What Does Chlamydia Look Like In The Throat

How Is Chlamydia Transmitted

Chlamydia is a common sexually transmitted disease. It can be transmitted through sexual activity with the partner who is already infected with it. A pregnant mum can give Chlamydia to her baby during childbirth. Also, if youve already been infected with Chlamydia in the past, you can get infected once again. It means that your body cant make antibodies to fight against this infection and thus strengthen immune system.

If you ever have has unprotected sex then you can perform private chlamydia home test for your self confidence.

Chlamydia In The Throat

Oral Chlamydia: Not a Sore Throat

Lets clear one thing up it ispossible to get chlamydia in the throat. This is usually only possible if someone is giving oral sex to another person already infected with chlamydia. Oral chlamydia is not as common as genital chlamydia, but it is possible.

Chlamydia is a common and curable sexually transmitted disease . It is caused by the bacteria chlamydia trachomatis. Chlamydia can affect the cervix in women as well as the urethra and rectum in both men and women. The bacteria target the cells of the mucous membranes which arent covered by skin. These include the surfaces of the vagina, urethra, lining of the eyelid, and, the topic of this blog post, the throat.

When chlamydia occurs in the throat, it is considered a mouth infection. If there are symptoms , they make it look a lot like tonsilitis. The infection causes white spots to appear in the back of the throat and can make it painful to swallow.

How do you get chlamydia in the mouth?

When oral sex is performed on infected genitals, the giver is at risk of contracting chlamydia in the throat. Oral sex involves using the mouth, lips, or tongue to stimulate the penis, vagina, or anus of a sexual partner.

• You are performing oral sex on a male that has an infected penis.
• You are performing oral sex on a female that has an infected vagina or urinary tract.
• You are performing oral sex on a male or female that has an infected rectum.

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How Do You Get Oral Chlamydia

A person can get oral chlamydia by giving vaginal, penile, or anal oral sex to another person already infected with the bacteria.

Chlamydia trachomatis can also be spread from an infected persons throat to the penis. Research has not shown that the infection can spread from an infected persons throat to the vagina or rectum during oral sex.

Chlamydia does not seem to spread through kissing.

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How Is Chlamydia Diagnosed

The most common test for chlamydia is called a nucleic acid amplification test . Your provider takes a sample of fluid by doing a vaginal/cervical swab or collecting a urine sample. Then, they send the sample off to a lab to check for the bacteria that causes chlamydia. Your provider may do the test in an office, or they may ask you to do an at-home chlamydia test. Follow your providers instructions carefully to ensure you get accurate test results.

Because most chlamydia cases are asymptomatic, its important to get screened for chlamydia even if you dont notice any signs of infection. The CDC recommends that sexually active cisgender women who are high-risk for chlamydia get screened regularly. Women, more so than men, experience the most severe complications from chlamydia. Transgender men and nonbinary individuals with vaginas should be screened regularly, too, as they can experience the same complications of chlamydia.

Youre considered high-risk if you:

• Are under 25.
• Have had chlamydia infections previously.

Cisgender men, or trans and nonbinary individuals with penises, should be screened for chlamydia if:

• They live in a setting where chlamydia spreads frequently, like correctional facilities, adolescent clinics and sexual health clinics.
• They have sex with other men.

Who Should Be Tested For Chlamydia

Any sexually active person can be infected with chlamydia. Anyone with genital symptoms such as discharge, burning during urination, unusual sores, or rash should refrain from having sex until they are able to see a health care provider about their symptoms.

Also, anyone with an oral, anal, or vaginal sex partner who has been recently diagnosed with an STD should see a health care provider for evaluation.

Because chlamydia is usually asymptomatic, screening is necessary to identify most infections. Screening programs have been demonstrated to reduce rates of adverse sequelae in women.31,41 CDC recommends yearly chlamydia screening of all sexually active women younger than 25, as well as older women with risk factors such as new or multiple partners, or a sex partner who has a sexually transmitted infection.40 Rectal chlamydia testing can be considered for females based on sexual behaviors and exposure. 40 Pregnant women under 25 or older pregnant women at increased risk for chlamydia should be screened during their first prenatal visit and again during their third trimester.40 Women diagnosed with chlamydial infection should be retested approximately 3 months after treatment.40 Any woman who is sexually active should discuss her risk factors with a health care provider who can then determine if more frequent screening is necessary.

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Can You Get Pregnant If You Have Chlamydia

Sexual health plays an important role in fertility. Many STDs can cause scarring and inflammation, making it more difficult to conceive, even after the infection has been treated.

In the case of chlamydia, the infection can damage your reproductive health, if left untreated. The bacteria can cause PID which can do permanent damage to your reproductive system. PID can lead to inflammation, scarring, and blockage in your reproductive organs. In some cases, it can also cause ectopic pregnancy which can be deadly if the pregnancy isnt removed in time.

