kinds of things cause you to get yeast infections, you can be alert for symptoms and treat them early on with milder do-it-yourself remedies, rather than bombarding your body with drugs.

Many girls find that yeast infections tend to show up right before they get their periods because of the hormonal changes that come with the menstrual cycle. Clothing (especially underwear) that is too tight or made of materials like nylon that trap heat and moisture might lead to yeast infections because yeast can thrive in this type of environment. And douching and using scented sanitary products can upset the healthy balance of bacteria in the vagina and make yeast infections more likely.

Some of the more common items than can cause and/or prolong yeast infections:

• Antibiotics
• Spermicides
• Birth Control Pills
• Tight-fitting Pants
• Chemicals
• Injury
• Sexual Intercourse
• Weakened Immune System

Of course, these are just the most common causes. Also, many women have infections that come back. If you have more than four yeast infections in a year, see your doctor. He or she may do a test to make sure that your symptoms are being caused by a yeast infection and not some other problem, such as diabetes.

What Is a Yeast Infection?

Yeast infections are caused by an overgrowth of a bacterial organism called Candida albicans. Occasionally, a change in their environment gives them a chance to really multiply and grow out of control, particularly in warm and moist areas. Conventional treatments come in a wide range of forms including pills and vaginal creams, which may need to be taken anywhere from one dose to a week-long course of medication.

Almost half of all healthy, sexually active women, and one-third of all pregnant women have Candida albicans which might indicate that sexual activity itself contributes to the growth of Candida albicans. Furthermore, 75% of all women have had a yeast infection, and almost half have had two or more yeast infections.

We get yeast infections because, for a variety of reasons, our bacteria multiply rapidly and take over, causing a full-fledged yeast infection. This can be due to a change in the vaginal environment, injury, sexual transmission, or HIV. Common environmental disruptions that favor yeast include increased pH, increased heat and moisture, allergic reactions, elevated sugar levels, hormonal fluxes, and reductions in the populations of bacteria that are normally present.

The Food and Drug Administration now allows medicines that used to be prescription-only to be sold without a prescription to treat vaginal yeast infections that keep coming back. But before you run out and buy one, if you've never been treated for a yeast infection you should see a doctor. Your doctor may advise you to use one of the over-the-counter products or may prescribe a drug called Diflucan (fluconazole). FDA recently approved the drug, a tablet taken by mouth, for clearing up yeast infections with just one dose.