Women’s recurring yeast infections don’t appear to be partners’ fault

Women have long blamed husbands and boyfriends for their recurrent yeast infections. And many doctors have reinforced that thinking, believing that partners were passing the yeast back to the patients during sexual activity.

But researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School have found that the presence of yeast in male sex partners doesn’t make women more prone to these infections.

Instead, the study of 148 women with confirmed Candida albicans infections and 78 of their male sexual partners suggests that the recurrences may be a result of how a woman’s immune system reacts to the organism.

Such infections are a common malady. About three-fourths of women have had at least one infection and about 40% have recurrences. Yeast is often found in the mouth, genital and rectal areas, where it may not cause a problem; an infection comes from an overgrowth.

Writing in the December issue of the Journal of Women’s Health, the study’s authors said certain sexual practices may make women more vulnerable to yeast infections, particularly receiving oral sex. They theorized that saliva may disrupt the balance of yeast and other organisms and that women’s bodies then have difficulty reestablishing that balance.

The research was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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Jane E. Allen