A small percentage of women often find that a yeast infection cure actually makes their yeast infection worse. Fluconazole is an oral antifungal drug prescribed by doctors to kill the mutated Candida Albicans yeast which is the common cause of vaginal yeast infections. However, the result of treatment is not always as expected.
Fluconazole works by breaking down the fungus that is causing the infection so that it can no longer survive in the human body. The problem with this type of treatment, and with any other type of antifungal treatment, is that once the treatment is finished, there is nothing to stop the fungus from re-infecting you if your body’s natural defenses are down.
Your body’s immune system and friendly bacteria colony are your body’s natural defenses against bacterial and fungal infections. If these are weakened in any way, the fluconazole you take will not cure your yeast infection. Once you stop your treatment, the yeast infection will easily recur. Everyone swallows Candida naturally when they eat. In a healthy person, this is not a problem. Stomach acid kills yeast and beneficial bacteria take care of what goes into the intestines.
Friendly bacteria are also needed to keep your immune system strong. So if your intestines are low in friendly bacteria, then they can’t protect you from yeast reinfection and they can’t strengthen your immune system, so the yeast infection doesn’t take long to return.
When it returns, it is usually worse because the antifungal drug will weaken your immune system and will also have an effect on the levels of beneficial bacteria. When your body gets used to the drugs that fight infections, it becomes dependent on these drugs, so it stops fighting infections naturally.
Your infection will also get worse if the fungus has been exposed to fluconazole before. When fungi are exposed too often to the drugs that are there to kill them, they develop a resistance to them. This resistance causes the fungi to mutate into a stronger strain that becomes harder to kill and causes worse infections.
Another reason these antifungal medications make yeast infections worse is because more women use them without their doctor’s guidance. They are readily available online to buy so women buy them when they want and wear them how they think they need to.
You need your doctor to tell you how to take them and for how long. Sometimes you only need one dose, or you may be on the other end of the scale and need to take them for weeks. Only your doctor can give you this information, so it is important that you consult your doctor before starting to use these medications. It will make the difference in under or over exposure of yeast to these powerful drugs.
Once you get a resistant yeast in your body, you may end up taking medication for a long time when you are trying to cure an infection that should have cleared up in a few days.