Vaginal microbiological flora and sexually transmitted diseases in women with recurrent or current vulvovaginal candidiasis.

A history of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) was reported by 102 women, while current vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) was diagnosed in 83 of the same 996 women. They had all attended two family planning and one youth clinic, respectively. Two women, without RVVC or VVC, matched for age for each case of RVVC, were selected as a comparison group (COMP). Recurrent, but not current VVC, was associated with a history of sexually transmitted disease. Those with current, but not with recurrent, VVC had significantly more often genital warts and bacteriuria (> 10(5) bacteria/ml), but significantly less often bacterial vaginosis than the COMP women. Both VVC and RVVC were inversely correlated to a vaginal flora change with a mixed anaerobic vaginal flora. Those with VVC had a greater number of lactobacilli on vaginal cultures, than those with RVVC and the women in the COMP group. VVC and a history of RVVC both occurred more frequently in women with a lactobacilli-predominated vaginal flora, as compared with those with a flora change with a mixture of anaerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria.