Is my nurse stupid?

[lonestaryella03.livejournal.com]

Can someone pelase tell me why after convincing my SO (and myself) that I had given him my YI before I got treated and that he gave it back to me AFTER my meds (I didn't think about getting him any meds), that my OBGYN's nurse tells me that men CAN'T get YI's or BV because it CAN'T be sexually transmitted. So are the pictures of oral thrush, and the websites that feature home-remedy type treatments for men with YI's a figment of my imagination?

Comments

[mercurywingspan.livejournal.com]

sounds like stupid to me.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

There are all sorts of ways to get yeast infections and thrush, sexually transmitted or otherwise.

That said, your doctor might need to talk to his/her nurse. The nurse is missing valuable information.

[lonestaryella03.livejournal.com]

yea, thanks. either my OBGYN or his nurse will be calling me back today. Hopefully HE does so I can ask HIM about that...

[neaira.livejournal.com]

Your icon just sent me into a complete laughing fit, which then turned into a coughing fit because I'm sick. XD

[lonestaryella03.livejournal.com]

Lol, sorry :)

[neaira.livejournal.com]

Hehe, don't worry about it. It was totally worth it.

Maintainer Note - Font Bolding

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Hi there. Could you please edit your post so that the text is in a standard font size/color? For more information on why it matters, check out this section of our FAQ: http://www.vaginapagina.com/faq.php#ReadyToPost

Thanks!
Melissa
-For the VP Team
contact_vp

Re: Maintainer Note - Font Bolding

[lonestaryella03.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming you are referring to fact that it's bold. So I guess it's been fixed.

Re: Maintainer Note - Font Bolding

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

The nurse is definitely incorrect. Men can share those infections and pass them back and forth... it says so right here in our handy YI FAQ (http://community.livejournal.com/vaginapagina/5865641.html). :)

[in-my-frame.livejournal.com]

wrong? yes. stupid? probably.

yeast CAN be transmitted - she should go back to nursing school.

i swear, 96% of nurses i've ever dealt with need to go back to school.

[autumn-sylver.livejournal.com]

I know. It surprises me how stupid nurses can be sometimes. I'd be scared for my life if I was ever in the hospital with a serious condition.

[photobooth15501.livejournal.com]

That may be true in your experience, but they also have a very demanding and often thankless job. In the Op's case the error is pretty much inexcusable, but just for the record; a lot of nurses are really great.

[photobooth15501.livejournal.com]

Check out this link http://www.msu.edu/user/eisthen/yeast/men.html

[lacrimose.livejournal.com]

Yes, they were stupid, becauase the same thing happened to me. My boyfriend and I kept passing it back and forth until we were both treated.

[besttocomply.livejournal.com]

kurt halsey has my heart.

[robynchick.livejournal.com]

Men can and do get yeast infections. They are commonly known as "jock itch" which is the non-medical name for a fungal infection of a man's genitals.

[smallstar.livejournal.com]

I'd like to go on the record as disagreeing with almost everyone who has commented here, and say that I don't think your nurse is stupid. :)

Now, to be clear, it is possible for men to get penile yeast infections. They cause a red rash, with itching and pain, and it's called "candidal balanitis" (picture (http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic67.htm#target3)). However, it's not surprising that your nurse didn't really think about that, because penile yeast infections like that are relatively rare - usually seen in men who are on antibiotics, or who have a medical condition like diabetes that weakens the immune system.

I'm assuming that your SO doesn't have an actual irritating rash on his penis that's going untreated, so what you're talking about is the idea that the yeast from your infection might have been transferred to him completely without symptoms, and then moved back to reinfect you after you finished your treatment. Despite what all those home-remedy websites might say, this whole concept is quite controversial in the medical world, and has never been scientifically proven to actually happen. In a way, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeast like warm, moist environments, so the surface of the penis isn't really a yeast-friendly environment. Maybe a few yeast could hide out under the foreskin or just inside the urethra, but you'd think that regular urination and cleaning under the foreskin would take care of that. Also, even if there are somehow some lingering yeast on his penis and they later get into your vagina, that shouldn't really be a big deal. Yeast commonly hang out in the vagina, and most of the time they don't cause an infection. Yeast infections happen when the balance of bacteria and yeast in the vagina gets really out of whack - the bacteria die off and the pH gets disrupted and the yeast grow out of control, and that's when you get the symptoms. So just putting some yeast into the vagina shouldn't really accomplish anything - more likely than not, simply having intercourse is more disruptive to the vaginal environment and may trigger an infection regardless of whether the guy has yeast on his penis or not. Both vaginal yeast and BV reflect an unbalancing of the conditions inside the vagina, which is why health professionals commonly say that they can't be transferred to men (seeing as how men don't have vaginas to get unbalanced, after all... and the yeast/bacteria involved don't usually like to live on or in penises). In summary, your nurse is not on crack.

Having said all that, despite any convincing medical rationale or evidence, there is a ton of anecdotal evidence out there where women say they successfully treated their recurrent yeast infections only after treating their asymptomatic partners for yeast. I have no explanation for this, but it clearly exists. So, my personal opinion is that if you're having major problems, it certainly doesn't hurt to try treating the male partner to see if that might help.

[so-gracefully.livejournal.com]

i was reading about this recently, and (i wish i still had a link) read that rather than, like, hanging onto a yeast infection from a female partner and then reinfecting her with it, a male might develop one due to exposure to the excessive yeast triggering his own body to overgrow it (although this happens rarely, like smallstar alluded to). i'm not really explaining it well, but it's a different concept from "catching" a yeast infection in the way we think of catching a viral or bacterial infection, so that could be the issue with what the nurse said.

also, oral thrush can be acquired a zillion ways other than oral sex with someone who has a yeast infection, and that's probably one of the least common ways to transmit it, anyway! just throwing that in.