Essential Facts About Chlamydia
Chlamydia often causes no symptoms in the short term, but it can have serious health consequences if it goes untreated.
If youre sexually active, you should know about chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted bacterial infection. These 10 facts will bring you up to speed on whos at risk, why regular screening is so important, and how to avoid getting chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections .
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Can Urgent Care Really Help Me With An Std Test
The short answer is, yes! Many people who are looking for routine or precautionary STD tests visit urgent care facilities instead of a private practice or their primary care physician. Urgent care facilities are a great option if you are concerned that you may have contracted an STD and need to see a physician.
If you have questions about STD testing and treatment, urgent care facilities can help. They are significantly less expensive than hospitals or private practices, and often have more convenient hours to meet your busy lifestyle. With urgent care facilities, you will have a better chance of being seen quickly at a time that works for your schedule than if you made an appointment with your primary care physician.
Get Checked For Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Early detection and treatment are critical for protecting yourself and your sexual partners. Visit an urgent care office to get evaluated. Your doctor will conduct a physical exam and collect samples. If you have an STD, your doctor can treat you. Do not wait until your symptoms are severe. Get tested today.
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What To Think About
Some people who have chlamydia may also have gonorrhea. In that case, treatment includes antibiotics that kill both chlamydia and gonorrhea. For more information, see the topic .
Reinfection can occur. Symptoms that continue after treatment are probably caused by another chlamydia infection rather than treatment failure. To prevent reinfection, sex partners need to be evaluated and treated.
Repeated chlamydia infections increase the risk for pelvic inflammatory disease . Even one infection can lead to PID without proper treatment. Make sure to take your antibiotics exactly as prescribed. Take the full course of medicine, even if you feel better in a couple of days.
Some doctors recommend retesting 3 to 12 months after treatment to reduce the risk of complications from reinfection.
If you have chlamydia, your doctor will send a report to the state health department. Your personal information is kept confidential. The health department may contact you about telling your sex partner or partners that they may need treatment.
Std Tests At Citylife Health Vs A Private Practice
You do not have to go through your primary care provider or a private practice to get tested for an STD. When finding the perfect urgent care facility for your needs and budget, be sure to find a partner in healthcare that you can depend on to deliver quick results, clear answers, as well as a helping hand on getting and staying healthy after dealing with an STD.
At CityLife Health, STD tests are quick and painless! We make it our priority to deliver fast, friendly, and convenient service to ensure that our patients feel supported and involved in decisions regarding their health. Our healthcare professionals are here to listen to your concerns, answer your questions, and provide top-tier care to patients in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Our clinic offers a large array of STD testing and treatment services conducted by highly-trained staff. We keep your best interests at the forefront of every diagnosis that our providers make and every prescription they write. Our goal is to help you feel informed, empowered, and confident about your sexual health, even if you are not experiencing any physical symptoms and are simply looking for routine care.
After the initial exam, your healthcare professional may require you to give a urine and/or blood sample to help pin-point a proper diagnosis. Once the results are back from the lab, your provider will better understand your symptoms and assign a proper diagnosis.
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How Does Chlamydia Affect Pregnancy
For pregnant women, chlamydia may lead to premature birth, or babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Premature birth is the most common cause of infant death and can lead to long-term health and development problems in children.
Babies born to mothers who have chlamydia can get:
- Infections in their eyes, called conjunctivitis or pinkeye. Signs include discharge from the eyes and swollen eyelids. The signs most often show up within two weeks after birth.
- Pneumonia. Signs include congestion, cough, and rapid or labored breathing, although these are not always present. Signs most often show up one to three months after birth.
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What Should I Expect During A Chlamydia Test
Your provider gives you a clean cup and asks you to urinate in it. Follow your providers instructions carefully when collecting a urine sample. Youll need to collect the urine as soon as it starts to come out .
If youre using an at-home chlamydia test, you will collect the sample yourself. Be sure to follow the instructions on the test kit carefully.
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What Can Happen If Chlamydia Isnt Treated
Untreated chlamydia can put your health at risk. Make an appointment with your provider immediately if you notice any symptoms of chlamydia, and get regular STI screenings to avoid complications later.
Complications of chlamydia for people with vaginas
Untreated chlamydia can cause:
- Pelvic inflammatory disease . PID is a serious condition that requires hospitalization. It can occur when an untreated STI, like chlamydia, damages your reproductive organs. PID can lead to infertility and chronic pelvic pain. It can also cause an ectopic pregnancy, which is life-threatening for the fetus and potentially deadly for the mother or gestational parent, too.
