Thrush

Thrush is a common infection caused by an overgrowth of yeast (Candida albicans). Candida is a yeast that lives with us and normally doesn’t cause us any problems.

The most common place where we see thrush is in the vagina giving symptoms such as itching, soreness or a cottage cheese-like white vaginal discharge. There are a number of common causes for this for example something irritating the skin (such as a perfumed product or sexual intercourse), recent antibiotics or a pregnancy. Advice, treatment and test kits for vaginal thrush are available from your local community pharmacy. You can also purchase vaginal thrush treatment and testing kits from many supermarkets.

You can also get thrush in other areas too such as the mouth and throat (sometimes after a course of antibiotics or in people on steroid inhalers) or around the head of the penis causing balanitis. In cases such as these, your local community pharmacy can provide immediate advice and treatment.

Sometimes the pharmacy will recommend you seek further help from us. In this case, or for an ongoing case of thrush where self-treatment has failed, please submit an online medical consultation request for the Urgent Medical Problem Team giving us as much information about your problem as you can. You will get a same-day response usually by telephone or a time to attend the surgery for further assessment and examination.

If you get thrush recurrently and wish to discuss this please submit an online medical consultation request for the GP Clinical Team giving us as much information about your problem as you can. We will respond usually with an offer of an appointment with a GP or other suitable clinician to assess your problem further.

You can find more information about thrush on this NHS Inform page.

If you cannot use the online service please call us on 0345 337 1120 and a member of the care navigation team will help you.