Male Yeast Follow-Up Question

Feb 6, 2005

I also have a yeast infection, but not an external one on my groin or penis. For over fifteen years, and five of those were prior to being positive, I've had a recurring yeast infection inside my rectum. It's been diagnosed and when it's bad, I find a cheesy discharge on my stools and have bad rectal itching. I've taken courses of the standard internal medication, but have also used woman's applicator medications from drugstores to insert topical medication into my rectum. I've been concerned about this maybe being too strong for my tissues down there, but it does give me some relief -- at least until the next outbreak. Any comment on doing this? Any suggestions for the future? It does seem like the yeast is starting to gradually become resistant.

Response from Dr. Pierone

Your situation is not common, but Candida infections may present in many different manners. If you have not had a sigmoidoscopy during one of these outbreaks, it would make sense to start with this test. The topical medications would probably be fine, but a course of oral Diflucan would be more convenient and likely as effective. If this problem intensifies in the future, fungal culture and resistance testing may play a role in management. Best of luck to you.