The sad story posted a few days ago  which was written by the mother who had
endured breast pain for several months and finally decided to wean prompted
me to write about a concern I have had for years.  While I do cultures on the
infant's mouth when I have concerns about thrush,  has anyone had luck with
cultures or wet preps when it comes to the breast itself?  I hesitate to have
the mother take a very expensive antifungal if I can't prove it is ductal
yeast.  Yet many times the symptoms say yeast.  I guess it is reasonable to
say that if the mother takes the infant off the breast for a few days and
pumps with a good quality pump and her nipples and breasts feel better and
then get worse when she returns to nursing then it probably isn't thrush.  I
just got a call from a mother of a 3 month old.  She has been suffering with
sharp shooting pain for 3 months though sometimes it is not as intense as
other times.  She and the baby were treated for thrush topically in Dec.  She
also took two tablets of Diflucan but that made her lightheaded and nauseous
so she d/c that. She got no relief but her treatment topically and orally was
cut short.   Now it is another month later.  Her nipples are sore and her
breasts hurts bad enough that she will quit soon.  To summarize, is there any
way we can prove it is ductal thrush except by exclusion of other problems,
and symptoms,  especially if the infant doesn't culture out having thrush?
     Thanks...