JOHN HORN, PHARM.D: The oral drug has to enter through the systemic circulation. Take it by mouth, it goes through the bloodstream and then gets to the infected tissues in the vaginal area. The locally applied drugs are a little different. Those are applied right to the site of infection and really treat the fungus sort of locally, as if it was a topical skin infection, which it essentially is. And so there's a fundamental difference between the oral and the topically applied drugs, just in the fact that with the oral you expose the whole body to the drug; with the topical you're really only exposing the area where the infection exists to the drug.
ANNOUNCER: Oral medications are only available by prescription, but that doesn't mean they are more effective than vaginal therapies.
DAVID ESCHENBACH, MD: Overall, they're equally effective; the intravaginal therapy often gets you relief of symptoms a little bit earlier than the oral therapy. But overall, they're quite equal in terms of getting rid of the organism, yeast itself, or providing relief of symptoms.
ANNOUNCER: For most women, the advantage of oral medications lies primarily in their convenience of use.
JOHN HORN, PHARM.D: The advantage of the oral product -- even though it's prescription -- is that the patient doesn't have to use something locally and some patients prefer a one-dose or two-dose oral product to one to three days or perhaps seven days of vaginally applied ointment or cream.
ANNOUNCER: Women who choose vaginal therapy have two options: creams and suppositories. They're equally effective, but differ in how they're applied.
