For ladies only--any suggestions welcome

[Bratface]

We all can have personal issues after wearing a wetsuit for several hours. I just returned from a 3-day dive trip and now have symptoms of yeast. I know how to treat it, but I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as how to prevent it. Has anyone tried a barrier cream like Desitin or anything else that may help avoid this problem of too much moisture?

 

[BabyDuck]

good thought - give it a try!

 

[SubMariner]

We all can have personal issues after wearing a wetsuit for several hours. I just returned from a 3-day dive trip and now have symptoms of yeast. I know how to treat it, but I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as how to prevent it. Has anyone tried a barrier cream like Desitin or anything else that may help avoid this problem of too much moisture?

Personally, I've never experienced this issue, nor heard of a fellow female diver having this problem, so I am loathe to point to wetsuit diving as the culprit.

Usually yeast (Candidiasis) infections are the result of things like birth control pills, antibiotics, steriods, or post/pre-menstruation changes in the environment of the vagina causing overgrowth of the yeast that naturally occurs there. IOW, it's more than likely you were already developing a problem prior to your dive trip rather than the wetsuit being the cause.

See: Yeast Infection (Candidiasis) Causes, Symptoms, Treatments for more information.

However, that being said, you should try to minimize the amount of time you spend in a wet suit: once the dive is over get out of the suit, hang it up inside-out & let it dry as much as possible before using it again. Ideally, you should have more than one suit on a dive trip so that you don't have to spend a lot of time in a wet suit.

Hope this helps,

 

[SlainteMolly]

If you are prone to yeast - I hope that you have different bathing suit bottoms for each dive. The conditions in a wet suit are prime for flaring up a yeast issue: warm and wet for several hours. We all have yeast, it is usually kept at bay by healthy conditions and the pH balance of our nethers. Changing bathing suit bottoms is a must, clean and dry before hopping back in. If you can't pack enough suits, at least have two to rotate, rinse thoroughly with clear water and let it dry out while wearing the other one. And spend non water hours in comfortable, breathing cotton.

Good luck -

 

[Danielle's_Dives]

I thought about this post. I never got a yeast infection from diving but have had them in the past. If I dive three times a day I do change into a dry suit every time before I suit up again. We come up, change, take tanks for fills, eat or drink and get back in water.
Hope this helps