A very nice lady had recurrent thrush. It came on after she’d had cystitis and bacterial vaginosis (BV) for which she’d had 5 courses of antibiotics over the last year. She was given three separate courses of antibiotics for the cystitis and two courses of different antibiotics for BV.

She had been taking antifungal tablets and using Canestan pessaries for months. The thrush would clear but then return each month. Her GP increased the dose giving three pessaries over 3 consecutive nights and one week of oral tablets. The thrush had cleared but then came back 2-3 months later. She had various blood tests for other underlying conditions which came back negative.   She was being referred to a gynecologist.

Thrush symptoms were described as “an annoying white discharge” It’s profuse -she feels full of it and wants to scrape it away. It can itch but not excessively. No odour, sometimes feels dry and sticky. It comes around period and remains after period finishes. She says she doesn’t feel clean and wants to wash.

Mental and Emotional State  I asked what was going on in her life about a year ago when symptoms started and she said she had a break up of relationship. Since then she hadn’t felt well. She sometimes felt hard done by and a sense of loss and uncertainty of where her life was going. She feared loss of control and sometimes woke at night with anxious thoughts. She felt overwhelmed with things she had to manage and often found it hard to make decisions. Often, she procrastinates starting things as she feels overloaded and lacks confidence -a fear of not being good enough. She said her symptoms improved with exercise.

She had really bad PMS- feeling like life is over and she can’t cope. She prefers to be alone at this time and feels upset, snappy and cross saying she “could crawl under a rock for 5-6 days before the period” -some months are worse than others. She had a long history of taking the pill or oestrogen patches which had given some relief to her pms and she also had the pill for acne when younger. She had a copper IUD fitted in the last year -prior to this her periods were very light but since they were longer and heavier. She had constipation before the period and if she travelled away and outbreaks on her skin.

Homeopathic Prescription Based on her symptoms, I prescribed the homeopathic remedy Sepia after which she reported that she had a lot of yellow catarrh discharging and she felt brighter in her mood for a few days but now was finding make decisions even harder than usual. Her PMS symptoms increased and she was feeling anxious. My conclusion was the remedy was partially correct.

I re-analysed the case and prescribed homeopathic Pulsatilla 30c.

About 3 weeks after taking Pulsatilla she reported the following: -Her ability to make decisions had improved, she was less sad and calmer before the period, nasal catarrh had decreased, skin outbreaks decreased, and constipation was better. Thrush symptoms -the itching was much better, but the white discharge remained. She was sleeping better than before. I prescribed Pulsatilla LM1 drops in water and she went off with this.

Follow up Seven months later she contacted me to say she had a brief flare up of the thrush after I’d seen her but nothing since. All thrush symptoms had gone so she was no longer on medication for this. She had found a job she liked and was working full time. She said her moods were settled and PMS symptoms improved.