- Pregnancy complications. An untreated infection can lead to pre-term delivery. Also, if youre pregnant and have chlamydia, you can pass the infection on to your newborn. Babies born with chlamydia may have pneumonia or conjunctivitis that could lead to blindness if not treated.
Complications of chlamydia for people with penises
Untreated chlamydia can cause:
- Epididymitis. Infection can spread to the testicles and the tube that carries sperm to your testicles , causing symptoms like pain, swelling and tenderness in your testicles.
- Reduced fertility. Chlamydia can harm your sperm, negatively impacting your ability to conceive.
Complications of chlamydia that can affect all genders
Untreated chlamydia can:
What To Expect From Your Urgent Care Std Testing And Treatment
Sexually transmitted disease, or STD, testing is recommended for anyone who has ever been sexually active. You do not need to display symptoms of an STD to get treatment. It is possible to have an STD without experiencing any symptoms, and delaying treatment can cause long-term health problems, including infertility. Fortunately, you can get tested and treated at an urgent care office. Find out how this works.
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How To Help Partners Get Treatment
If you are not sure whether your sexual partner will seek treatment, ask your doctor for extra chlamydia medication . You can give it to them so they can be treated as soon as possible.
This is known as patient delivered partner therapy for chlamydia. Talk to your doctor to see if PDPT is right for you and your sexual partner.
What Can I Expect When Getting Tested In An Er
Getting tested for an STD in an emergency room is fairly straightforward and is similar to the testing process in any other clinical setting. The general process includes the following:
- First, the medical provider checks your physical symptoms and discerns whether they are possibly related to an STD.
- Second, and based on the results of your physical exam, the provider conducts an STD test.
- Third, your blood will be drawn and/or you will be asked to provide a urine sample.
- Fourth, the provider may use a swab to collect samples from the affected area. Incidentally, if you are a female, a pelvic exam will usually be performed.
If you are researching whether you can go to the ER for an STD, you may be currently experiencing some measure of stress, be it low to high. Below, we provide a list of times when it may be necessary to be tested for an STD. Rest assured that you are not alone and there are resources available to you.
Testing may be necessary when:
- You engage in unprotected sex.
- If you discover physical symptoms of an STD.
- Annually, if you are a woman under 25 years of age.
- Annually, if you are sexually active with multiple partners.
- Pregnant women as a precaution to detect syphilis or chlamydia, which could be passed to a baby.
Now that you know you can go to the ER for an STD test, lets cover how much these tests cost.
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Where Do People Seek Treatment
Among those who reported ever having had an STD, a private practice was the most frequently mentioned place to which the respondents had gone for treatment . Respondents who said they had been told in the past year that they had an STD also were more likely to report having gone to a private doctor or group practice for treatment . Among the remaining respondents who had ever had an STD, 8% had gone to an other clinic, 7% to an emergency room, 5% to an STD clinic and 5% to a family planning clinic 23% did not mention a place where they had been treated for their STD and 3% mentioned multiple sites.
Figure 1 shows that the pattern of STD treatment choice for the younger members of the sample was very similar to that of older respondents . The main difference was that a higher percentage of the younger group than of the older group chose family planning clinics .
Forty-nine percent of respondents with genital herpes, 59% of those with genital warts and 62% of those with hepatitis reported receiving treatment from a private practice. In contrast, only 26% of respondents who reported ever having gonorrhea indicated that they had received treatment from a private practitioner .
A varying proportion of respondents mentioned more than one place where they received treatment for a specific STD. More than 6% of the respondents who reported genital herpes had received treatment at multiple sites, compared with 3% of those who had had gonorrhea or who had nongonococcal urethritis.
What Increases My Risk Of An Std
Anyone who is sexually active has some risk of contracting an STD. However, there are some things that can make it more likely. If any of these apply to you, its a good idea to get tested every 3 to 6 months, or before you have a new sexual partner.
- You have multiple sexual partners
- You currently have or have had unprotected sex
- You have not received an HPV or Hepatitis A or B vaccine
- You have a weak immune system
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Why Visit Urgent Care Clinic
The benefit of visiting an urgent care clinic is that you get immediate chlamydia test results. So you need not wait for long in anticipation of your test results. This also proves to be more convenient than having to visit the clinic again. In case you are positive, the doctor would prescribe treatment on the same day.
Another benefit is that the clinic conducts discreet testing. This saves you from the embarrassment often associated with STD testing.
Urgent care clinics offer a no-hassle approach towards testing and treatment of diseases. You can walk in without an appointment and the doctor would see you immediately or within a few minutes. You need not wait in a long line.
Doctors here are empathetic towards patients. You need to be honest with the doctor about your sexual life. Only then can they recommend an appropriate test and give you sound advice regarding STDs and their risks.
Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HIV, trich, and others are common STDs. The best part is that they are completely curable, except HIV. Those that are not can be managed well through proper therapies. Dont let these diseases play spoilsport in your life. Take control of your health and lead a fulfilling sexual life.
Chlamydia Symptoms In Women
Chlamydia is often known as the silent infection. Thats because people with chlamydia may not experience symptoms at all.
If a woman contracts the STI, it may take several weeks before any symptoms appear.
Some of the most common symptoms of chlamydia in women include:
- painful sexual intercourse
In some women, the infection can spread to the fallopian tubes, which may cause a condition called pelvic inflammatory disease . PID is a medical emergency.
The symptoms of PID are:
- abnormal vaginal bleeding between periods
Chlamydia can also infect the rectum. Women may not experience symptoms if they have a chlamydia infection in the rectum. If symptoms of a rectal infection do occur, however, they may include rectal pain, discharge, and bleeding.
Additionally, women can develop a throat infection if they have oral sex with someone with the infection. Though its possible to contract it without knowing it, symptoms of a chlamydia infection in your throat include cough, fever, and sore throat.
The symptoms of STIs in men and women can be different, so its important to talk with a healthcare professional if you experience any of the above symptoms.
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What Happens If You Dont Get Treated For Chlamydia
Even though chlamydia is common and doesnt usually cause any symptoms, it can become a big deal if its not caught and treated early.
Chlamydia can spread to your uterus and fallopian tubes if it goes untreated for a long time. This can cause you to have pelvic inflammatory disease . PID can cause permanent damage that leads to pain, infertility, or ectopic pregnancy. So getting tested regularly for chlamydia really lowers your chances of getting PID.
Having chlamydia may increase your chances of getting or spreading HIV.
If you have chlamydia during your pregnancy and dont treat it, you can pass it to your baby when youre giving birth. Chlamydia can also cause eye infections and pneumonia in newborns, and it also increases the risk of delivering your baby too early.
Testing and treatment for chlamydia is quick, easy, and the best way to avoid all of these problems.
Chlamydia Infection May Have Long
For women, the long-term effects of an untreated chlamydia infection may include:
- Severe infection with pain and fever requiring a hospital stay
- Pelvic inflammatory disease, an infection of the upper reproductive tract
- Scarring in the reproductive tract that causes infertility
- Higher risk of ectopic pregnancy
Men are less likely than women to have major health problems linked to chlamydia, although they can develop epididymitis, an inflammation of a structure within the testicles called the epididymis that can result in infertility.
A chlamydia infection can sometimes result in reactive arthritis in both men and women.
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When Can I Go To The Er For An Sti
Some STIs have serious long-term consequences that can become life-threatening if they are untreated. HIV is a good example of this, where if left untreated the immune system will be weakened.
Here are some symptoms that need to be seen urgently:
One way to check to see if a symptom not on this list needs to be seen in an emergency room is to call ahead. Generally, the receptionist and triage nurse will be willing to answer questions.
Those that have a known chronic STI need to ask their primary care physician for the symptoms they should be worried enough about to visit an emergency room.
Can Emergency Room Test Std
A lot of patients usually ask if they can have their STDs treated in the ER. The good news is that you can be treated for STDs at the ER. However, they also now require stringent tests. In the past, a visual observation was usually enough for a diagnosis. However, now they do perform STD tests at ER rooms such as at Frontline ER. Here is a bit more information that you should know about STD testing in the ER.
In a study conducted in 2015 by the Johns Hospital and Medical Center, it was found that antibiotics were often overprescribed for those suspected to have STDs. It was found that about 75% of those patients did not even have STDs. While genital cultures are usually collected for STD tests, the results cannot be made immediately available. In such a case, the patient is given strong antibiotics as a precaution. This has been shown to be one of the leading causes of growing resistance to antibiotics in common STDs such as syphilis and chlamydia.
In 2016, the CDC began to urge medical professionals to stop this practice so that drugs are only used when necessary. For instance, this has led to the appearance of super gonorrhea all over the world, which is resistant to almost all antibiotics. The strain first appeared in the US in 2015 in Hawaii.
How to Deter STDs
The procedure for Getting Tested
When is it necessary to be tested for STDs?
The Cost of Testing
Summary
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How Often Should I Get Checked For Chlamydia
Sexual health check-ups are recommended for anyone who is sexually active. Frequency of testing also depends on your STI risk:
- An annual sexual health check-up is highly recommended if you are sexually active especially if you are under 25.
- Get checked more often during the year if you frequently change sexual partners.
- Remember, you are at greater risk if you have sex without a condom with 1 or multiple sexual partners.