Georgia

Age at interview: 27

Brief Outline:

Georgia has had recurrent thrush for the past seven years. She has tried a six-month course of antifungal medication twice, but thrush always returned after completing the prescription. Now, she is managing by taking antifungal tablets once a month as approved by her doctor and plans to do so for the foreseeable future. 

Background:

Georgia (she/her) is a straight woman. She works as an administrator. Her background is white British. Interview clips read by an actor.

More about me...

Georgia began experiencing thrush as a teenager about once a year. In her early twenties Georgia recognised that she was experiencing thrush more often and that it had become recurrent. For the past seven years she has experienced about five episodes of thrush a year, often just after her period. 

When she first began experiencing symptoms as a teenager, Georgia talked to her mum who told her “It’s really common”. Looking on the NHS website, Georgia remembers seeing a “very small section about recurring thrush”, and later realised that this was her experience. 

Reflecting on her healthcare journey, Georgia had some mixed experiences but mostly doctors were “really nice, sympathetic and reassuring”. She had a few swabs taken to confirm thrush, as well as a test to see the strain and whether the thrush was resistance to the treatment she was using, which it was not. Once during a smear test, it was mentioned that the thrush was visible and she was offered the option to reschedule if the thrush made it too painful. 

Initially, Georgia self-treated with antifungal creams. She found it easier to purchase a cream off the shelf than to get an over-the-counter option that required talking to a pharmacist. However, once thrush occurred more frequently, she switched to antifungal tablets (fluconazole) which she found “more effective”.  Georgia was then prescribed a six-month course of antifungal tablets (fluconazole). 

During the six-month course Georgia did not have thrush, but a month after completing the course, it returned. Later, Georgia went on to try another six-month course but had the same experience. The financial aspect of managing thrush was challenging. Georgia highlighted the expense of over-the-counter treatments, and said "I wish I'd known earlier that getting a prescription would be cheaper."

About a year and a half ago, Georgia agreed with her doctor to take fluconazole once a month for an open-ended period of time, instead of once a week for another fixed-term course. She now takes fluconazole about three to four days into her period each month and this has kept her symptoms at bay. Georgia was worried she might build resistance to antifungal medication where it would stop working, but she said this has not happened. When Georgia asked how long she could take the medication for, the doctor said as long as she wanted to. Georgia says she is happy to keep taking fluconazole, but is worried about future scenarios like pregnancy, where this medication is not advisable.  

For self-care, Georgia wears looser clothing, does not sleep in underwear, and uses a cold flannel to “relieve the heat and burning feeling”. She has tried probiotics and switching brands of period products but found they did not make a difference. 

Recurrent thrush disrupted Georgia’s life. She had to take time off work since it was uncomfortable to sit down. The thrush also made riding a bike uncomfortable, and as an avid cyclist this was particularly disruptive for Georgia. Cycling off-road was causing flare-ups and she stopped this activity for a while. Now with monthly fluconazole, she has restarted this activity. 

Before starting the monthly fluconazole, Georgia experienced an episode of thrush after taking antibiotics for a UTI (urinary tract infection) and was told by her doctor that this was a common side effect. Now with monthly fluconazole, she feels less daunted about taking antibiotics again if she ever needs to in the future. 

Recurrent thrush caused pain with sex, which lasted after the thrush was under control. Georgia felt that after experiencing discomfort with sex for over a year, she was “sort of traumatised” and it took her a while to be relaxed and comfortable again. In terms of support, Georgia preferred to turn to her partner instead of looking at online groups.  

As for advice to others, Georgia says "it's important to push for what you need." She also encourages others to seek medical help sooner, saying, "Don't wait as long as I did."

Georgia describes having first signs that turn into symptoms of recurrent thrush (read by an actor)

Yeah, I would say I would start to notice it flaring up probably... probably the first place that I’d think, ‘maybe I’ve got thrush here,’ would be going to the toilet, I’d be like, ‘ah, like doesn’t just... it doesn’t feel quite right, it feels a little bit sensitive,’ and then normally very quickly that would then become like very uncomfortable like in terms of like sensitive to touch, very, very itchy, and like I think I describe it as like feeling very itchy on the inside, like really burning, feeling very painful, and just really difficult to relieve, that’s what I found so uncomfortable about it, was I feel like I was just sort of like, ‘I can’t do anything about this and it’s really uncomfortable,’ but I would... and then... and then you kind of always feel it because whenever you sit down, which is a lot of the time, either like sitting on a bike to commute, or sitting on a chair at work, or sitting down at home, you’re putting pressure on that area and then it’s sort of reminding you that it’s there.

Looking forward, Georgia said that pregnancy and how it will change recurrent thrush management was “on her radar” (read by an actor)

I guess one con... well, yeah, one concern or one like worry I do have is that I know that you’re not supposed to take fluconazole during pregnancy, so I know that that’s something I’m going to have to probably, hopefully, I guess approach at some point, is what I do if I become pregnant, because I know that’s also, as far as I understand, like often people experience thrush during pregnancy, even people who don’t normally experience thrush, and so I’m like, ‘Well, I’m definitely going to get that then, aren’t I?’ [chuckles] And to be honest, I... like, I haven’t thought about it in that much detail, but I sort of know that that’s something that’s sort of on my radar as at that point I’ll have to... I’ll probably go back to my doctor and ask if there’s anything else I can do, any other treatment that I could take because I wouldn’t be able to carry on with what I’m doing at the moment, so that’s like on my radar.

