OTC antifungals used in error 25% of the time. (Poor Self-Diagnosis of Yeast Infection).

BANFF, ALTA. -- One in four women using over-the-counter antifungal infection medications doesn't have a yeast infection, Dr. Peter Beigi said at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Since 1990, when over-the-counter antifungal medications for yeast vaginitis became available, "we've seen sky rocketing sales of these agents" despite multiple studies showing very poor accuracy of self-diagnosing the condition, he said.

In a study that confirms these earlier reports, Dr. Beigi and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh followed 1,248 women, aged 18-30 years, to see if their symptoms and self-treatment patterns matched up with colonization findings.

At baseline, all the women were asymptomatic for vaginal infections and had not recently used any intravaginal products or antibiotics. Vaginal swabs were collected at regular 4-month intervals. At each visit, participants were also asked about pruritus symptoms and antifungal medication usage.

Among the 709 patients who completed all four visits, overall 70% (496) were colonized by vaginal yeast at least once during the year, but only 4% were colonized each time.

Interestingly among the 30% (214) of women who were never colonized, 37% reported having pruritus at least once during the study.

"More importantly ...