interesting link on how we may be suffering from a low grade, undetectable yeast infection

This is really interesting and makes alot of sense:::

http://www.empowher.com/yeast-infection/content/dr-marjorie-crandall-yeast-infections-candida-allergy-and-vulvodynia

A copy of part of the article:::

"""Dr. Marjorie Crandall: Yeast Infections, Candida Allergy, and Vulvodynia
October 3, 2008 - 12:58pm

By Marjorie Crandall, Ph.D.

The typical woman with vulvar pain recently had yeast vaginitis and was treated with an antifungal for a short time. After her severe symptoms of itching and vaginal discharge resolved, she was left with vulvar redness and burning.

I propose that this residual inflammation can be due to yeasts remaining in vulvar and vaginal tissues.

During an active infection, yeasts invade underlying tissues and penetrate inside epithelial cells, where they stop growing, but continue to release yeast digestive enzymes and toxic metabolic products that cause chronic tissue irritation. I coined the phrase latent intracellular yeast infection for this condition.
This Article


The medical term for this low grade yeast infection is chronic atrophic erythematous candidiasis, in which atrophic means not feeding, not growing; and erythematous means red tissue. The textbook example is the red, burning gums of people with false teeth, called denture stomatitis. Such an inactive yeast infection can also account for the red, burning vulvas in women with vulvodynia or vulvar vestibulitis.

You are probably wondering how to diagnose this latent intracellular yeast infection. Since yeasts are in the tissues and not on the surface, vulvar and vaginal swabs will give negative results when tested by microscopy or culture. Furthermore, there are too few yeasts to show up in biopsies. Hence, the diagnosis of the red form of yeast infection is based strictly on clinical signs and symptoms, history of vaginal yeast infections, and risk factors that cause candidiasis.

• long term, daily treatment with a systemic antifungal
• hydrocortisone cream for vulvar burning
• testing and treatment for Candida allergy
• avoiding all risk factors for yeast infections such as antibiotics, estrogen, etc.
• lifestyle changes to avoid contact dermatitis caused by spermicides, deodorants, etc.

Your recovery from vulvodynia after following all my recommendations will confirm your diagnosis of an inactive yeast infection.""

You can find the rest of it on the EMPOWERHER website

thanks for this.

i always seem to have the white cottge cheese in between the big labia and small labia lips.

i wonder if this has anything to do with the pain

Lavrose, this is really interesting. What's weird for me is one time I did have thrush, after the vulvodynia had started, and the pessary and cream completely cured me! Like felt nice and pain free. Three days later it was back and no thrush treatments worked. This time when they swabbed for thrush it came up negative. But this does feel like a really bad internal yeast infection. Will have a read of the article, thanks for sharing!

I searched the forum for the word "infection" and this topic immediately caught my attention. Hence the *bumb*.

I think this undetectable yeast infection is exactly what resulted in my vulvodynia. I've had minor yeast infection symptoms all my adult life, but no itching or any burning or uncomfortable sensation that would have actually made me go to a doctor and get it fixed. It was always there, a slight nasty and unclean feeling. I just lived with it and kept sure I washed my bits regularly (I only recently heard that washing can result in dry skin which can make things worse down there).

I can't help thinking that if I had simply realized that I had this chronic yeast infection in my system, and if I had aggressively sought some medication for that, I might have not ended up with this... This miserable axe wound between my legs. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do to cure my vulvodynia at this point, but the next time I go to a gynecologist I will have to bring up this issue with chronic yeast infection. It's not enough to figure out how to deal with the pain if there's an invisible underlying problem.

have you had any swabs done to check for infection?
I've read stories of ladies who had chronic yeast infection and then vulvodynia as a result, and many of them found relief/cure so I'm sure you will get better

I don't really have any advice cause I am also new to this. you can read up on some of the posts by the others and they give great advices on how to relieve the pain!

that post was for chacha XD

It's actually a little bit funny that I've been checked for yeast infection many times. Every time I went to see a gynecologist for one reason or another, they noticed that I've got a slight yeast infection. They gave me some over the counter medicine, but the infection always came back. I was unable to explain to my doctors that the infection really seemed to be a chronic thing and something that was hard to get out of my system. In the end I was trying to get help for vulvodynia, but whenever I went to see a doctor they just told me "oh, it's only a yeast infection. Hang on, I'll give a you prescription for something that'll fix that. You'll be right as a rain".

