Hey guys this week's video is all about thrush and more specifically vaginal thrush so we're going to
talk about the symptoms? the causes? we're going to talk about lifestyle advice on preventing it
and treating it? as well as the treatment options are available? as well this video
is going to be jam-packed full of information so as i mentioned this video is going to have
loads of information so it's probably going to be quite long so if at any point you want to find
any specific information the good news is the entire video is chaptered if you click on the
description below you'll see the different chapters of information feel free to click
on it and watch that section however i would always recommend that you watch the entire video
and become a bit of a pro on the topic so let's begin with what is vaginal thrush the best way to
understand this to begin with is we have germs all over our body and inside our body we have
germs that are friendly for example for example in our stomach we have friendly bacteria which aids
the digestion of certain types of foods and also we have different types of germs that when they're
at a normal level they're harmless but if they multiply rapidly and grow they can cause us some
harm and symptoms now one of these germs which is specific to vaginal thrush is a fungus and it's
a family known as candida candida loves warm moist and airless environments and the vagina
is a great place for this now candida is found on the skin and in the vaginal region as well
when it's at normal levels it's harmless but again like i said when it multiplies and grows
rapidly that's when it can start to cause us some symptoms and problems so vaginal thrush
is known as a common yeast infection most women will have it at some point in their lifetime and
it can be unpleasant and comfortable but the good news is they can be treated by speaking to your
pharmacist or your other healthcare professionals are available now in most cases you don't usually
need a test to diagnose vaginal thrush certain times if someone's getting recurrent vaginal
for example it might be done but in usual cases just from symptoms alone a diagnosis can be made
now it's important to remember please just from the symptoms i'm going to discuss
now you shouldn't be making a diagnosis of vaginal thrush you should be speaking to a healthcare
professional to make this so they can ask you the right questions so you can possibly examine you
if it's needed just so they can make the diagnosis we shouldn't be making these diagnoses on our own
that's why it's important that you speak to your health care professional the common symptoms of
vaginal thrush i'm gonna have a little box appear here feel free to press pause on the video give it
a read check if any of them apply to you and if they do you do need to speak to your healthcare
professional that's really important that you do so okay so now firstly to begin with we're going
to talk about preventative and lifestyle measures that can help with thrush i'm going to do it in
this order first because i feel like most people will probably gain more benefit from learning of
these first because these are things that you can do at home and then afterwards we're going
to talk about treatment that you need to speak to your pharmacist or health care professional about
which are usually prescription treatments so we're going to talk about them next so for tip number
one when showering use water and an emollient soap substitute to clean the skin around your vagina
and that region but avoid cleaning this area more than once a day you don't want to be over washing
moving on to tip number two it's also important to protect that region it's a very delicate region
and applying a thicker greasier moisturizer on that region several times a day can also
really help tip number three is all about avoiding irritants because certain soaps for example the
perfumed ones they can cause irritation certain wipes can certain vaginal deodorants can so all
of these can potentially cause irritation in the region and also then cause thrush as a result of
it certain shower gels as well to be aware of can cause irritation usually all the perfumed
ones cause irritation tip number four is all about wearing looser fitting clothing if you're
wearing really tight clothes this can sometimes make thrush worse or make the symptoms worse or
even exacerbate symptoms or even give you thrush potentially due to all the chafing and movement in
that region remember it's all about loose fitting clothing loose fitting underwear this is all
really going to help moving on to tip number five you need to avoid using biological washing powders
and fabric softeners again these are all irritants also moving on to tip number six probiotics
unfortunately there's no real evidence supporting probiotics for preventing thrush so please don't
waste your money on them tip number seven please remember that thrush is not a sexually transmitted
infection however if you are having a lot of sex friction can increase your risk of getting thrush
so please remember this that if your natural secretions are not enough and it's not lubricated
enough then look at buying some lubricants that could help with this and reduce the friction but
also please remember after having sex make sure to wipe and dry the area also this is really
important for preventing thrush tip number eight certain medicines can actually increase your risk
of getting thrush for example probably the most common one is antibiotics antibiotics obviously
kill the bacteria they don't cure fungus and certain bacteria in that region do stop the
the fungus from rapidly increasing so if we had antibiotics and it's taken got rid of that
good bacteria that's preventing the fungus from increasing it can suddenly multiply and cause
