Rowan

Age at interview: 24

Brief Outline:

Rowan had recurrent thrush for two years before a six-month course of antifungal tablets resolved the issue. Despite knowing about longer-term prescriptions, Rowan found it difficult to get one prescribed as doctors treated recurrent thrush as an acute issue. She feels confident that if recurrent thrush were to return, she could resolve the issue again.  

Background:

Rowan (she/her) is a bisexual woman. She is a full-time student. Her background is white British.

More about me...

Rowan experienced recurrent thrush for two years. The issue first began after she took antibiotics for recurrent UTIs and kidney problems. At first, Rowan saw thrush as a side effect of her antibiotic use rather than a condition on its own. However, once thrush started recurring without antibiotic use, she saw it as an issue that needed to be addressed. Her symptoms occurred every few weeks and included itching, soreness, inflammation, and discharge. 

Initially, Rowan tried over-the-counter medications, but these only provided temporary relief.

With the encouragement of her partner, who is a doctor, Rowan sought out medical help. Swabs were taken that came back positive for thrush. Despite her expectation of longer-term treatment plan, as suggested by her partner, she was initially prescribed short-term treatments of pessaries or tablets by GPs.

Appointments with healthcare professionals varied, with some being thorough and helpful, and others briefer. Rowan saw a GP in person at-first and then had phone appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. After multiple appointments, she found that doctors did not explain the relationship between thrush, antibiotics, and the vaginal microbiome which led her to feel there were gaps in her knowledge. Rowan said she also felt “a bit silly” going to the GP when she could get over-the-counter medication. Looking back, Rowan wished she asked more questions to understand thrush more.

Financially, the cost of over-the-counter treatments was a consideration, especially when her income was unstable. Rowan adapted her lifestyle to manage the symptoms, including avoiding tight clothing, based on a combination of online information and her partner's advice.

Rowan said she felt stigma around having thrush, which made her hesitant to discuss it openly with family and friends. She said recurrent thrush also made her question her hygiene practices and feel out of control with her body. It also impacted her intimate life as sex was uncomfortable, but her partner was understanding. 

In terms of treatment, Rowan felt that her condition was treated as an acute issue and not as a continuous problem. This was until Rowan was prescribed a six-month course of antifungal tablets (fluconazole) which she felt addressed the ongoing nature of the issue. She did not have any thrush episodes while on the medication, and after completing this course, she no longer experiences recurrent thrush.

Rowan says that her experience has left her more informed and prepared to address any future episodes of thrush. She says that if recurrent thrush returns “I am kind of confident that I’d be listened to and that it wouldn’t be kind of minimised”. Looking forward, Rowan wonders if taking antibiotics in the future will bring back recurrent thrush but says she is “not too concerned” about this.

As advice to others, Rowan emphasised the importance of understanding and advocating for one’s health, and the need for clear communication and guidance from healthcare professionals. 

Rowan was grateful to have a GP explain every step of the swab and make sure she was comfortable.

There was like one I had in person and I kind of expected that she was going to need to take a swab and send it off, and she was... yeah, she was really lovely, she kind of explained what she was doing the whole time, like check that I wasn’t uncomfortable, all that kind of stuff, so that was really a good experience.

After making repeat appointments, Rowan was able to have recurrent thrush recognised as an ongoing issue requiring longer-term treatment and not a “discrete one-off thing”.

It was really frustrating, and obviously it’s like uncomfortable and not nice, it’s not a nice experience, so it’s kind of... and also, it’s like a little bit of an embarrassing thing to have to go to the GP and talk about and so, yeah, it was... I guess it was just kind of frustrating, and then when I’d realised like, ‘OK, I don’t think this... this is just like a one-off, you know, every now and then,’ it was then kind of I felt like the... the treatment that I was offered didn’t reflect that, that it was kind of ongoing.

So, it actually wasn’t really explained to me very well, and I think that’s perhaps because I... well, I would have... I went in saying like, “I think I have thrush,” and then they did a swab and then were like, “Yeah, you have thrush, here’s fluconazole,” and then I had some more sort of... then I had some telephone appointments, and they were like, “oh yeah, it sounds like you have thrush again,” and that was the... the same experience was just kind of treating as like a discrete one-off thing, until the last appointment where I had... I got given the... like six months worth... six months’ worth.

Rowan felt she had lost control over her body.

And I guess it is just one way in which like if something’s going on with your body, and something that’s quite noticeable like on a day-to-day basis, like if you’re dealing with symptoms of thrush, like you know about it, and if it keeps coming back, then you know about it, like it’s not nice to feel like you’re out of control with your... like you don’t have a sense of control over your body.

Rowan found embarrassment made it hard to talk about recurrent thrush.

I think it would be something that I wouldn’t feel super-comfortable talking about it. I feel like there’s quite a lot of like stigma around it, and if I was... like if I was feeling like similarly frustrated at like an ongoing like medical problem that I... and I felt like I wasn’t kind of getting the... the treatment that I wanted, or like my concerns weren’t being adequately addressed, I probably would like vent a little bit about that with like either my family, or my friends, and I kind of didn’t in this instance, not necessarily deliberately, but yeah, it’s just not something that’s super-easy to talk about.

And actually, just thinking about it, I did... so when I said... one of the times I said that I was going to the doctor’s and my mum kind of asked like, “Oh, why are you going?” and I did tell her, but I was... I was a bit like uncomfortable and I kind of... yeah, I wouldn’t have volunteered that information if she hadn’t asked, and then she kind of kept coming up to me and in like a... a hush voice being like, “How did it go?” rather than like just having an open conversation about it, because clearly it was something that she felt a little bit embarrassed by as well.

When Rowan noticed that thrush had changed from discreet episodes to an ongoing issue, she visited the GP and was given longer-term treatment.

I was only going to the pharmacy in that like initial time between first going to the GP, when I hadn’t quite figured out that it was like an ongoing thing and I thought I was just kind of having these discrete episodes, and so as soon as it became more recurrent then I kept... I went back to the GP, because when I went to the GP I wasn’t just getting like a one-off... like a single-dose treatment, I was getting like a... a slightly longer-term treatment that would then keep it like at bay for a little bit longer.

Rowan was able to find relief from recurrent thrush and hoped she would be able to manage it better if it came back.

I guess it’s like when you... when you have a cold, you don’t really notice how... like until you have a cold, you don’t notice how nice it is to be able to breathe out of your nose, so... like, and that I didn’t really think about it, but it is actually, yeah, it’s really nice, and to... like looking back on it, you’re like, ‘oh, that was like... yeah, that was not ideal,’ so yeah, it’s really nice to be... to have... well, touchwood, have solved that problem. But also, for like if it happened again, having gone through the experience once, I would know, like I would have the tools to be a little bit more proactive and perhaps to suggest that like it might be recurring a little bit earlier, than I did the last time.