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TUESDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDayNews) -- When women get yeast infections, men often get the blame. Males aren't immune to pesky species of fungus, and some experts assume they unknowingly transmit the disease to their wives and girlfriends.
But a new study suggests the situation isn't so simple.
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Researchers found no direct connection between male sex partners and yeast infections in women, even if the men themselves were infected, too.
"This is a pretty good study for men," says study co-author Dr. Barbara Reed, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan. "They've been getting a bum rap suggesting they were responsible for these recurrences, and it doesn't look to be the case."
Men aren't entirely off the hook, however. Females who engaged in sex acts involving saliva -- their own or their partner's -- were more likely to get infected repeatedly.
Yeast, a kind of fungus also known as Candida, can set up shop throughout the body, from the throat to the intestines to the genitals.
"It lives in the moist orifices of a lot of people's bodies and is part of their normal makeup," says Dr. Vera Stucky, assistant chief of obstetrics-gynecology with the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan in San Diego. Anywhere from 25 percent to 75 percent of people will be "colonized" at any one time, she says.
In many cases, especially in men, the infections don't cause symptoms. In women, however, yeast infections can disrupt the bacterial balance of the vagina, causing burning, itching, discharge and odor.
An estimated 70 percent of all women develop yeast infections during their lives, and about four in 10 become infected more than once. The infections can be treated with antifungal creams and drugs.
It's not clear what exactly causes yeast infections, Reed says. "A number of risk factors have been discussed over the years, such as dietary risks, such as eating a lot of sugar and yeast, or oral contraceptives, pregnancy and AIDS. But most of the time, when we see a woman with a yeast infection, we don't find any good reason for her to have the infection."
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