Beth Sarah

Age at interview: 35

Brief Outline:

Beth Sarah has had two experiences with recurrent thrush. The first time she had recurrent thrush, longer-term antifungal medication resolved the issue. However, the second time, a longer-term prescription did not help and ultimately thrush only resolved once her contraceptive coil was removed. Beth Sarah has seen multiple healthcare professionals and stresses the importance of self-advocacy. 

Background:

Beth Sarah (she/her) is a straight woman. She works as a Psychiatry Occupational Therapist. Her background is white British. Interview clips read by an actor.

More about me...

Beth Sarah has had two experiences with recurrent thrush, one aged 30 years-old, and one aged 35 years-old. She said her first experience was relatively straightforward where she went to the GP and got a six-month course of antifungal tablets (fluconazole) which resolved the issue. However, in the last year the recurrent thrush returned and another six-month fluconazole prescription did not help. Over time, recurrence of thrush became more frequent and severe, occurring every couple of weeks. Her symptoms included discharge, itching, and what she called “background irritation”.

Beth Sarah found it difficult to discuss recurrent thrush and did not tell her friends for six months until her discomfort led her to cancel plans with friends and isolate herself. The discomfort of recurrent thrush impacted Beth Sarah’s mood as she felt more irritable and would cry often. Recurrent thrush also made it difficult to focus at work. 

Recurrent thrush also had an impact on  Beth Sarah’s intimate relationships. After passing thrush back and forth with her partner, they ended up avoiding sex for three months which put strain on their relationship. 

Financially, Beth Sarah estimates spending close to £2,000 on treatments for recurrent thrush. Looking to save money, Beth Sarah began buying antifungal tablets through an online chemist where she could get multiple tablets for a lower cost. However, this retailer stopped selling her medication because she was buying them all the time and would need a prescription for this which she was later given. However, even when on a six-month course, she continued to experience thrush. Working in hepatology, Beth Sarah also worried about not being given any blood tests to check her liver while on longer-term fluconazole.

Beth Sarah visited multiple GPs in the search for help. During her first experience with recurrent thrush, she also saw sexual health practitioners. Seeing the same doctor was difficult, so Beth Sarah estimates seeing seven or eight different doctors and found it hard to repeat herself. Beth Sarah sometimes felt like she was overusing services, especially after one nurse made her feel like she was overreacting about an itch. This experience made her feel “like rubbish”. Beth Sarah had swabs taken which came back positive for thrush.

Over time, Beth Sarah found that seeing a healthcare professional was been challenging. It was difficult to schedule a doctor’s appointment due to staff shortages following the COVID-19 pandemic at her GP practice. This led her to rely on online consultations through an app named “Push Doctor”. While Beth Sarah found these online consultations helpful, they also had limitations, such as the inability to perform examinations or take swabs. Due to these limitations, the GP on Push Doctor put in a request for her to be seen in person and referred her to a gynaecologist. The GP on Push Doctor also suggested that Beth Sarah look into the link between the contraceptive coil and recurrent thrush.

Beth Sarah went to see a GP in-person but found information was lacking. This GP shared her own experience of living with recurrent thrush and having a coil which Beth Sarah said was “helpful in some ways, but not in another way”. Beth Sarah said it was reassuring to hear she was not alone, but felt that the doctor was in the same situation of taking longer-term fluconazole and not having any more answers.

In terms of treatment, Beth said she would take an antifungal tablet on a Sunday, a pessary on a Wednesday, and every day use the antifungal cream as prescribed. She tried cutting sugar out of her diet but found this unhelpful.

When Beth Sarah saw the gynaecologist, she was told to stop taking longer-term fluconazole and to remove her coil which she did. Once the coil was removed, her recurrent thrush went away. Beth Sarah was relieved by this, but was disappointed to have to give up a birth control option that suited her. She was also curious as to why the first time she had recurrent thrush at 30, it was resolved without removing her coil. During this appointment, she was also given a barrier cream for dermatitis which she has found helpful. Beth Sarah wondered if the dermatitis was due to overuse of antifungal creams.

After recurrent thrush stopped, Beth Sarah said it took some time to get rid of the worry that any itch would lead to recurrent thrush. It also took time to rebuild intimacy with her partner.

Looking forwards, Beth Sarah is cautiously optimistic that recurrent thrush has resolved. She encourages others to be persistent with healthcare professionals and to self-advocate. 

Beth Sarah says that it feels like the thrush never goes out of her system but is “always kind of there” in the background (read by an actor)

It was just discharge, itching before, then I would treat it, it would probably go for... it would take a couple of weeks to go, I’d feel like I was just getting somewhere and then it would... it would come back really, really quickly, and the only way it was... I could keep it like on a... I knew it was there, that I can’t explain it, but like it just felt like it was always there in the background, there was a bit of a background kind of itch, or irritation, but it was kind of manageable if I was kind of taking the weekly medication.

Beth Sarah found it difficult to manage recurrent thrush while on holiday (read by an actor)

I had like a really bad experience, so it was when the six months of medication was coming to an end, but I was on holiday when it was coming to an end, so I rang the GP practice, said, “What... what do we do now because it’s not gone because I’m getting it in between the doses,” so I tend to be... so I took on a Sunday and I tend to get... start to get the symptoms back on Wednesday, so I just said, “oh, what can we do, are you able to prescribe me a little bit more just to at least see me through until I get back from my holiday?” and the doctor said, “No, we can’t do that, you need to return from your holiday and see if it comes back,” and I was like, “But I’m telling you it... it’s coming back in between sessions.” So, then I was off the medication for a little while and it came back, you know, really badly and that just kind of prolonged my distress and discomfort.

Beth Sarah was sceptical about paid programmes advertising to help manage recurrent thrush (read by an actor)

I did find somebody who was doing research on... I say ‘research’, they... they did something on... and it was on Instagram, and they were like offering this programme of how to manage it, but it... it just made me think it was a bit of a money-making scheme that... I just thought, you know, if I can’t find the information out there that’s concrete, how is this person selling a £400 retreat for like teaching you now how to manage it, but no... no like support groups or anything like that I saw. And it did kind of appear, so I’m only on Instagram, that there was like... there was like a hashtag that may be start... was starting to get used, so it felt like that might be something that would be coming in the future, or there was like networks kind of, you know, starting to form now.

Beth Sarah used an online video consultation service offered by her GP practice (read by an actor)

I wasn’t able to get in with my GP because of the... the situation with, you know, staff shortages, Covid, and everything like that, so it was a massive challenge, so this time I was self-medicating and paying for it myself for probably three months before I actually managed to speak with the doctor properly, and even then I was having to use... it’s called ‘Push Doctor’, which is like an app, so there wasn’t enough GPs in my practice, so I was only doing it through like video calls, which was quite frustrating because no one could actually test me or do anything about it, and it was only when I’d seen by accident, say, a Push Doctor a couple of times and he was just like, “We can’t go on like this,” so he sent a special request to my GP, which kind of prompted them to see me, and he also put a referral into gynae, so he really got the ball rolling for me.

Beth Sarah said a nurse made her feel she was overreacting and that this led her to continue feeling “over the top” about recurrent thrush (read by an actor)

Yeah, it was just a lot of feel... feeling like... I felt stupid a lot of the time, like I was being over the top about it, but you know, trying to do your job while you’ve got... you’re getting driven insane by the itching and you know it is something that’s not going away, it just kind of felt like the buck was getting each time, then: “Oh, well come back in a couple of weeks’ time.”

I really remember having one appointment with the nurse the first time I had it, and it was really like she was just kind of suggest... made me feel like I was overreacting, and then having the multiple appointments where I wasn’t getting anywhere, that’s... so it made me feel like I was overreacting.

Beth Sarah had tried various durations of longer-term treatment for recurrent thrush (read by an actor)

So, my first experience was relatively straightforward: got thrush, kind of was treating it myself, went to the GP, they prescribed the course of fluconazole, took that for six months and it... it cleared up, I never had to go back or anything; I had it the odd time after that, but nothing... nothing bad. And then the most recent time was last year, it started, so it started kind of flaring up little bits so... which I was managing to treat by myself and then I realised that it had slipped back up to the reoccurring thrush, but this time it’s been a lot more difficult to... to manage, so I... I ended up being on two courses, so it was basically a year of fluconazole.

Beth Sarah received mixed messages from healthcare professionals about using antifungal medication longer-term (read by an actor)

Then when I started going to my actual GP practice, the... there was conversations, but there was a GP who kind of gave their personal experience because they’d had the same thing, which was helpful in some ways, but not in another way, and it was a lot of mixed messages of what it could be, how it should be treated. Like one GP said, “Oh no, you’re fine to be on this medication,” and another GP was slightly more concerned about it, and then when I actually went and eventually saw gynaecology, they were just like, “Get off that medication, you shouldn’t have been prescribed it for this long.”

So, the... the first GP that I spoke to that said, “Don’t worry, I’m not... I’m not too worried about you being on it,” said, you know, “you’re young, you’re healthy, you’ve... you’ve got no like counter-interactions,” but the gynaecologist just said it... you know, “It metabolises in the liver, you shouldn’t be taking it for more than six months,” and that’s why he said, “can get off it.”

After removing a contraceptive coil, Beth Sarah no longer had recurrent thrush and was working on feeling comfortable again (read by an actor)

It’s... yeah, God, it’s amazing. Like, looking back at how bad it was and just like... I was just crying all the time, I was distressed all the time, I felt terrible all the time, and it’s been a bit of a... I would say in some ways like a slow process out of it in some ways, you know, feeling... feeling better, you know, me and my partner feeling comfortable with each other again and things like that, there’s... there has been some things that have taken longer.

I wouldn’t say I’m still working through them now... there was definitely a bit of a kind of a mental connection like, you know like... and probably still now really, like if you get any kind of itch, it’s like, ‘is it back?’ things like that, and not knowing like... and worrying that like... will I spot the symptoms, will I know what it is, worrying that it will come back and it won’t have been the coil. Like I said, it was me and my partner kind of slowly feeling comfortable with one another again and, you know, feeling like we could be intimate and it wasn’t going to make anything worse between us, or like, you know, we weren’t going to pass anything, but yeah, I’ve managed to not have it at all since.

Beth Sarah understood why her doctors were suspicious of the information she had found online, but really wanted to find some answers (read by an actor)

So, I think I must have spent hours of my life researching and trying to find bits of information, so I kind of did quite a lot of it, but then picked the things that came up the most from the most reliable sources. But having said that, when I actually saw like the GP, or gynae, they just completely dismissed everything that I... I’d learnt.

So, I think that that’s... that was the hardest thing, is not anyone telling me or giving me any kind of definitive information or advice, other than stop Googling things, which I do... I know it can drive you insane, like reading everything, but without anyone giving you clear advice of what to do – that was kind of what I was left with.