More Causes of a Yeast Infection in Women
By knowing and understanding the potential causes of a yeast infection in women, it makes it much easier for us to take appropriate measures to reduce our chances of contracting yeast infections. Also it may help you in identifying your specific yeast infection symptoms and selecting the best possible treatment.
Causes of a Yeast Infection
Candida Albicans (Also known as Candida Stellatoidea or Oidium Albicans) is the opportunistic fungus that causes genital & oral yeast infections. Candida refers to a specific type of yeast and Albicans (White Body in Latin) refers to microorganisms that live in the body.
Once yeast infections begin to form in the body, it can spread fairly rapidly. The main reason that yeast infection symptoms will appear and spread so aggressively is the fact that it also attacks your immune system. These attacks weaken your body’s ability to defend itself against the infection and further accelerate the spread of your infection.
The extended use of birth control pills, steroids, antibiotics or Penicillin (Also known as PEN or PCN) has been known to significantly enhance the risks of yeast infection in women. It is thought that reason for this may be that these treatment / medications also attack the good bacteria found in the body.
Yeast Infections are also often associated with unprotected sex. The main reason for this is extremely possibility of contracting an infection from your sexual partner if he or she already has the condition. There are other factors relating to sexual conduct that may also increase the risk of yeast infections. Examples of these factors may be the use or spermicidal creams, lotions or lubricants that are not pH balanced. These may upset your body’s own internal pH balance and thereby create a breeding-ground for yeast to grow. The frequent use of non pH balanced products could impact your body’s internal balance enough for this sudden growth of yeast to result in an infection.
Remember now, pH balance is our friend. Anything that may upset your body delicate balance raises the risk of having yeast infection symptoms.
You may be surprised to hear that even your favorite G-String and any tight fitting, figure hugging, outfits could also be one of the contributing causes of a yeast infection in women. Actually we need to be cautiously aware of any clothing items (no matter how delicate) that may intensify or accumulate perspiration. This could also affect our body’s delicate pH balance and is a very common cause of vaginal yeast infections.
Any changes in the chemical balance of a woman’s vagina may the dreaded Candida Albicans bacteria to rapid grow and spread. Yeast infection can also occur in the mouth and is then referred to as oral candidiasis or thrush, the however is most commonly found in infants. Oral thrush usually affects the cheeks & tongue and presents symptoms in the form of white patches. These mouth sores are often extremely sensitive and quite painful resulting in great difficulty eating.
As women we have approximately a 75% chance of experiencing a minimum of one vaginal yeast infection in our lifetime and more than 50% of us will have to deal with this more than once. For this simple reason I would strongly advise you to learn as much as you can about the causes of a yeast infection in women. Knowledge is after all; power and if you have suffered a yeast infection yourself you’ll understand that prevention truly is better than cure.
I sincerely hope that you are one of the very fortunate few that never have to deal with this problem, but just in case you aren’t I’ll soon be adding a few tips on yeast infection treatment as well. Holistic approaches to treatment and prevention have been shown to provide the best results.
Please feel free to refer to our other articles for more related information about causes of a yeast infection in men and yeast infection in women.