What is a Yeast Infection?

What is a yeast infection?

A yeast infection is an overgrowth of Candida, usually Candida albicans, which is a fungi (yeasts are fungi) that lives in our mouth, our gastrointestinal tract and our vagina. Most of the time, it lives in these places quite happily along with a variety of bacteria.

But occasionally the balance between the bacteria and the yeast is upset and we end up with a yeast overgrowth. These infections can be sited almost anywhere but popular destinations for the empire-expanding yeast are your mouth, skin and vagina. A number of factors can be the cause of yeast infection.

They can be tricky beasts to diagnose.

Some women with recurrent yeast infection are suffering from things such as an allergy to feminine hygiene products or semen, not a yeast or bacterial problem at all.

And repeatedly attempting to "cure" an infection with the wrong drugs and creams can lead to the area becoming hypersensitive.

Doctors misdiagnose yeast infections

There have been a number of studies over the last few years and it is quite alarming how often doctors are misdiagnosing vulvovaginal infections. The symptoms of bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, cytolytic vaginosis, trichomoniasis and mixed vaginal infections can all be very similar so it isn't surprising if doctors get it wrong when looking at what is a yeast infection and what is something else.

Of concern is the fact that many doctors are still relying on diagnostic tests that have been proven to be inaccurate a large percentage of the time.

A 2005 study¹ compared the clinical diagnosis made by doctors with the actual results from microbiological tests on swabs taken for vaginal infections. The study group consisted of 67 non-pregnant women aged 18 -45 years, who all had a clinical diagnosis of lower genital tract infection. Clinical diagnosis was made using a combination of symptoms, direct observation of wet mount, discharge, vaginal pH more than 4.5, and detection of amine odor after exposure of vagina secretions to 10% KOH.

The CLINICAL Diagnosis made by doctors was that:

• 26 women had candidiasis (yeast infection)

• 18 women had bacterial vaginosis

• 3 women had trichomoniasis

• 20 women had mixed vaginal infections

The MICROBIOLOGICAL Diagnosis revealed that, in fact:

• of the 26 women that were said to have candidiasis, 12 did in fact have Candida albicans present, whilst 9 had other organisms and 5 had no pathogenic growth at all

• of the 18 women that were said to have bacterial vaginosis, the microbiological tests revealed that only 5 had the bacteria responsible for that infection, and the rest did not have any pathogenic organisms present

The overall result was that clinical diagnoses were correct 43.2% of the time. That's less than half!

And let's face it - the doctors had more "detectors" of the infection available to them than most of us do!

The conclusion was: "that the clinical diagnosis of vaginal infection is inadequate and should be confirmed with microbiological testing if the resources are available."

So even the doctors do not always know what is a yeast infection!

Still feel confident about self-diagnosis?

Give your long-suffering vagina a break and go to the doctor and have a swab analysed so that both you and the doctor are completely sure of which bacteria, or fungi you’re battling. That really is the surest way of knowing what is a yeast infection and what symptoms are caused by one of the other vaginal infection.

Only then are you ready to think about treatment.

REFERENCES

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