yeast infection

Most commonly seen vaginally, secondary to a change in the natural flora. Antibiotics, intercourse, change in hormone levels and diabetes can predispose to yeast infection.

In the really immune-depressed (AIDS or steroid users), you can see skin and oral yeast infections (thrush).

If the discharge keeps coming back and is a little on the green side, maybe it is your protozoan pal, trichomonas.

Yeast is a type of fungus. It grows in harmless quantities in the vagina, bum hole, mouth and all over your skin all the time. Right now your a big walking yeast infection waiting to happen. The vagina, a wonderfully moist and warm place, is the ideal place for yeast growth to get a little out of hand and to the point where the discharge can irritate the delicate and sensitive tissue. It's no big deal. The only things that are bad about yeast infections is that they are annoying, gross looking and nobody can lick your vagina because they could get the fungus in their mouth, which is called Thrush.

If you notice you get a whole bunch of yeast infections all the time these simple steps could help. Cut down on sugar and get healthy. Dont wear nylon underwear or tight pants. Wipe your bum front to back so you dont pull bum stuff, which includes yeast, into your vagina. Acidophilus, also called, lactobacillus is available in health food stores is one of the good bacteria and helps keep your vagina clean. An acidic douche, some water and vinegar, is useful because the more acidic the vagina the better when it comes to yeast infections (i believe lactobacillus also makes your vagina more acidic). Dont have sex during a flare up because it will make it way worse. Remember it's no big deal, just life.


info from my own personal research because when I was 17 this girl i was with got a yeast infection and told me I gave her some sort of terrible STD and I was like hold on a second slugger lets do a little looking around

Rather Embrassing episode to relate:

Protector of Mankind is right, all people have benign yeasties all over them all the time. Everyone, everywhere, is covered in them, but they usually don't do anything but sit there, minding their own business.

When I moved to Okinawa, Japan, my yeast wasn't happy at all. Okinawa is an extremely warm place. Okinawa is a tiny little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so it's humidity is always above 90%. Always

Well, my yeast got kind of out of control in that area normally protected by my boxers. Red, itchy, burning: Bad juju all around. I thought it was some sort of rash. I sure wasn't going to seek treatment for it. What do you say, "My balls itch?"

So I just put up with it, for about two months. It wasn't that bad. I didn't scratch in public any more than I usually do. It didn't slow down my sex life at all, so I wasn't real concerned about it.

When my wife got a real Yeast Infection, she got some medicine. Being a good Corpsman I knew all about yeast, and being an Idiot I decided to smear it all over "the boys."

It worked wonders. Of course the cream took care of it, that's what it was made to do.

Moral:
If your testicles itch, go buy some yeast infection medicine. No one will guess that it is for you, and maybe it will help. It can't hurt.

Unless you get caught...

Not commonly known is that yeast infections are, among other things, an STD, and that men can get yeast infections. While not commonly transmitted via sexual contact, yeast infections, technically known as Candidiasis, can be spread to the penis or mouth in this manner. Symptoms in men are similar to those in women: itching, irritation, slight discharge, sores on the glans and foreskin, and appearance of a "white cheese-like material" on the glans. In oral candidiasis, creamy, white, painful patches develop in the mouth. Treatment for either variety can include application of antifungal creams or oral antifungal drugs.

In addition to the advice already given in this node, women who've had trouble with recurrent yeast infections should try the following things:

• Try switching to a laundry detergent that is free of dye and fragrance. These things can irritate your skin and spark a yeast outbreak.
  
  
• When you wash your undies, wash them in very hot water to make sure they're not harboring yeast. Give them an extra rinse cycle to make sure you've got all the detergent out. Do not, however, heat your undies in a microwave. Some women's magazines in the past suggested this as a way of killing off lingering yeast, but this can cause a fire.
  
  
• Avoid bubble bath; it, too, can cause yeast-promoting irritation in one's nether regions.
  
  
• Condoms can cause irritation in some women that can start up a new yeast infection. Since AIDS and herpes are quite a lot more serious than yeast, doing without condoms is often not an option. But you should try different brands if you suspect they might be the cause of trouble. But the real culprit might be your lube: lubricants that contain glycerin are known to promote yeast. Look for a brand that is glycerin-free. Also, if you're not using latex condoms, you might try olive oil; there have been several reports that it can help ward off yeast infections.
  
  
• In addition to avoiding sugars and refined carbohydrates, try drinking lots of grapefruit juice and/or eating grapefruit. Women who've had success with this method say that it takes about a grapefruit a day to keep the yeast away. It's unknown whether it's a matter of acidifying one's system or due to a substance in the grapefruit juice (as is the case with cranberry juice fending off bladder infections), but the stuff seems to do the trick for a lot of women. Other citrus fruits don't seem to work nearly as well. One side effect of this dietary change seems to be the tendency to get canker sores in acid-sensitive people.

In response to lara68's writeup below: be careful.

A lot of websites lead you to believe boric acid is perfectly harmless; it isn't. Full-strength boric acid may cause irritation on regular skin; prolonged exposure to regular skin can cause inflammation and rashes. Applying said powder to a delicate mucous membrane might be a bad idea for many women.

There is a small body of research that indicates that boric acid (specifically 600 mg -- about a half-full gel capsule -- inserted intravaginally twice a week) may help women with infections that are unresponsive to other medications. However, insufficient research has been done (see http://www.ama-assn.org/special/womh/library/scan/vol_3/no_23/stdcom2.htm). Miconazole is readily available most places, so if you've got a garden-variety infection, it seems safer to use that drug instead of a chemical that could potentially give you a nasty internal rash.

Boric acid toxicity references: http://www.camd.lsu.edu/msds/b/boric_acid.htm, http://www.sas-centre.org/trace/tracepages/boron.html, and http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/0024fact.pdf

Women with nonrecurrent, once in a blue moon vaginal yeast infections might want to try boric acid suppositories. You can make them yourself using 00 gelatin capsules (available at many health food stores and boric acid powder (available at most pharmacies. One of these every twenty four hours for a few days should make the vagina acidic enough to kill off the yeasties.

If you're not sure whether or not it's a yeast infection, you should probably see a doctor before attacking it.

I'm sure I read this in Our Bodies, Ourselves, but it must have been an older edition because I can't find it in the current one.

Tea tree oil applied with a cotton swab will clear up a yeast infection in your belly button.