One of the most common types of vaginitis is a yeast infection, usually caused by the yeast Candida albicans. The vagina normally is populated by a variety of microorganisms that help to prevent infection. The "good" microorganisms create a chemical environment that inhibits the "bad" microorganisms. They also compete for food with the "bad" infective organisms. If a woman takes antibiotics to treat an infection, whether it is for vaginitis or not, the antibiotics kill both the bad and the good microorganisms, ultimately creating various imbalances in the body, including yeast infections.
The vagina can normally live comfortably with small amounts of yeast, but the killing of good microorganisms by antibiotics allows yeast to grow in significant numbers, creating a yeast infection.
Conventional treatment for yeast conditions is usually antifungal medications or suppositories. While these medicines may temporarily decrease the number of yeast cells, they do not increase the body's good microorganisms, nor do they protect the body from future yeast infections.
Other factors that can disrupt the ecological balance in the vagina are a high sugar diet, birth control pills, and certain hormonal changes, including those caused by pregnancy. Simply getting rid of the yeast, bacteria, or other pathogens growing as a result of the ecological imbalance and leading to vaginitis does not resolve the fundamental stress to the woman's health.
Homeopathic medicines are not antifungal or antibacterial in the conventional sense. Rather, they strengthen a woman's own defenses, which then help her body fight off the fungal infection itself. By this process they do not create the same type of internal ecological disruption that antibiotics cause. Some of the common remedies for vaginitis are Pulsatilla (white, yellow, or greenish bland vaginal discharge with vaginal soreness, a weepy, moody, emotionally-laden state, thirstlessness, aggravated by heat and relieved in the open air; a common remedy for vaginitis in pregnant women), Kreosotum (itching with burning pains, a yellow, putrid vaginal discharge which is acrid and irritates the vaginal lips and surrounding skin; the discharge may stain bedsheets, and is worse in the morning and upon standing), Borax (a burning vaginal discharge which is the color of egg whites; Borax tends to be useful for vaginitis that occurs midway between menstrual periods), Hydrastis (profuse stringy yellow vaginal discharge with great itching, worse after menstruation), Sepia (white, milky, offensive, itchy, and burning discharge which tends to be more profuse in the morning and while walking, sensations of uncomfortable pressure and heaviness in the vaginal area, general fatigue, constipation, irritability, depression), Graphites (premenstrual yeast infection, often in overweight women with thin, white, acrid discharge and who may experience a concurrent backache, increased discharge in the morning and while walking), and Calcarea carb (thick yellow or milky discharge which tends to cause intense itching, usually in overweight, fair-skinned women, worse before menses and on becoming warm, though they tend to be very chilly; a headache and spasmodic cramps may be concurrent). These remedies are effective not only for yeast infections, but also for other types of vaginal infection. In addition, there are numerous homeopathic formula products in pill or suppository form that can be used to treat the acute vaginal infection effectively.