Signs And Symptoms Of Chlamydia In Men

Most cases of chlamydia in men have no symptoms. Current estimates indicate that only 10% of men develop symptoms of chlamydiathese symptoms do not show up immediately when they do occur. It usually takes around 510 days after exposure to chlamydia for symptoms to begin. When symptoms or other health problems develop, chlamydia is referred to as a sexually transmitted disease .

The symptoms discussed here refer to those that cis-gendered men may experience. If you are a transgender man, depending on your anatomy, the symptoms related to you may be described here or in our related article on women and chlamydia. The body parts discussed here are the urethra, epididymis, prostate, lymph nodes, rectum, and throat.

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Can You Get Chlamydia If You Use A Condom

A condom lowers your chances of getting chlamydia if used correctly.

Correct use of a condom includes:

In Men Untreated Chlamydia Can Lead To:

• Epididymitis painful inflammation of the inner structures of the testicles, which may cause reduced fertility or sterility. A rare complication of Epididymitisis reactive arthritis, which causes pain in the inflamed joints that can be disabling
• Prostatitis
• Occasionally, Reiters syndrome
• Urethritis inflammation of the urethra with a yellow discharge appearing at the tip of the penis. Untreated urethritis results in narrowing of the urethra which leads to painful urinating and can cause kidney problems

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What Other Problems Can Chlamydia Cause

In women, an untreated infection can spread to your uterus and fallopian tubes, causing pelvic inflammatory disease . PID can cause permanent damage to your reproductive system. This can lead to long-term pelvic pain, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy. Women who have had chlamydia infections more than once are at higher risk of serious reproductive health complications.

Men often don’t have health problems from chlamydia. Sometimes it can infect the epididymis . This can cause pain, fever, and, rarely, infertility.

Both men and women can develop reactive arthritis because of a chlamydia infection. Reactive arthritis is a type of arthritis that happens as a “reaction” to an infection in the body.

Babies born to infected mothers can get eye infections and pneumonia from chlamydia. It may also make it more likely for your baby to be born too early.

Untreated chlamydia may also increase your chances of getting or giving HIV/AIDS.

How Will I Get My Results

It can take a few days to get your results from a swab test, similar to a Pap smear test in women. If youre a woman, you may also be able to obtain an at-home kit to do the vaginal testing on your own.

Your doctor will call you with the results of your test. Be sure you give your doctor your preferred phone number where you can have privacy, such as a mobile phone number. If you dont want them to leave you a voicemail, be sure you tell them before you leave your appointment.

A urine test is much faster to analyze. Your doctor should be able to tell you the results during the same day as your appointment. The downside is that urine tests may not be as accurate as traditional swab testing.

However, urine testing may be more suitable for men. Its also used for more advanced signs of chlamydia, as your body will have a greater number of bacteria to detect at this stage.

You can obtain a chlamydia test from:

• your primary doctor
• a home testing kit and service

find affordable testing

There are clinics that can perform chlamydia testing at a low cost. In some cases, you may obtain testing free-of-charge. You can find a clinic through the American Sexual Health Associations free locator here. All results are confidential.

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How Is Oral Chlamydia Related To Other Chlamydias

Chlamydia is the name of a group of bacteria the type of chlamydia that affects genitals and the throat is called chlamydia trachomatis. This is only a subset of chlamydia bacteria and there other types.

Other types of chlamydias there are some alternative forms of chlamydia to the strain responsible for oral infections, including:

• Lymphogranuloma venereum this can also cause genital infections but is very rare in the UK

• Chlamydia psittaci which cause a flu-like illness

• Chlamydia pneumoniae which causes pneumonia in adults

Do tests vary between different types of chlamydia? yes. The tests for chlamydia will be different even for the same strain of chlamydia depending on where the infection is:

• Throat swab for mouth chlamydia

• Vulvovaginal swab for genital chlamydia in women

• A urine test for genital chlamydia in men

Other different strains or types of chlamydia also require different tests as they affect other parts of the body such as the lungs or eyes.

Does treatment vary between types of chlamydia? generally not very much. Because different types of chlamydia are still all bacterial infections, they are usually treated with broad spectrum antibiotics like doxycycline.

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Does Azithromycin Also Cure Chlamydia

Azithromycin was the first choice antibiotic to treat chlamydia until February 2019 when BASHH guidance was issued recommending a 7-day course of doxycycline as the first choice treatment based on recent data. Azithromycin is now recommended only for pregnant women and those with an allergy to doxycycline.

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How Common Is Mouth Chlamydia

It is difficult to be sure how commonly chlamydia is found in the throat, as study results are varied. In fact, most people with oral chlamydia do not have a sore throat and are unaware of the infection unless they test positive.

