good lord, please help me with this yeast infection

[MelindaGayle]

Here are things I've tried:
garlic
yoghurt
straight probiotics
monistat
honey
coconut oil
vinegar
calendula suppositories

I think I'm going to lose it. Any other ideas? I'm only 14 weeks, so I'm not looking forward to the prospect of dealing with this for another 6 months.

Please help!

[queenofchaos]

cut out all sugar, white flour, basically anything that will cause blood sugar to spike. yeast love sugar, so keep blood sugar at an even keel and that is supposed to kinda starve out the yeast.
one thing I have found with this pg, artificial clothing on my bottom parts of any kind seem to aggravate it. sleeping in the buff from at least the waist down (or nightie w/no undies) helps a lot too.
sorry you are dealing w/ this so early in the pg. no fun!

[MelindaGayle]

thanks for your reply. I've already cut out sugar and white flour, so no luck on that. Sleeping in the buff from the waist down as well.

This won't hurt the baby, will it?

Anything else that you've tried?

[corysmilk]

how are you applying these things? orally? I would take a bath in vinigar everyday. wash undies, in the rinse cycle add vinagar. umm put the yogart inside your vagina. it feels so soothing.

yeast can be very hard to get rid of. but you will belive me. I ma very yeasty. it can be done some of these things take up to two weeks to start to work. the probiotics are good to take on going, thats what I do.

[MelindaGayle]

Here's how I've used them:

garlic - like a suppository
yoghurt - injected it up there as well
straight probiotics - orally as well as suppository
monistat - the usual way, I guess
honey - smeared it on externally for about 5 minutes then washed it off
coconut oil - same as the honey
vinegar - took a bath in it - was scared to douche
calendula suppositories - self explanatory

My college roommate was in town and was making fun of me that it was like a grocery store down there...

[paintedfire]

I just got over a yeast infection brought on from the antibiotics I was taking for a kidney infection and now I have an ear infection for which I'm sure I'll be put back on antibiotics for.

Diflucan. Period. Monistat for the itching, but Difulcan is what cleared the stinkin' thing up.

[expat_canuck]

The only thing that ever works to clear up my yeast infections (when i'm not pregnant) is Boric Acid suppositories. I've heard different things about its safety in pregnancy, so you might want to ask your hcp. Personally, if I were in your shoes, and knowing how quickly and effectively it works for me (usually only takes one or two nights of treatment, then probiotics/vinegar can handle the rest), it might be a risk I'd be willing to deal with.

There's also a product called (if I recall correctly) Yeast Arrest that I've bought from GladRags.com but may be available at your health food store that has a bunch of herbal stuff in it that worked pretty well for me too, until I realized that Boric Acid cost so much less. Again, I have no idea if it's ok to use in pregnancy.

I had a really bad run of recurrent infections for a few months once, and one thing that helped, although it sounds ridiculous, was to shave my pubic hair - don't have to go completely bald, but it can allow more air to circulate down there. I was about at the end of my rope and willing to try just about anything at that point. I tried a bunch of stuff around the same time, but you sound kind of desperate, so I thought I'd mention it.

[CherryBomb]

Might be time for some Diflucan, if you've tried all that and it still hasn't cleared. I can still remember the yeast infection I had in my first pregnancy, it was horrific! Prescription was the only thing that would clear it up

[SteelerMom]

in addition to eliminating all sugars and foods that turn into sugar, eliminate all yeast containing foods and molds and foods that mold easily. Try apple cider vinegar? I would take diflucan though unless you absolutely want to go the natural way. Have you contacted a Naturopath?

[paintedfire]

Or depending on the type of yeast infection you have (some bacteria are more resistant than others), you could need a prescription Terconazole, which comes in both a 7-day cream and 6-day suppositories.

It's worth talking to your doctor about a culture if it continues to not clear up, as it could be one of the more difficult strains to kill off.

[MelindaGayle]

Thanks, everyone. My doctor won't do diflucan during pregnancy, so that's a no-go.

