My daughter is a freshman in college & she went to a small school 5 hours from home. She just turned 18, diagnosed at 14 as a high school freshman. She's been at college since August. Since Sept, she's been battling a yeast infection. I've read some online about women with T1 getting these & having a hard time getting rid of it, but this is the first time she's had the problem.
If I look up info, the first thing I see is: "a sign of uncontrolled diabetes." That's scary. I think her blood sugar is probably running a little higher now that she's managing things entirely on her own, but I don't think she's out of control. I really looked over the food options on campus & they're not bad at all, but she has to make the right choices. I think she may be eating more carbs & possibly high fructose corn syrup & things that I had cut out of our diet.
She's also been a little bit stressed, besides just getting used to college & being "on her own" because she broke her wrist at softball practice & she had a roommate she wasn't getting along with. Just about have those 2 things fixed now. I've read that stress can also be a factor for developing yeast infections (besides affecting BG).
So, she's tried over-the-counter stuff. She got a prescription for 2 Diflucan because we read that T1s often need a double dose. That cleared it for maybe a week & it's back.
So my question is: what do you recommend for treatment? What have you tried that works? --Forgot to add that I've given her probiotics, so she's taking those too.--
Also, should I be worried that her blood sugar might be running pretty high due to the evidence of the yeast infection? Or is it ok to believe that there are several factors contributing? Besides, I can't do anything about her BG from here! I keep telling myself she'll have to learn better controlif that is what's causing the problem. I mean, she'll learn the hard way if this doesn't clear up. (Back on Diflucan & over-the-counter again currently).
I was diagnosed T1 at age 18 in 1961 & I suffered with yeast infections off & on until maybe I reached menopause, Obviously in those days there were less effective treatments. In the end what worked best for me was something called Nystatin. In the end I also found that taking showers not long hot baths helped a lot & no tight trousers. I don't remember doctors telling me it was uncontrolled diabetes, in those days 60s & 70s, no BG monitors, who knew, they just implied it was a something diabetics got. Sorry this is not very encouraging.
I had a yeast infection for about three months before diagnosis. i kept going back to the pharmacy because id get rid of it and within the week it would be back-so frustrating. as soon as i got insulin and blood sugar was under control, i was able to get rid of it.
saying that, i have had one post diagnosis, and it took a couple of back to back treatments to get rid of.
good luck to your daughter with the rest of her first uni year and i hope she can rid of the pesky thing soon. it must be frustrating being 5 hours away and not able to check up/help her. has she got a doctor there that she can go to while shes there?
This can happen to me when I "roller coaster" too many days in a row. Meaning, several severe highs followed by severe lows. It's one reason I am so motivated to stay in control. I HATE yeast infections, LOL. As for prevention, other than the obvious keeping good bg control, I eat at least one carton of low carb yogurt every day. The active cultures tend to keep the ph balance in my body pretty stable. Hope this helps.
Yes it's probably mostly from the high bg's. I found the best priobiotic are the pearls. They seem to keep things in check. Since using them I haven't had an infection. If she's really uncomfortable have her try using coconut oil for the itch. Coconut oil is great for lots of skin irritations.
Hopefully she'll get it cleared up with this treatment then. She does have a school nurse who happens to have a daughter with T1 so I've told her to go check with her, but I think she's hesitating because she hasn't been to a doctor by herself to discuss things like this.
Yes I've been pumping for 18 years now and it has helped with the roller coaster significantly. I've been a loyal minimed/medtronic pumper. I will admit, college was the toughest time for me. Stress, scheduling classes, etc. But, the pump would have helped me, I think, with crazy eating habits, and funny schedules, etc. All I can say is, good luck and I've been there. Let me know if I can help in any way. Us girls/D's stick together.
Yes. I have had yeast infections on and off even when I was in good control so having said that she need a scrip from an ob or other doc to kick it out of her. It’s just her hormones and the stress of a new life . I’ll get them and then it clears up then out of now were for no apparent reason it’s back . Tell her as soon as she feels it coming on get the antibiotic on board and head it off at the pass. When she does get a scrip they should write it for a few refills and she can just grab it when she feels the first symptom . We can’t do the crandberry juice and other remedies that would head it off at the pass. Being t1’s. Good luck to her .
I'm basically the same as her- diagnosed at 14, go to college away from home, but I'm a sophomore. My control has actually improved since I started at my university. I have a very steady routine and I'm much more active, which helps a lot. I have the same issues as her, they seem to come and go as they please with no real correlation to my A1C. They started when I began birth control pills. Who knows… Also, make sure she has good razors, I find that I get a lot of staph infections, probably from sharing close quarters with hundreds of people.
Good advice about the razors! Makes me feel slightly better that these can just occur whatever blood sugar is -- & that you've improved your control. I think she's going to learn to stay on top of things better, but it's going to take a little while.
If it's not responding to treatment I would guess it is high bg. I had a very severe yeast infection directly before dka and one two years prior to that, as well as numerous yeast and other related symptoms for years which were diagnosed as another condition, diabetes was never even considered, but it was the main cause of it all. My a1c was 13% at diagnosis. They wanted to treat with diflucan while I was in dka but I declined and I haven't had a yeast infection since then, once bg was normalized, or as normal as possible, a lot of my symptoms, although not completely gone got much better. I was already post menopausal from early meno from type 1 when this happened-, high bg alone can cause it regardless of what is going on hormonally. Do you know what her a1c is? Eliminating wheat and gluten may help her too as well as any foods that she notices irritate her. Loose clothes, drink lots of water, showers only, change clothes and shower after any exercise, don't sit on communal exercise equipment etc., no soap or anything except water to wash etc. may also help her. Hope this helps :-)
Good advice from everyone. Probably multifactorial, but high sugars (maybe even slightly high) can affect.
We are watching my daughter (she's nearly 6) for possible early diabetes. Her blood sugars are only slightly high (latest Hba1c was 5.6). But we know for sure that within 12 - 24 hours after she eats sweets (candies, deserts) she will have irritation of her vagina and be complaining of pain...
On the diflucan, it may be necessary to take a longer course than just 1 tablet. When I had yeast infection of my breasts (during early breastfeeding), I had to take 1 tablet per day for about 3 weeks (take for 5 days after there are no more symptoms).
I understand for recalcitrant thrush a dose such as 1 tablet every second day until there are no symptoms for 5 days can be used....
Somehow, her A1C stays around 7. This summer, before she left for school, it was 7.4 I think. We're switching to an adult endo at Christmas break. The A1C doesn't seem like a great measure to me, because I know her numbers bounce all over the place. I'm thinking she must be having more highs now. She uses Novolog & Lantus. She only checks BG 4 times a day & she takes her Novolog after she eats - guessing at the carbs. Could be that her blood sugar is rising pretty high before the Novolog kicks in.
