Symptoms of Thrush (Vaginal)
With vaginal thrush, women may have pain when urinating or during sexual intercourse. The main symptoms of thrush that they experience are typically vaginal irritation and a thick white or watery vaginal discharge is also common. However, the symptoms of thrush are not limited to these.
The commonest symptoms of thrush include:
- Vaginal discharge (this is usually thick, adherent, non-smelly, creamy white, but may occasionally be watery).
- Itching, tingling, discomfort, burning or irritation.
- Redness, around the opening of the vagina and may involve the inner thighs in severe cases.
- Sometimes the symptoms are mild, transient and self-limiting.
Many women presume that any form of vulval or vaginal irritation or soreness is due to thrush, but this is not necessarily the case. Equally, the temporary relief of symptoms by over-the-counter remedies does not confirm that the symptoms were caused by thrush.
50% of women treated for Vaginal Thrush do NOT have Thrush”
Symptoms of thrush can mean something else
Vaginal Itching is often diagnosed as thrush even though research has shown that 50% of these cases are not vaginal thrush! This mis-diagnosis leads to confusion and desperation and to beliefs that the thrush problem cannot be resolved. There are many other things that can have similar symptoms of thrush. It can be:-
- An allergic reaction – You may be allergic to soaps, wipes, feminine products and even your partner’s semen.
- Increased vaginal discharge – The volume of vaginal discharge may increase due to several factors such as; the pill, pregnancy, most times the increase may just be physiological.
- Dermatitis of the vulval skin – This can be localised or part of a generalised Eczema condition.
- Over production of vaginal acid – Increased vaginal acid can irritate the vaginal skin often causing intense soreness & burning of the vagina and surrounding area.