What Causes A Yeast Infection

Yeast infection is very common among women yet many of them don’t know how to deal with it properly which often results in complications or worse, recurrence. It’s a major cause of discomfort that no woman should ever go through but not knowing what causes yeast infections make them more prone to having it.

Causes of yeast infection

What causes yeast infection? The bitter irony of yeast infection is that the stuff that causes it actually is part of the regular inhabitants of the human body – particularly the fungus Candida albicans. It can be found in the intestine, the throat and in small numbers in the vagina. This may sound disturbing to some but bacteria and fungi presence is actually normal and even healthy if their numbers remain at levels where they should be.

Yeast infection occurs when Candida albicans fungus exceeds those limits and they begin to disrupt the balance between them and other organisms – essentially creating a hostile environment which is basically what makes people ill. But there are other things that can be classified as yeast infection causes such as these:

- Compromised immune system. Part of being a healthy individual is having the ability to ward off microorganisms that can cause disease or illness. The body’s immune system is responsible for that task. But when a person fails to keep it running smoothly that’s when trouble begins to brew. Fungus is an opportunistic organism and at the first sign of a lowered defense mechanism they proliferate very quickly which is what causes yeast infection.

- Hormonal changes and disorders. Women have a lot of things going inside their bodies especially during menstruation and pregnancy. Hormones have very specific functions and they tend to adapt to changes in the body. They can increase or decrease production which can affect the immune system.  Disorders can also occur which can lead to lack or oversupply of hormones. Some hormones encourage the growth of fungus which causes yeast infection in women.

- Taking antibiotics. Fungus and other microorganisms in the body exist in certain numbers as a way of balancing out their presence. If one organism is removed, another will readily take over causing an imbalance. For this reason, antibiotics greatly increase the probability of getting a yeast infection since its function is to destroy certain microbes and bacteria.

- Sex is a common mode of transmission for various disease causing organisms and Candida albicans is no exception. While the vagina may contains small numbers of this fungus, adding more will surely lead to an infection.

What causes yeast infection may have been partially answered for now but until a definitive answer is found, women as well as men should take necessary precautions to avoid getting them.