I had no idea that yeast infection could wreak such havoc in a woman's body if it goes unnoticed and untreated. To me it seemed such a harmless thing, especially since it didn't cause me enough discomfort to make a big deal out of it.

Hmmmm maybe you can consult Dr Marjorie Crandall over the phone, i think she will give you some advice and advice on what to tell your gyane/find the right gynae. I've seen posts by others who did consultation with her and it seemed to help them! you can check this out: http://www.thecandidadiet.com/forums/topic/please-help-desperate-vaginal-burning-87/

Her phone consultation isn't that expensive so I think it's worth a try esp when you think you have chronic yeast infection

Thanks for this, it makes complete sense to me and confirms what I had been thinking.
I was diagnosed with vulvodynia and given amotryptaline to try. These just made me feel awful so I stopped them. At the same time was given a 7 day course of fluclonazole for burning, these 20% helped my symptoms so back to Doc and got another 7 day course and bingo! I feel like a new woman. I have since took two more fluclonazole tablets that I bought from an online pharmacy for a fraction of the cost, and use clotrimazole for topical vulval use along with coconut oil in between times which is very soothing.(Sainsburys Lucy B, 100% organic, £5.99 a jar)
I am convinced that vulvodynia is related to Candida Infection. I am still having burning and pain but my symptoms have eased hugely.Interestingly, I never had a discharge or itch which you would associate with thrush, just the burning feeling, which could be misdiagnosed by a doctor, I suffered for 4 months before before stumbling upon fluclonazole!
Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Hi bbloggs!

Do you mind sharing how your symptom started? And where are your affected areas? Is it provoked or constant pain?
Thanks

BBloggs1 wrote:Thanks for this, it makes complete sense to me and confirms what I had been thinking.
I was diagnosed with vulvodynia and given amotryptaline to try. These just made me feel awful so I stopped them.  At the same time was given a 7 day course of fluclonazole for burning, these 20% helped my symptoms so back to Doc and got another 7 day course and bingo! I feel like a new woman.  I have since took two more fluclonazole tablets that I bought from an online pharmacy for a fraction of the cost, and use clotrimazole for topical vulval use along with coconut oil in between  times which is very soothing.(Sainsburys Lucy B, 100% organic, £5.99 a jar)
I am convinced that vulvodynia is related to Candida Infection. I am still having burning and pain  but my symptoms have eased hugely.Interestingly, I never had a discharge or itch which you would associate with thrush, just the burning feeling, which could be misdiagnosed by a doctor, I suffered for 4 months before before stumbling upon fluclonazole!
Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Oh and did you get any swabs done while having vulvodynia?

My symptoms started with a urine infection, and two courses of antibiotics, refered to urology as my pain at first did feel like it was coming from the bladder and urethral area, and did have ct scan and ultrasounds scan and numerous urine cytology and blood tests and a vaginal swab which had all came back negative! after 16 weeks of pain, and feeling very ill, the fluclonazole start to make a difference. I remain convinced candida is linked to this awful debilitating pain. Maybe it causes nerve damage? the pain is interestingly worse at night when I am at rest, still burning in the vulva/vaginal and urethral areas and not provoked, although much more manageable now. I have stopped using mini pill to see if symptoms settle, the contraceptive pill is a huge trigger for thrush also, will give it 3 months and see.

