yeast and the medical establishment

you're saying to yourself, yeah, all this hippie-dippie anarchafeminist do-it-yourself shit is cute, but what do doctors say about yeast infections? this is, after all, a medical problem. i want a professional opinion.

i hear you. first, check out this brief page i compiled from my recent correspondence with a real live gynecologist. second, i regularly comb the web for useful medical information about vaginal yeast infections. i used to index absolutely everything on the subject that appeared on the web, but the number of sites has exploded and hardly any of them have anything good on them. the list below gives a sampling of relatively informative sites.

a clear, well-written, and informative article about vaginal yeast infections is available -- amazingly enough -- from the US government, in the form of an FDA consumer reprint.

the Family Health website from Applied Medical Informatics has fairly comprehensive information on vaginal yeast infections. includes links to similar health problems, such as systemic yeast infections, skin infections, and bacterial vaginal infections. be warned, though, if you are looking at it with a newer web browser you will subjected to outrageously aggravating commercials across the top and in the lower corner that change every few seconds.

the University of Iowa's Virtual Hospital is a pretty impressive endeavor in and of itself, and i think their page on vaginal yeast infections is excellent.

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (of the US government) has a good page on yeast infections (thrush) in infants and its implications for child care. this is part of their site "the ABCs of safe and healthy child care", which has tons of great information on childhood diseases and child care.

Northern Arizona University's student health center has a page that contains information on vulvovaginal infections, including yeast infections, taken from the US government's Public Health Service. good, basic information. similar information is available from American Academy of Family Physicians.

the student health service at the University of California, Los Angeles also a decent short write-up on vaginal yeast infections, as does Duke University. the University of Michigan ob-gyn homepage's page on yeast infections used to be great because it recommended that you boil, bleach, or microwave your underwear to kill yeast. for some reason, they took this part out, so now there's really no reason to go there. sigh.

the Barnard/Columbia Women's Handbook has an excellent, comprehensive page on gynecological disorders, including yeast and other vaginal infections.

although they're far from being the Medical Establishment, the wimmin at gURL once wrote a fine article called "the mystery in your panties" that deals in a gross and hilarious way with vaginal discharges, including those due to yeast infections. i love it!

Columbia University's ask alice column has tackled the issue of yeast infections many times, including answering questions like "can you get a yeast infection from condom use?" and "can you get a yeast infection from oral sex?" (answer: well, it's possible.)

there's also a commercial site, the Wellness Web, that has a page on yeast infections that doesn't have any more information than any of the other sources on the web.

the University of Texas Medical Branch's medical mycology website has a tiny smidge of information on candida infections that is written for fungus researcher and so is not very helpful to normal humans. still, if you're biology-oriented or really want to be thorough, check it out.

special bonus: worst of the web

there are so many horrible websites out there these days, it's almost mean to single out a few for special ridicule. but i'm willing to i give this one the prize for the most worthless site that purports to contain useful information about vaginal yeast infections, but really doesn't, because it's sucked for years and hasn't gotten any better.

the University of Chicago's reproductive healthcare website has some information on vaginal infections in general, including yeast. the yeast page is generally fine, but it contains some pretty important misinformation: it says yeast infections are not normally sexually transmitted between wimmin and men so your male sex partner does not have to be treated. (but they DO think yeast can be transmitted between female sex partners. hmmmm.) what they don't say is that this is only true if you use condoms every time you have intercourse. if you aren't having safe sex and have inexplicable, recurring yeast infections, get your man to a doctor.