Its not always tested for the throat is not routinely sampled for chlamydia when you go for an STI screen. This is because current chlamydia tests may produce false positive results and cause anxiety. In addition, the chance of having oral chlamydia is extremely low .

When are people at risk? in a clinic, you may be offered a throat swab for chlamydia if there are other risk factors such as:

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Chlamydia In The Throat: Symptoms Treatment & More

When it comes to avoiding sexually transmitted infections , some people think oral sex is safer than intercourse. But several STIssuch as chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphiliscan spread through oral sex.

In this article, Ill focus on chlamydia and oral sex. Like chlamydia in the genital area, chlamydia in the throat may not cause any symptoms, so its important to practice safe oral sex, talk to your sexual partners about their health, and get tested for STIs.

In many cases, chlamydia is curable with antibiotics, however an untreated chlamydia infection can result in serious health problems, including ectopic pregnancy and infertility.

So if you think you may have chlamydia, its important to see a healthcare provider.

Read on to learn how you can get chlamydia from oral sex, what the symptoms are, how to get diagnosed and treated for it, and when to see your doctor.

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How Do You Avoid Getting Mouth Chlamydia

How to avoid getting infected the only guaranteed way to avoid chlamydia is not having sex, but this is not a suitable options for most people. To reduce your chance of getting chlamydia you can try the following:

• Choose sexual partners carefully however difficult, you should try to discuss any previous sexual history with a new partner before you first have sex

• Get tested before the start of a new relationship and do not have unprotected sex until you know your test results and your partners an extended STI test kit which tests for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV and syphilis is recommended

• Use barrier contraception such as the male condom carefully and correctly always apply the condom before any sexual contact, including oral sex

• If you are diagnosed with chlamydia, always follow the advice about treatment very carefully try to make sure, if you have had chlamydia once, you dont get it again and keep getting tested regularly

• Use condoms at the same time as other contraceptives other contraceptives dont protect against STIs and using condoms alone as a method of contraception has a high failure rate. Women are advised to use a reliable contraceptive method to avoid an unplanned pregnancy, but to use condoms as well, to reduce the chance of acquiring an STI

Who is it at a higher risk of STIs like oral chlamydia? risk factors for chlamydia include:

• Young age

• Multiple partners/frequent change of partner/overlapping partners

• Gay/bisexual men

What Happens If Chlamydia Isn`t Treated

Not all people with Chlamydia will experience any complications. If the infection gets treatment early, it won`t probably cause any long-term damages. Still, with no treatment Chlamydia will spread to other body parts. The more times you get infected with it, the more like it is for you to experience complications.

• In men this condition may lead to an infection of the testicles and maybe even infertility.
• In women this infection may lead to inflammation and pain around the liver. With proper treatment, this usually gets better in time.
• In women this medical condition may spread to other important body organs leading to PID. In turn, this may lead to long-term damages, such as ectopic pregnancy, pelvic pain, infertility and blocked fallopian tubes.
• In both man and women More rarely, this infection may lead to joint inflammation. This is also known as SARA and it`s on occasion accompanied by eye and urethral inflammation. It occurs more rarely in women than men.

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Making The Diagnosis For Chlamydia

Once you go to visit the doctor, he will use cotton swab to collect Chlamydia bacteria samples from different parts of your body like urethra, rectum or cervix. The diagnosis may also demand 1st urine sample from first urination of the day.

All the samples are processed in a lab setup and careful reports are compiled. Here is one important thing to know that in case if you find your reports Chlamydia positive then never forget to let your partner know about this disease and get them tested too. There are more chances that the bacteria might have taken its path to your partners body via last intercourse.

Practice Safer Sex By Using A Condom

When used correctly, external and internal condoms help prevent the spread of many STIs during vaginal, anal and oral sex. Condoms are less effective at protecting against STIs transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, such as herpes simplex virus, genital warts ) and syphilis .

Important things to remember when using condoms:

• Check the condom package for damage. Do not use a damaged condom
• Check the expiry date. Do not use a condom after its expiry date
• Carefully open the package so that the condom does not tear. Do not use a condom that has been torn
• Keep condoms away from sharp objects such as rings, studs or piercings
• Store condoms at room temperature
• Use a new condom every time you have sex. Do not reuse condoms
• Do not use 2 condoms at once. Using 2 condoms together may result in a condom breaking
• Use only water-based lubricants with external latex condoms. Oil-based lubricants, such as petroleum jelly, lotion or baby oil, can weaken and destroy latex
• Water or oil-based lubricant may be used with polyurethane/nitrile condoms
• Use only condoms made of latex or polyurethane/nitrile/polyisoprene rubbers. Latex and polyurethane condoms are the best types of condoms to use to help prevent pregnancy and STIs.
• Avoid using condoms with spermicides containing nonoxynol-9 as it can irritate tissue and may increase the chance of getting an STI

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