My Gyno told me that the discomfort we feel during a yeast infection is not actually caused by the yeast itself, it's caused by the immune system's reaction to the yeast. The immune system is the one that causes the discharge (to try and flush the walls of the vagina) and the inflamation is actually part of how the body heals.

I am still convinced there is a strong yeast connection though.

Has anyone tried Boric acid to balance the PH?

Hi I think this is the cause of my V Vestibulitis. It makes perfect sense, I had chronic vaginal yeast infections for 2 years, I finely got rid of them and now I'm left with VV, the VV infact started after a very severe yeast infection. Now I am always negative for yeast, but the symptoms are very similar to when I had the yeast infections. From my research so far it seems that many people with VV had yeast infections before it started- I have noticed a pattern.

Has anyone tried Dr Crandals protocol? anyone from the UK who tried it and found a gynaecologist who was open to following the protocol?

Thanks

I'm not sure how to reply correctly,especially what I am supposed to be in the Post title box! You had posted back in January so you may not even see this but if so...omg reading your story was almost exactly my story, with the exception that I am I'm sure older then you and I was also diagnosed with vaginal atrophy. Last Nov. 1st, 2015 I woke up with frequent urination that continued for 2 days. Never had a UTI in my life! Fast forward...I was diagnosed with overactive bladder, vaginal atrophy, ecoli UTI's and nothing was helping. First couple months was constant urge to urinate and burning - that was horrible - probably untreated UTI's because dipstick test always negative in lab, but finally cultures showed positive. I have been in burning pain and irritation (like an infection feeling) and i could never tell if it was my urethra or my vagina. Long time thought it was my urethra but Urologist said that looked good from premarin cream. Had 2 cystoscopies, blood work, etc etc all normal. Even saw a specialist to see if I had interstitial cystitis. FINALLY last week went back to Gyno and she diagnosed vulvodynia - even though Qtip test was not painful it is very red at vaginal opening and in that whole area. (I just posted new topic about Q tip test not hurting) Finally last few nights got relief from lidocaine saturated in cotton ball and placed at vaginal opening to sleep with at night. Burning is better, but I still feel like there is an infection somewhere! I'm also on cephalexon daily to prevent UTI's. So when I read your post it was like an AHA moment and I'm wondering if I could have undetected candida yeast too? I am going to try to treat it naturally first because I don't go back to Gynecologist until May 6th. Anything you could share if you see this, would be great! Thank you so much!

BBloggs1 wrote:My symptoms started with a urine infection, and two courses of antibiotics, refered to urology as my pain at first did feel like it was coming from the bladder and urethral area, and did have ct scan and ultrasounds scan and numerous urine cytology and blood tests and a vaginal swab which had all came back negative! after 16 weeks of pain, and feeling very ill,  the fluclonazole start to make a difference. I remain convinced candida is linked to this awful  debilitating pain. Maybe it causes nerve damage? the pain is interestingly worse at night when I am at rest,  still burning in the vulva/vaginal and urethral areas and not provoked, although much more manageable now. I have stopped using mini pill to see if symptoms settle, the contraceptive pill is a huge trigger for thrush also, will give it 3 months and see.

I still feel like this could be what I've got! Because I do have thrush-like symptoms (although no itching or discharge but the occasions I've had thrush it only burns anyway) Canesten used to work fine for me until perhaps I became resistant to it or something? Has anybody tried the anti-candida diet? I met a lady who said her body hurt all over, she said her skin was always tender and sore and achey if anybody touched it. She eventually tried this anti - candida diet (I don't know a huge amount about it but I'm assuming it'd be like no sugar etc) and she's been pain free ever since! Her skin is no longer sensitive and painful.

Same. Same to everything. I cut out carbs completely for 2 months and basically only ate vegetables and meat and cheese. I even cut out fruits bc sugar. TBH, it didn’t work. I tried convincing myself it worked but it didn’t. Im so desperate for help at this point. My theory is that this happened to me bc 1- I’m hypersensitive to yeast and 2- birth control aggravated it

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