Ayesha
Ayesha has experienced recurrent thrush for four years. She has visited numerous healthcare professionals and feels she was taken less seriously as she kept returning. Ayesha is currently seeking private healthcare and hoping to get answers.
Ayesha (she/her) is a straight woman currently in a relationship. She works in learning and development. Her background is Pakistani.
More about me...
Ayesha first experienced recurrent thrush in 2018 after being treated for a UTI that required 12 rounds of antibiotics. Since then, Ayesha’s thrush symptoms have been “constantly there” for the past 4 years, but that she sometimes becomes “more symptomatic” than usual.
Her symptoms include itching and a change in discharge which makes her feel “gross”, “uncomfortable”, “raw” and “sore”. While on her period, Ayesha finds that her symptoms alleviate and that this is a brief “sigh of relief”.
Ayesha feels there is a clear version of her before and after her health issues. She now experiences anxiety and feels “not as confident” and is “quick to doubt”. Ayesha’s hobbies, like swimming and going to waterparks, have also been affected. Further, recurrent thrush has impacted Ayesha’s sex life. Although her partner is “laid back and very understanding”, she feels it’s not something he “signed up for”.
Ayesha is anxious talking to doctors and nurses as she fears not being taken seriously. She first went to the GP when she had “enough of the symptoms”. Ayesha has also seen sexual health practitioners and found them “friendlier” but still lacking “knowledge”.
Over the last few years, Ayesha has been swabbed “over five or six times”. The results often come back “barely there or negative”. Ayesha says this makes her worry her symptoms aren’t “real” or all in her head. Ayesha feels the attitude of GPs was “you’re fine, please go away and stop wasting our time”. Ayesha feels her doctors take her “less seriously” as she returns with the same issue. Ayesha uses self-testing kits which reassure her that her symptoms aren’t all in her head. However, she says the test kits are “very temperamental” and can show “evidence” of thrush one week but not the next.
The online information Ayesha found about recurrent thrush was “quite contradictory”. She discovered many suggestions from others with thrush – many of which Ayesha has tried, with mixed results and some which she now thinks were “quite dangerous”. To manage her symptoms, Ayesha uses coconut oil and tea tree oil baths and suppositories but finds “long term they don’t help”. When she can access it, Ayesha buys probiotics from France. She also cuts out sugar and foods containing yeast from her diet.
In 2020, Ayesha sought out private remote care from a GP in the US after finding an expert online. Ayesha felt she was “believed the first time”. This physician provided a microflora test which revealed that she was resistant to fluconazole. Ayesha was then prescribed boric acid for two weeks and a maintenance dose twice per week along with probiotics. Ayesha reported that this treatment plan worked for a few months but then “stopped working”. While private care helps Ayesha “massively”, the cost is a “struggle” as she must work a second job.
Ayesha struggles to talk to family and friends about recurrent thrush and feels “quite alone in it”. She worries that others will associate thrush with “bad hygiene”. However, when she has opened up, others have been “supportive”. Ayesha also follows people on social media who have similar issues, this makes her feel “more seen”.
Currently, Ayesha awaiting a MicroGen test from her private GP that she is hopeful will provide more answers about her vaginal microbiome. Her advice for healthcare professionals is to actively listen and empathise with patients and run diagnostic reports. She wants other patients to know that they are not alone and that this condition is real.
Ayesha liked using self-testing kits, but was aware that they were not always reliable.
Ayesha liked using self-testing kits, but was aware that they were not always reliable.
I felt more confident in the self-test kits than going to a GP or a nurse, because every time they did a swab they said, “It’s fine,” so I wouldn't get any sort of treatment or help from there, so the tell... the test kits kind of showed me that it was what I was thinking, but they were still very temperamental. One week I could do one: I'd have evidence for what I was feeling. The other week it would be the other way. So, they weren't entirely reliable, but at the time they gave me the reassurance that I needed that it wasn't in my head.
Ayesha tried acceptance meditations to cope with recurrent thrush.
Ayesha tried acceptance meditations to cope with recurrent thrush.
But yeah, the anxiety around it, I just try and meditate and just... I do like [laughs] acceptance meditations to just try and like accept that this is reality rather than trying to find a solution, because I think I would have found a solution by now with how hard I've worked towards one, so I just try and accept that this is reality.
Ayesha has sometimes had to stop during physical intimacy with her partner because of discomfort, and worries about her symptoms getting worse afterwards.
Ayesha has sometimes had to stop during physical intimacy with her partner because of discomfort, and worries about her symptoms getting worse afterwards.
So, there’s anxiety lead... leading up to it, thankfully, and quite fortunately, I’m at a point where we’ve got a very kind of open communication channel where we just... we can stop at any time and it’s OK and if... if we didn’t have that... that type of intimacy for a quite a while, because of that reason, it would be fine, but I think I still carry that guilt around me that it’s because of me again that we can’t connect on that level.
But yeah... afterwards, my head is whirring, ‘do I feel any symptoms; is it getting worse; am I going to be OK; oh, I should have brought this with me so I could insert a suppository right now, just to kind of fight it.’ If I have sugar on the same day as intercourse, I’ll beat myself up over it because I’ll tell myself that I’m the reason that I’ve made it worse.
Ayesha enjoyed waterparks but felt preoccupied worrying about recurrent thrush.
Ayesha enjoyed waterparks but felt preoccupied worrying about recurrent thrush.
Hobbies: I like kind of being in the pool. So, I... things like waterparks, I know they're meant to be for kids, but I love them. If I am going to go, it’s a big deal now because I'm like counting down the seconds as to have long I've been in a wet costume, or I'm counting down how quickly I can run and put a suppository in so it... so it takes away that kind of... that free kind of fun time that should be yours to just enjoy and relax, those moments are always taken over by having to manage my symptoms.
Ayesha accessed a private GP and felt very well supported.
Ayesha accessed a private GP and felt very well supported.
I was believed the first time and it looks like they've... I think like you as well, just dealt with so many women who have like the same problems and the same issues, and because they're so knowledgeable around it, they can identify the patterns and come to a diagnosis much quicker.
Yeah, so I have a lot of anxiety around talking to doctors and nurses, or being in those healthcare settings, because of these preconceptions of, ‘I won’t be taken seriously, I won't be listened to, or supported, so why am I here?’ So yeah, I... I... I try and... this is why I kind of work my two jobs now because the second job allows me to pay for all the private care, and I feel like I trust in that just a tiny bit more than public, because at least with the private, they're dealing with more desperate people like me, so they might have more experience and more options.
Ayesha was repeatedly prescribed single doses of fluconazole.
Ayesha was repeatedly prescribed single doses of fluconazole.
So, I thought they would... have seen this time, have seen this a million times before cause of how common it is, I thought they would know exactly what was going on. I thought that after prescribing me fluconazole for like the fourth, fifth time, somebody would have realised, ‘OK, this is not working, and there needs to be more testing done here to figure out what’s going on,’ or to at least understand the wider picture as to why I’m so susceptible or vulnerable to them, but there was no kind of support.
Ayesha said that online advice about natural remedies was not always helpful.
Ayesha said that online advice about natural remedies was not always helpful.
Yeah, I remember some... I remember one being like... to... get a like... was it... a few spoons of like plain yogurt and to like insert it inside and just to leave it in for as long as possible, but I don't know, that’s... I don't think we should be putting anything inside our bodies like that. And then there was kind of... or was it... I think it was like rubbing garlic down there as well or something, I could go forever with all the different weird and wonderful things they advise on websites, that sometimes even will have the word ‘health’ in the website name, so when you're younger you're more kind of influenced to thinking that’s kind of medical advice.
Most of the information online doesn't make much sense. It’s quite contradictory. It’s misleading, and some of it’s quite dangerous. I've tried the majority of the things online. Some of them have made me feel a worse. Some of them have caused me to react, and some of them, looking back, were just really stupid, but when... I know when you're desperate enough you’re... you're willing to try anything, especially when you feel like it’s just you and you can't go to anybody else.