Dear all
I hope you have all been well. I met quite an interesting profile of patients the last few weeks and one constant issue among all of them was they needed help with their Diabetes because it was affecting their marriage.
Some of you might be wondering how this is possible so today we shall discuss on recurrent vaginal infections among patients with Diabetes
Diabetes and vaginal infection
Uncontrolled Diabetes is associated with a number of issues and one of them is recurrent vaginal candidiasis. Vaginal candidiasis is a fungal infection of the vagina which can happen for many reasons. Some of which are:
- During your menstrual cycle
- If taking an antibiotic
- Low immunity due to another infection
- Uncontrolled Diabetes
- Pregnancy
It presents with a white curd like discharge (maziwa lala) that is mostly itchy and can cause pain during sexual intercourse.
Vaginal candidiasis is very common and studies from the USA shows it’s the second most common vaginal infection. A study done in the Antenatal clinic in Thika District hospital in Kenya shows that more 90% of ladies had the infection.
Uncontrolled Diabetes causes a lowering of your immunity and therefore puts one at risk of recurrent fungal infections.
Is candidiasis sexually transmitted?
NO. This is where the marital issues begin. A woman gets recurrent vaginal candidiasis and their partners already start accusing them of having extra marital affairs. This is absolutely not correct.
We all have the fungus on our mucosa and skin. In the vagina specifically we have good bacteria and this fungus growing naturally. When ones immunity is affected there is normally an overgrowth of the fungus leading to the candidiasis infection.
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