thrush so if you are someone who takes whenever you take antibiotics for example you get vaginal
thrush speak to your healthcare professional about it let them know when they're prescribing it
they may prescribe you some other medication as well to take in case you are going to get
vaginal thrush and tip number nine there are certain other medicines that can increase
your risk of vaginal thrush as well so if you are taking quite a few medicines
this is a great opportunity to maybe speak to your pharmacist or your other healthcare professionals
to get their advice on as well and see what they think please do not stop any medicines
that you're taking that you've been prescribed always first be to your healthcare professional
okay so i hope we're getting somewhere now we know all about the tips the lifestyle stuff that we can
do but the next thing i want to discuss to you are the treatment options and there are many different
treatment options that you can purchase right out of pharmacy or a chemist here in the uk so let's
talk about how it works so first of all i'm aware that obviously vaginal thrush the conversational
thrush can be a little embarrassing at times especially in a chemist when there's other
people there so if you ever want to have a private consultation or a conversation with the pharmacist
just ask them if you can speak to them privately in the consulting room every chemist here in the
uk has a private consulting room where it will just be you and the pharmacist so you don't need
to worry about other people hearing it there's doors in it it's closed it's all private so no
one else can hear it so i really want you to remember that because i don't think a lot of
patients are aware of this so it's good for you to know that okay so when it comes to treating thrush
we need to treat it with anti-fungal medication and it usually comes in four different forms when
we're looking at treating vaginal throat so first of all one form is a pessary for example it's like
a bullet shaped tablet and it's inserted into the vagina another form is what we call intravaginal
creams again it usually comes with an applicator which inserts the vagina and the cream is squeezed
in it also comes in a tablet form that you can take orally and it also comes as a normal cream
that you can apply around the area so here's the important bit this is one of the main reasons
why you need to speak to a healthcare professional first obviously they need to make sure that you're
safe and suitable to use that medication because these medicines interact with loads of medicines
first of all and also they need to make sure that you're safe and suitable to use it so that's one
of the reasons why you need to speak to healthcare professional but also they need to understand your
symptoms whether you're having internal symptoms external symptoms so for example do they need to
treat the thrush internally so do they need to use a pessary or the intravaginal cream or a capsule a
tablet or is it just external symptoms of itching for example where a cream can just be used or is
it both where they need to use both so these are one of the main reasons why you need to speak to a
health care professional so they can give you the correct treatment to give you the best outcomes
really they also need to check how often you're having switch because this is a really important
question and it might mean that you might need further investigations or you might just speak
you need to speak to your doctor or other healthcare professionals so as we mentioned
vaginal thrush is very common in women most women will have it at some point in their lifetime
as we mentioned earlier that yeast candida is all over the body on the skin and it's usually
something that causes it to multiply and then cause vaginal thrush now certain people are at
a much higher risk of getting vaginal russian it's quite a big list i'm going to try and fit it all
here for you the information so at this point in the video feel free to pause it give it a read and
see if any of them apply to you now if you've had thrush before and you think you've had it
again you can obviously purchase over-the-counter medicines to treat it again always do get your
healthcare professional involved in it this is really important just so they can question
and ask how often you're getting get whether there's something underlying that's potentially
causing it now there are also other reasons why you should speak to a healthcare professional
so it's again quite a big list i'm going to leave it here a big list of it have a read to it these
are all the different reasons why you should seek medical attention for vaginal thrush if any of
these apply to you please do speak to a healthcare professional don't just go out there and buy these
treatments and keep masking these symptoms when they keep coming back for example so there's loads
of different reasons why you should speak to a healthcare official these are really the main
list on when to seek medical attention so that's the end of this week's video i hope you found this
information helpful we now know all about vaginal thrush why it happens we know about candida we
now know all about preventative and lifestyle tips that can help prevent thrush and can also
help with symptoms slightly as well and we know about the treatment options are available and the
importance of seeking medical attention so you're a bit of a pro when it comes to vaginal thrush
i really hope that you found this information helpful please do leave some comments below i'd
love to read i'm sure people watching this video would too on anything that you find to be quite
helpful as well and as i always say at the end of every single week's video always remember you're
awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
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