Is Candida affecting your fertility?

Candida is a natural occurring bacteria in the intestines. In low levels candida is appropriate. The problems begin when there is an overgrowth of candida. This yeast and fungal overgrowth begins to cause havoc on the body and if left untreated can have a far reaching affect, well beyond the intestines. If you start to look up the symptoms associated with candida you will quickly realize that list is long and feels somewhat endless. I often joke that you can role a paper down the hallway and fill it with all the symptoms people describe as being caused by candida.

I am not certain if all of these are properly associated with candida, however I do know that this overgrowth can disrupt the body and more specifically hormones. So how do you find out if you have candida? Well, for me the first step is assessing a patients overall health. If there are multiple systems that are having problems then I may suspect candida overgrowth is a problem. If I want to be certain then I can have patients test for with either blood and stool tests. I typically only use one of these tests if I am also concerned about some other factors. So if I am already going to test a patient for other possible abnormalities then I will also include the test for candida.

If  I am not going to test them for anything else then I will have them do 2 simple home tests to see if candida is a problem. The first is a questionnaire which can be found with this link (click here). Other is a 5 day home spit test. These are the instructions for testing this at home:

Try this simple test to see if you have candida. First thing in the morning, before you put ANYTHING in your mouth, get a clear glass. Fill the glass with water and work up a bit of saliva. Then spit into the glass of water. Check the water every 15 minutes or so for up to an hour. If you have a candida yeast infection, you will see strings (like legs) traveling down into the water from the saliva floating on top, or “cloudy” saliva will sink to the bottom of the glass, or cloudy specks will seem to be suspended in the water. If there are no strings and the saliva is still floating after at least one hour, you are probably candida free. We are always exposed to candida and it is always living in our guts in yeast form. We just don’t want it to
overgrow, or to morph in the fungal form.

If you determine on your own that you have candida and you would like to get rid of it, which I recommend you do, then the best protocol I have found to do this is from Christa Orrechio. Christa is a gifted nutritionist and has developed a safe and effective treatment for eliminating candida. You can find her candida program here.

If you have any questions about candida or how to treat it please post your comments below.