Local Creams Provide Faster Yeast Infection Relief Than Pill Use

For women with their first yeast infection, the recommendation is to see your health care provider for a firm diagnosis. For women familiar with the symptoms and therapy, self diagnosis is recommended as a first line therapy. Cream therapy with soothing components is available OTC and thus the go to therapy for a quick resolution of simple yeast infections. Some patients prefer to get quicker relief call us for a pill. However, what the research says about yeast infection resolution may surprise some women. For those women who generally though that vaginal creams were just a bit messy getting the prescription for an oral medication is a good alternative but does require interacting with your provider. For faster therapy it was shown in a new study from the Robert Wood Johnson institute that actually for faster initial relief of itching and burning and irritation the cream works in an hour, whereas the pill taken orally works in 4 hours. Creams can provide 4 hours of complete relief, although the pill takes about 16 hours to provide complete relief. If the symptoms are recurrent or i  there are a few new options you may want to consider: a new improved probiotic medication and a new antibiotic medication. It is good news for these patients as they typically try many medications and the good news is that they have brought back a sulfonamide cream for chronic yeast. One in 20 women with a yeast infection will develop chronic and recurrent infections. As our prior post said: gynos define recurrent and chronic as more than 4 a year. Most yeast infections are due to pesky and pervasive Candida albicans. Some experts say albicans are 95% of those infections we see, others knock that percentage down to only 75%. And random healthy women sampling find that 25% of those women walking into any office at any time will culture positive for yeast. If you have that yeast infection, you may or may not rate with the so accurate TV physician Dr. House on the medical diagnostic accuracy scale. If you try to self diagnose, you’re probably right somewhere between 1/3 and 50% of the time. So if your symptoms don’t resolve promptly with your goo of choice, inaccurate diagnosis can be the culprit as often as inaccurate treatment. I like to point out that hormone levels and cycles are related to the numbers of infections. Women are more likely to get yeast infections in the second half of the menstrual cycle, when estrogen is lower, and progesterone is more dominant. Douching doesn’t cause yeast infections. In some studies receptive oral sex causes more yeast infections, and in some studies not, but few studies really culture the partner’s mouths! You can’t always eat your way to a clean vagina either. Dairy diets really haven’t changed the rate of yeast infection in most women. For more information, see us for a gyno check at Women’s Health Practice.
f you have struggled with chronic yeast infections