Thrush is a common fungal infection that you can get on your tongue, mouth, or genitals. If you get an oral Thrush, it will cause white patches that can cover both your mouth and your tong. Genital Thrush, on the other hand, can cause a thick discharge that is white in color coming from the vagina or penis.
Oral Thrush mostly affects babies and older adults, as well as people on specific medications such as inhalers or similar oral treatments. Genital Thrush usually affects women (no matter the age range), but men can get it, as well.
Causes of Thrush
Thrush is a fungal infection that occurs when Candida yeast, which is present all the time in your body, overgrows. While Candida is usually harmless, when in warm and moist settings – such as the genitals or the mouth – it can multiply at a much faster pace than normal. When this happens, the body can no longer keep it under control.
Many things are triggers for Thrush. This includes certain medications (antibiotics are the most common one), wearing tight, synthetic underwear, as well as having sexual intercourse. While sex is a trigger for Thrush, experts and doctors don’t consider Thrush a sexually transmitted infection (STI) because sexual intercouse doesn’t actually cause Thrush. As the yeast is present in a healthy human’s body, it isn’t truly passed from one partner to another. Just because you’ve had sexual intercourse with a person who has Thrush, doesn’t mean you’ll get it, as well.
How Long Does Thrush Last?
How long a yeast infection will last depends entirely on the severity of the infection, as well as the type of treatment used. Some can clear up in just three days, but most infections take one or two weeks to clear up completely.
When the infection is mild, you might not require any treatment whatsoever, and it can clear itself up in as little as three days. However, most of the time, you’ll need a treatment for Thrush – or, rather, the biggest number of people prefer getting treatment so they can get rid of the infection in a shorter amount of time. Usually, it will take you one or two weeks to get rid of the infection.
When it comes to the treatment options, there are many prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) options. Both are effective in both clearing the fungal infection, as well as calming the symptoms.
To get rid of Thrush, you’ll need to lower the amount of Candida in your body. This is mostly done with some anti-fungal medication, and one of the most common ones is Fluconazole. This is a pill that comes in one-dose, and it prevents Candida growth.
While treating Thrush, another thing you want to take care of are the symptoms, since most of them can be rather uncomfortable. Most of the time, this is done either by internal pessaries, tiny capsules that you insert inside your vagina, or external creams. Of course, pessaries are intended for women, while men have to use creams.
Both pessaries and creams are made to calm the itching and soreness that come with the Thrush infection. They’ll soothe the gential area until the infection entirely clears. Some of the popular medications include Diflucan, Canesten, and Gyno-Daktarin.