I tried a naturopath, and he's the one that gave me calendula suppositories. They worked for a couple of days, but then it came back.

Does anyone else know anything about boric acid suppositories? (safety in pregnancy). I've heard a mixed bag on those...

[cagirlintexas]

Did you doctor confirm you are dealing with yeast? just a though incase its something else then you might need to try a different cream. I want to say its bacterial vaginosis can present similarly to a yeast infection. Which monistat did you try? I have had much better luck with the 3 or 7 day versus the 1 day. Sorry I know how aweful they are. I have had two already this pregnancy.

[queenofjuly]

ok not sure if you can use it during pregnancy, but i have had success with using tea tree oil before i was pregnant. you get a tampon and put some drops of tea tree oil on the end. you can then use some sort of lube to help insert the tampon. make sure not to get tea tree oil on the outside, as it will burn but inside it does not. leave it in for a couple of hours. i was desperate and tried everything. this worked for me. i also found that the clotrimazole stuff worked for me (when nothing else did---miconazole, etc.)

[artgoddess]

Originally Posted by cagirlintexas

Did you doctor confirm you are dealing with yeast? just a though incase its something else then you might need to try a different cream. I want to say its bacterial vaginosis can present similarly to a yeast infection. Which monistat did you try? I have had much better luck with the 3 or 7 day versus the 1 day. Sorry I know how aweful they are. I have had two already this pregnancy.

This was my first thought too. OP, you've tried so much a this point I would go back to the midwife or OB and ask them to re-confirm this is a yeast problem. You may be dealing with something else.

[terra-pip]

I feel your pain...well actually not your pain...but annoyance. I had a yeast infection in April. A 3 day OTC got rid of it. Typical run of the mill symptoms. Then it came back but the discharge was green (possible TMI here) and I didn't have any itching or pain...just MW said it was really red below. She checked and said it was garderella (?) and I tried the Terconazole cream multiple times to no help. I then tried a 7 day antibiotic...nope. Still a lot of discharge and still that weird green color. No itching, no pain, no smell...just red. I'm due in about three weeks and I 'm stressing about this. What in the world could be going on here!!!?? My MW seems bewildered too...on one level she is satisfied I'm not in any discomfort, but not satisfied with the discharge...risk of thrush being the main thing or rarely, infection.

[splath]

Did you try the yogurt internally, or did you just eat it? A treatment of plain yogurt inserted into the vagina cleared mine up in two days (do it at night before bed).

[LauraN]

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[LauraN]

I went through a year of yeast infections and even now if I so much as look at sugar I get another one. Here's whatworks for me every time: Yogurt applied directly to the site as often as needed for relief AND: echinacea, vitamin C and a strong probiotic all taken three times a day. I'm not sure the echinacea is supposed to be taken long term during pregnancy, but any other immune booster will work too--I'm partial to olive leaf extract but you should check with your doctor or nutritionist about safety during pregnancy. I've always read that boric acid is not safe for pregnancy.
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[lapis]

I was once a chronic yeast sufferer and I love boric acid suppositories. I prefer the home made/pharmacy compounded suppositories but yeast arrest by vitanica is also really good. No, there is not very clear information on using boric acid vaginally during pregnancy but this (scroll down to antiseptics) seems to be the general thinking on the matter... but would definitely be worth asking your doc/midwife about. I personally, as nothing else seems to work, would feel comfortable using one or two boric acid capsules just to get things in a better place and then would do yogurt vaginally a few times a day as well as an oral probiotic such as vsl#3... which is pricy but totally worked wonders after many years of using well established probiotic companies.

and washing underwear and pants in hot w/ vinegar is also important.

good luck, I hope you feel better soon

[MelindaGayle]

so guess what worked?

calendula suppositories.

I got them from my naturopath, and they worked like a charm. He said they were safe, and I remember being given calendula oil for my newborn, so I figured I was OK. They worked great.

Thanks, everyone.