Probiotics and Treatment of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis

Background: Genital infections are among the most common diseases for which women refer to gynecologists. Vulvovaginal candidiasis is the second most common infection among women. Objective: A few studies have been conducted on new therapeutic regimens improving the effectiveness of current medications; accordingly, the present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of clotrimazole with clotrimazole plus probiotics in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis. Materials and Methods: The present doubleblind clinical trial was conducted on 80 women admitted to Shohada hospital in Tehran in 2014. The participants were randomly divided into 2 groups of clotrimazole and clotrimazole plus probiotics. The collected data included the participants’ sociodemographic information and their medical records along with their symptoms and laboratory results before and after the treatment. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using chisquare test, t test, McNemar test and Fisherexact test. Results: The results showed that both treatments (i.e. clotrimazole and clotrimazole plus probiotics) are equally effective in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis (P = 0.499). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated that supplementing clotrimazole with probiotics results in similar effects compared to administering clotrimazole alone in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis.