Chlamydia Testing Process How Do They Test For Men And Women
How do Chlamydia testing works for men and women? Please read this guide to know full test process and available methods.
Chlamydia is a bacterial infection. Its caused mainly between 18 to 40 years old person and a common sexual transmitted diseases or infection which not generates symptoms. It is sexually transmitted infection affect both men and women. Women get this infection in cervix, rectum, vagina and throat and men get this infection in urethra, rectum and throat.
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How Long Can Chlamydia Stay In Your System
Chlamydia typically goes away within 1 to 2 weeks. You should avoid sex during this time to prevent transmitting the disease. Your doctor may prescribe a one-dose medication or a medication youll take daily for about a week. If they prescribe a one-dose pill, you should wait 7 days before having sex again.
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How Long Does It Take To Show Up In The Throat
Symptoms of chlamydia in your throat are typically caused by having oral sex with someone whos contracted the infection.
Its much less common to notice throat symptoms, but they may still appear after a week or so, up to a few months or longer.
STI tests that look for chlamydia arent always done on the throat since its an area that does not carry the infection often. Ask your doctor for a throat swab or other chlamydia test if you think youve been exposed through oral sex.
Here are the most common symptoms of chlamydia in both people with penises and people with vulvas.
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Who Is Most Likely To Be Infected By Chlamydia
Studies have shown chlamydia infections to be the highest among women aged 15 to 24 years. Infection rates are highest in men at a slightly higher age range from 20 to 24 years old.
Population studies have tried to estimate what percent of the overall population is infected by Chlamydia. One extensive study of individuals between the age of 18 and 26 years found 4.2% to have Chlamydia infections.
Another national survey found 1.7% of people between 14 and 39 years had the infection. Out of all states, Alaska had the highest rates of Chlamydia.
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What Complications Can Result From Chlamydial Infection
The initial damage that chlamydia causes often goes unnoticed. However, chlamydial infections can lead to serious health problems with both short- and long-term consequences.
In women, untreated chlamydia can spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease . Symptomatic PID occurs in about 10 to 15 percent of women with untreated chlamydia.30,31 However, chlamydia can also cause subclinical inflammation of the upper genital tract . Both acute and subclinical PID can cause permanent damage to the fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues. The damage can lead to chronic pelvic pain, tubal factor infertility, and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy.32,33
Some patients with chlamydial PID develop perihepatitis, or Fitz-Hugh-Curtis Syndrome, an inflammation of the liver capsule and surrounding peritoneum, which is associated with right upper quadrant pain.
In pregnant women, untreated chlamydia has been associated with pre-term delivery,34 as well as ophthalmia neonatorum and pneumonia in the newborn.
Reactive arthritis can occur in men and women following symptomatic or asymptomatic chlamydial infection, sometimes as part of a triad of symptoms formerly referred to as Reiters Syndrome.35
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How Is Chlamydia Prevented
You already know chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection. Therefore, the safest and easiest way to prevent chlamydia is sexual abstinence. Other ways chlamydia can be prevented in men and women are
- Use condoms for intercourse
- Get your male or female sexual partners tested for the infection
- Recheck for chlamydia infection after 5 weeks of treatment
- Avoid intercourse while on chlamydia treatment
- Use adult toys with condoms
Now its your turn. Do you have any chlamydia symptoms? Let us know if we can help.
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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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Testing For Chlamydia In Men
Diagnosing chlamydia in men involves getting a sample from every area at risk of infectionthis will depend on the type of sex you engage in or the symptoms you are experiencing. In men, this usually means a urine sample. Healthcare providers often specify that this should be a first catch sample to indicate that urine from the beginning of the stream should be evaluated in the chlamydia test.
If you have engaged in oral sex or receptive anal sex, you can ask your provider to check a throat swab or rectal swab, respectively.
Screening can help detect chlamydia, especially since most people dont develop chlamydia symptoms. Men who have sex with men should be screened as frequently as every 36 months. However, the United States Preventive Services Task Force states that there isnt enough evidence to support or reject screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea in other sexually active men .
If you are interested in getting screened, talk to your healthcare provider. In the meantime, staying aware of the symptoms of chlamydia and how it spreads is an excellent step for your sexual health.
What Are The Other Risks Of Untreated Chlamydia In Men
Untreated chlamydia in men can also cause sexually acquired reactive arthritis . This can lead to inflamed joints, eyes, or urethra causing pain when urinating. SARA is more common in men than women. There is no cure for SARA however, most people get better within a few months. The symptoms of SARA can be treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , such as ibuprofen.
Men with chlamydia have an increased risk of getting other infections including gonorrhea or HIV.
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How Can Chlamydia Be Prevented
Latex male condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of getting or giving chlamydia.53 The surest way to avoid chlamydia is to abstain from vaginal, anal, and oral sex, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and is known to be uninfected.
How Can I Prevent Spreading Chlamydia
If you think you have chlamydia, the first thing you need to do is stop having sexual intercourse and get tested and treated. Ask your health care provider if you can get a prescription for your partner , or find out if your partner can be seen by a health care provider to get treated. Youll need to let all current and past sexual partners know that you have chlamydia . You may find this hard to do, but its very important so that those infected can get treated before more serious health problems occur.
You can let your sexual partner know in a couple of different ways:
- You can tell them face to face, over the phone, or via a text message.
- You can use an anonymous notification application, such as: an email from a reliable website such as bedsider.org. This website will send a confidential email card to your partner for free. Another website, inspot.org will send an anonymous text to your partner.
Research has shown that notifying your partner in real time or face to face is the best way to get your partner treated.
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How Long Does It Take To Show Up On A Test
There are several tests that you doctor might use to diagnose chlamydia:
- Urine test. Youll pee in a cup thats sent off to a laboratory testing facility to see if any chlamydia bacteria are present in your urine.
- Blood test. Your doctor will use a sterile needle to draw some of your blood and send it to a lab to see if antibodies to the chlamydia bacteria are present in your bloodstream.
- Swab. Your doctor will use a cotton round or stick to take a small sample of tissue or fluid that carries the infection, which is then sent to a lab to be cultured so that lab technicians can see what bacteria grows from the sample.
How long it takes for the results to show up depends on the test and on your specific health insurance plan.
- Urine tests take about 2 to 5 days to show a positive or negative result.
- Blood tests can come back with results in a few minutes if the blood is analyzed on site. But they can take a week or more if sent to an off-site lab.
- Swab results take about 2 to 3 days to show a positive or negative.
1 to 3 weeks to show up in people with vulvas.
Symptoms may take up a few months to show up. This is because bacteria are living creatures and have an incubation period that affects how long it takes them to cluster together and become infectious.
This incubation period is dependent on a variety of factors, including:
Home Remedies For Chlamydia Symptoms
You may still experience painful or uncomfortable symptoms while youre taking chlamydia antibiotics.
Here are some home remedies for reducing your pain and other symptoms while youre waiting for the antibiotics to work:
- pain medications, such as ibuprofen to reduce pain
- cold pack to help limit swelling and inflammation
- goldenseal to reduce inflammation and potentially make symptoms less severe
- echinacea to bolster your immune system against the infection and reduce your symptoms
- turmeric containing an ingredient called curcumin to reduce inflammation and make symptoms less severe
No studies support the effectiveness of these supplements specifically for chlamydia, so take them with caution.
And theres no substitute for antibiotics when treating chlamydia. Only try these remedies if youre already taking antibiotics or if you plan to go to the doctor.
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The Health Risks Of Chlamydia
For up to 40 percent of infected women, untreated chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease . PID effects include abdominal pain, fever, internal abscesses and long-lasting pelvic pain effects also include scarring of the fallopian tubes, which can cause infertility and increase the chance of potentially life-threatening ectopic or tubal pregnancies.
Men can develop scarring of the urethra, making urination difficult and occasionally causing infertility. Although rare, both sexes are at risk of a type of arthritis known as Reiters Syndrome that causes inflammation and swelling of the joints.
If a pregnant woman has chlamydia, her baby may be born prematurely, have eye infections or develop pneumonia.
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How Does Someone Get Chlamydia
Chlamydia is passed through oral, anal, or vaginal sex. Chlamydia can be passed from one person to another even if the penis or tongue does not go all the way into the vagina or anus.Eye infections can occur when discharge caries the disease into the eye during sex or hand-to-eye contact.
Chlamydia can also be passed from mother to newborn as the baby passes through the infected birth canal. This can result in eye infections, pneumonia or other complications.
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If I Havent Got Any Symptoms Of Chlamydia Why Should I Bother Treating It
3 main reasons:
- You might get symptoms at any time and theyre pretty nasty
- It can cause you to be infertile if left untreated
- You can spread it to partners and it can be an extremely serious condition in women
If youre concerned about chlamydia symptoms or other sexually transmitted infections, speak to your doctor. There are also some further quality available online.
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How Do I Get Tested For Chlamydia
Testing for chlamydia is easy. Testing is usually done on a urine sample or on a swab collected either by yourself or your doctor or nurse.
Urine test
You will be asked to urinate into a jar. It is best if you have not passed urine for 20 minutes before the sample is collected.
Swab test
- men who have a discharge can have a swab taken from the opening of the penis
- men who have sex with men can have an anal and throat swab taken if there has been unprotected anal or oral sex
- women who donât have symptoms can have either a self-collected swab taken from the vagina or a urine test. A self-collected vaginal swab is a bit more accurate than a urine test. Some women may be advised to have an anal swab taken
- women can have swabs collected during an examination by their doctor or nurse:
- if there are symptoms such as pain, discharge or abnormal bleeding
- at the same time as a cervical screening test
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How Chlamydia Diagnosis Process Is Carried On In Men
Early treatment of Chlamydia is essential to have a healthy life ahead. In case if you had unprotected sex with your recent partner then you must get tested for STIs as soon as possible. This test can be carried out at any local GUM clinic or GP. With improved facilities of digital world, patients can also order Chlamydia test kits to their home from online sources.
Once this test is carried out then depending upon its results further treatment will be carried out. Note that, Chlamydia disease is very common between age groups of 16 to 25 so most of the clinics these days are offering free tests to identify this disease on time. In case if you had oral or anal sex with your new partner who is suspected to be infected then it is good to undergo an oral swab test pr rectal swab test.
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What Problems Can Happen
If its not treated, chlamydia can lead to:
- in girls: pelvic inflammatory disease , which can damage the reproductive system, making it hard or impossible for a woman to get pregnant later on
- in guys: swelling in the testicles and tubes at the back of the testicles, possibly preventing a man from fathering kids later on
- joint problems
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Complications Of This Std
If not treated, the complications of chlamydia in men can end up affecting their sexual health causing strong urinary infections, testicular inflammation and pain in this area, which in turn can lead to discomfort and the presence of fever, symptoms that will disappear when the main condition is addressed.
Additionally, having this STD without being treated increases the possibility of contracting other infections and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV .
What Happens If I Dont Get Treated
The initial damage that chlamydia causes often goes unnoticed. However, chlamydia can lead to serious health problems.
If you are a woman, untreated chlamydia can spread to your uterus and fallopian tubes . This can cause pelvic inflammatory disease . PID often has no symptoms, however some women may have abdominal and pelvic pain. Even if it doesnt cause symptoms initially, PID can cause permanent damage to your reproductive system. PID can lead to long-term pelvic pain, inability to get pregnant, and potentially deadly ectopic pregnancy .
Men rarely have health problems linked to chlamydia. Infection sometimes spreads to the tube that carries sperm from the testicles, causing pain and fever. Rarely, chlamydia can prevent a man from being able to have children.
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When To See A Doctor
If a person has symptoms of chlamydia after testing and treatment or thinks that they have come into contact with chlamydia again, they should see their doctor.
Females are less likely than males to have symptoms of chlamydia, so testing is especially important for them.
The recommend chlamydia testing every year for the following groups of people:
- sexually active females under the age of 25 years
- females over the age of 25 years who have new or multiple sexual partners
- anyone with a sexual partner who has an STI
- sexually active gay and bisexual males
Pregnant women should have a chlamydia test early on in their pregnancy.
How Do You Prevent Chlamydia
Using a new male or female condom or dental dam every time you have sex is the best way to protect against chlamydia.
Chlamydia can be passed on by sharing sex toys. Always cover sex toys with a new condom and wash them after use to reduce your risk of getting chlamydia and other STIs.
Its important to regularly test for chlamydia, even if you dont have any symptoms, especially if youve had multiple sexual partners.
The contraceptive pill and other types of contraception wont prevent you getting chlamydia, and neither will PrEP.
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Complications Of Chlamydia In Males
When left untreated chlamydia can lead to other conditions and symptoms. In men, chlamydia infection can lead to the inflammation of the testicles and the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles . If you develop this complication you may experience:
- Swelling or a lump in the testicle
- Discharge from the penis
- Difficulty urinating or needing to urinate more often
- Later on, problems with fertility
Untreated chlamydia can also cause sexually acquired reactive arthritis , which can lead to:
- Pain, stiffness and swelling in the joints
- Pain and redness in the eyes
- Pain when urinating
Inflammation of the testicles and epididymis can usually be treated with antibiotics. SARA cannot be cured, it normally clears up on its own within a few months, but it is prone to recurrences. SARA occurs 10 times more frequently in men than women.