In a majority of patients with candidal vulvovaginitis, drug therapy is convenient and effective. A small but significant group of patients remain symptomatic with recurrent, chronic candidiasis. A study of 805 patients was undertaken to delineate microbiologically candidal species. The study revealed that the recurrence rate for Candida tropicalis was twice the rate for Candida albicans, and that despite continuous medical care and multiple therapies, the recurrent C tropicalis patients remained symptomatic with persistence of the organism. The difficulty encountered with eradication of C tropicalis may have been due to the lack of susceptibility of the cell membrane to the commonly used antifungal agents.