Saturday, 19 April 2014

Can Probiotics Help to Prevent Vaginal Thrush?



A few months ago I developed a terrible vaginal yeast infection. It was such a horrible experience and I would not wish it to happen on my worst enemy. I was on holiday at the time in Greece and I think it must be a combination of different factors including dehydration and poor hygiene.


I started noticing a painful discharge from my vagina and my sex life was completely ruined. I didn't have any friends or contacts in the local area and I could barely speak the local language. Needless to say, I didn't want to go to the local hospital - it was just simply totally embarrassing.

It took a long while for me to get back to normal with the right medical treatment. After my recuperation, I started to do some research into vaginal thrush and natural remedies can help. After all, I don't want to take pills or medicines and they don't work unless there is an active infection taking place. Inappropriate antibiotic use can in fact increase the risk of yeast infections and thrush!!

Then I looked into probiotics and surprisingly, they can help in preventing vaginal thrush and other infections. Vaginal thrush is caused by a fungus called Candida albicans, which can reside naturally on skin and vaginal surfaces. However, they are normally harmless and grow alongside other bacteria on the surface.

However, factors such as poor hygiene, scented soaps and dehydration can all lead to an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria. This can lead to an overgrowth in the population of Candida thus exacerbating vaginal problems. Probiotics help to solve the problem by optimising the balance of friendly bacteria in your vagina, hence reducing the ability of Candida and other harmful bugs that can grow in your vaginal passage.

There are some health products that can help and are proven to prevent thrush, such as Yeastrol. You can read about my personal experience with Yeastrol
here.