>> Anne wrote:  Anyway, I have cultured some patients'
>> frozen milk, and have found that no yeast grows (those patients who I
>> diagnosed thrush in).

The difficulty is that most patients that we diagnose with thrush on
clinical grounds (burning nipple pain, shooting breast pain) do not show
candida on culture of the milk. In my study, only 5 samples out of 59 women
(9%) were positive for candida (compared to 1 out of 64 in the control group
of lactating women without pain).

We don't know if candida is there but not enough to grow, or if milk from
only particular ducts will grow candida, or if candida is growing in the
ducts and not moving into the milk at all. In fact, there are still many
questions about this problem. So, as Kathy A ( I think) said yesterday -
"never say never".

BTW  the study has been published in Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation
1996: 41: 30-34.

Lisa Amir
GP / LC in Melbourne, Australia