Georgia found the label recurrent thrush on the NHS website which she then took to her doctors (read by an actor)

I guess the realisation that like it was a recurring thing was I remember when I first got it, when I was a teenager, and reading like the NHS webpage about thrush and reading this sentence at the bottom and it was like: “Some people experience recurring thrush,” and thinking like, ‘oh man, it must be awful to be that kind of person, because this is really horrible,’ [laughs] and then I was like, ‘oh, this is me a few years later,’ and I was bit like... I guess I’m quite an optimistic person and I just thought, ‘they’ll be some way of sorting this out, like there’ll be a treatment, there’ll be something that we can do.’

I think I just read about it on the NHS website on the... just like the... the page about thrush, there’s like a very small section about recurring thrush and if you experience it more than this many times a year, and then I sort of did a bit more, very surface-level research online about recurring thrush and realised that it was a thing that people get, but yeah, not more than that. And then I probably went to the doctor and said, “I think I’ve got recurring thrush,” so I can’t really remember whether they would have then sort of labelled it in that way.

Georgia describes experiencing a cycle of pain around sex and thrush (read by an actor)

It also... before I’d... I think like before I’d tried the sort of treatment, the longer courses of treatment, there was a period where I was getting thrush sort of every couple of months and then I was finding sex really painful, and then... I would like... I’d know that it was going to be painful, so I’d sort of try and avoid it, but then actually even like a week or so after the thrush flaring up, it’s still like... I would still find sex painful and it hadn’t fully gone, and then that caused me problems with then like... I think I then had a period of like a year or so where I just found sex really uncomfortable all the time, even when I didn’t have thrush, and I think that was probably in hindsight because I was like... because I’d had this experience of having sex whilst having thrush and it being really uncomfortable and then I sort of associated... like that sort of traumatised me a bit, and then I... it took me a while to like become relaxed again and... about like that being comfortable.

Georgia avoids sex when she has a thrush flare-up (read by an actor)

I don’t have any problems with that now, and also, I’m more like... I think I’m just more if I do have thrush, or think I might, I’m just like, ‘I’m not going to go... I’m not going to have sex,’ I’m not going to go there because I don’t want to cause any problems again, like I don’t want it to be painful and I don’t want it to be uncomfortable, whereas when I was a bit younger I was bit more like, ‘oh, it’ll be fine, like I don’t want to be the one that says no,’ you know, like... not that anyone was ever putting any pressure on me, but you just... now I’m just a bit more like, ‘oh, I’ll wait a few more days until I know the thrush has definitely gone’.

Georgia tried to balance the benefits of exercise with the discomfort of recurrent thrush (read by an actor)

I would say that’s quite tied into mental health like how like sort of general wellbeing especially I would say for me is quite tied into like being able to get out and exercise, because that’s what I enjoy doing and that’s what I’ve always done, so then if I can’t do that for a period of time then I don’t feel great, but I suppose thrush never like stopped me from... it was normally just like a day or two, it wasn’t like weeks where I felt like I couldn’t... I was... it was too uncomfortable or too painful, but it did... it definitely did like get me down because it would just disrupt like my plans, disrupt my training plans.

Also after I got into cycling off-road and realised that that was like causing a flare-up, because it’s like really bumpy, I was a bit like, ‘oh, does that mean I sort of have to decide between whether I want to do this thing that was quite fun, but then I’m probably going to get thrush afterwards?’ whereas now I’ve realised that if I keep on top of it with a monthly fluconazole then like it’s... it’s generally fine, and I do a lot of cycling off-road now and it doesn’t cause me any problems, but at the time I thought, ‘oh, that was really fun, but for two weeks afterwards I was really uncomfortable, and I’m not sure I want to do that again.’

A past positive experience with a healthcare professional encouraged Georgia to get help for recurrent thrush (read by an actor)

I think I just wanted to know whether there was anything else I could do to try and stop it coming back all the time, so I basically just went to the doctor and said, “I’ve had this many episodes of thrush and, you know, I think that this is... I’m having this... getting this more than normal, what can I do about it?” and was sort of why I went in the first place, and yeah, and then that was when I tried the sort of longer course of medication. Yeah, I think I was quite comfortable with doing that, like by that point I’d already been to see the same doctor about a UTI and got thrush as a result of that, and then I’d already been to see the same doctor about the discomfort I was experiencing having sex after having thrush, so I kind of was quite comfortable with then going and saying, “Actually I think I’ve got this thrush thing recurring like quite... you know, more than... more than most people... is there anything we can do about that?” I think I just wanted to try and sort it out, so... yeah.

I mean I think on the whole I’ve had quite a good experience. I would say that it was like really important to me that I didn’t feel like... like judged or ashamed, or like it was anything that I was doing that was making this happen, and that was quite a relief and quite important that I got that from the people that... like the doctors that I saw.

Georgia was hesitant to take antibiotics because of the chances of thrush (read by an actor)

I haven’t had to take antibiotics since that first... since I took them for a UTI that... and then got thrush as a result, and that’s only happened to me once, but I would be like reluctant to take antibiotics again unless I... I think there was one time I had like a... a really... I had like an infection on my foot, and it was like really swollen, and I went to the walk-in clinic and the person I saw there said like, “mm, it’s kind of borderline, like it’s probably just going to sort itself out, but like I could give you a course of antibiotics if you wanted?” and I was like, “Ah, no thank you, I don’t want the side effects of that,” so that definitely made my decision for me then, and if I need antibiotics again, I’d definitely be a bit... it would definitely make me think more about... because I just would assume that I’ll probably get thrush as a result because I seem to get it, you know, it seems to happen to me very easily, so yeah.

Georgia was “a bit nervous” to ask for a tablet over the counter at first (read by an actor)

I remember like the first time being a bit nervous about asking for a tablet over the counter, because before I’d always just got the cream because you could just pick it up off the shelf and then pay for it and not have to like ask for it; whereas I realised that if I wanted to try taking an oral tablet instead, I was going to have to ask for it, but like once I’d done it once, and it was fine, then I was quite happy to just go in and ask for what I wanted, apart from the times when it frustratingly wasn’t...like they didn’t have any ... and then I would have to go to somewhere else and... and then that would like delay getting it which then was a bit frustrating.

Georgia takes medication monthly after completing two six-month courses (read by an actor)

So then I went back again after the doctor, after I’d done two six-month courses, and that was about a year and a half ago and at that point I agreed with my doctor to basically take fluconazole once a month, and I said, “How long should I do this for?” and they said, “However... like, as long as you want to, you know, if you feel like you don’t want to be taking a tablet once a month, then... then stop, but basically there’s no harm in it.” So that’s what I’ve been doing, and pretty much it’s... I haven’t had... yeah, I would say I’ve probably had three times in the last year where I’ve thought outside... so I normally take the tablet just after my period finishes, once a month, and there have probably been three times in the last year where I felt like I might be getting thrush outside of that monthly cycle, so I’d like, oh, I’ll take a tablet now instead and then that sort of keeps it at bay. So generally, I feel like it’s under control, but I’m taking fluconazole once a... once a month, and if I don’t then it normally just comes back, and that’s where we... and that’s where I am now.

Georgia was unsure about next steps but felt well-supported (read by an actor)

Yeah, and I... I felt like the last time I went and asked about, you know, whether there were any reasons why I shouldn’t keep taking fluconazole in the long term and what my options were, and the fact that like it was a bit frustrating initially that after the six-month course didn’t work, nobody really knew what to suggest for me, but then the fact that my doctor said, “Well, I’ll go and like find this out for you and then come back to you,” in some ways that was quite nice because I felt like they were actually trying to help me rather than just sort of turning me away with no solutions. So yeah, I definitely felt like well-supported and I’m not really sure if there’s anything I would have... that would have made it better other than like I guess like more... more understanding like of thrush in general that might help with... with better treatment, but in terms of the sort of... my experience has generally been positive, yeah.

Georgia said that they had accepted recurrent thrush similar to “bad period cramps” (read by an actor)

Yeah, I guess I’ve just sort of... I feel like I’ve just accepted that is like... a bit like I get quite bad period cramps, like that’s just... I feel like that’s something I’ve just accepted that that’s something I experience, so I just want to work out how to like best manage that, rather than... I think I’ve sort of given up on the idea that I’d ever be able to get rid of it and never experience it without taking any kind of treatment or anything.

Georgia described Internet research as “a bit of a minefield” and preferred to stick to GP advice (read by an actor)

I think just after a while of like reading different websites and different, you know, people describing their experiences, I just realised that everything was so... saying so many different things that I sort of stopped paying that much attention to it because there seemed to be... I guess I found it reassuring to read that other people had had the same experiences that I had, but I wasn’t reading too much into like, ‘oh, you should... should do this, or shouldn’t do this,’ or... yeah, I... I don’t think I was expecting to find loads of... loads of information, so I wasn’t disappointed by a lack of information, but I also tend to try not to look up stuff like that on the internet because I feel like it’s a bit of a minefield and just sort of stuck to asking my GP for advice.

Georgia recommended seeing a healthcare professional about getting on a longer-term course of antifungal medication (read by an actor)

So yeah, probably like if... if someone was experiencing recurring thrush and was only managing it by like trying to... you know, trying to manage the symptoms every time they got it and so that it wasn’t so painful, I would sort of... I would definitely like share that from my experience going to see my doctor and taking this medication, these tablets for it has like made a massive difference for me, and so I would probably advise someone else to do that if they felt comfortable doing that because like for me it just... it’s made a big difference not like... not worrying about it, now I’m generally like confident that it’s not just going to spring itself on me at any moment, and that’s a nice feeling to have; whereas before it was like always sort of like around the corner was like another flare-up of thrush to worry about, so yeah, I think that’s it probably.