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.
Chlamydia Symptoms With Pictures
Chlamydia has been a global problem for most of the population for many years now. Its an extremely prevalent bacterial infection that can be transmitted through sexual contact. Its so common that the number of infected is estimated at 2.86 million people every year. This sexually transmitted infection is present in 2.7% of men and 4.2% women globally. In other words, 1 in every 20 females who are sexually active have chlamydia. Around two-thirds of those infected, both females and males, are 15 to 24 years old with a higher prevalence rate in females. In 2015, this infection caused around 200 deaths. Its a serious infection that is overlooked due to its often asymptomatic nature. But, if the infection is diagnosed and recognized on time, it can help those infected avoid serious health complications. Here we will focus on how to spot the symptoms of chlamydia, what can happen if a person leaves those symptoms untreated, and how do these symptoms actually look like. This is our detailed analysis of chlamydia symptoms that can be useful for those seeking to steer clear from sexually transmitted infections.
Who Should Be Tested For Chlamydia
You should go to your health provider for a test if you have symptoms of chlamydia, or if you have a partner who has a sexually transmitted disease. Pregnant women should get a test when they go to their first prenatal visit.
People at higher risk should get checked for chlamydia every year:
- Sexually active women 25 and younger
- Older women who have new or multiple sex partners, or a sex partner who has a sexually transmitted disease
- Men who have sex with men
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You Can Get Chlamydia More Than Once
With some diseases, having one infection makes you immune to future infections. Thats not the case with chlamydia. If you engage in sexual activity with a person who has a chlamydia infection, you can get it again, even if youve just completed treatment for it.
Both partners should be treated before reinitiating sexual intercourse to prevent relapse, Schaffir says.
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How Does It Take To Get Rid Of Chlamydia
youre already half way towards getting rid of the disease permanently, it is recommended to take herbs along with Antibiotics.The Importance of Knowing When to Get Tested, The truth is that, if you know when to get a chlamydia test kit, The best way to cure chlamydia and keep from infecting your partners, STD testing is often overlooked and underestimated, is to avoid sex for seven days, it can be treated without any issues, your health care provider will probably prescribe an antibiotic, Persons with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for 7 days after single dose antibiotics or
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How Can You Tell If You Have Chlamydia Without Going To The Doctors
Why Is It Important To Take Antibiotics Such As Amoxicillin For Chlamydia And Gonorrhea
Its important to treat any STDespecially chlamydia or gonorrheaas quickly as possible. If left untreated, both of these STDs can lead to serious health complications, including:
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Life-threatening pregnancy
- Vaginal, rectal, and/or oral infections
The only way to avoid these complications is to seek medical attention immediately after finding out you have tested positive.
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What Complications Can Result From Untreated Chlamydia
If untreated, chlamydia infection can progress to serious reproductive and other health problems withboth short-term and long-term consequences. Like the disease itself, the damage that chlamydia causesis often silent.
Untreated chlamydia in men typically causes urethral infection. Infection sometimes spreads to theepididymis , causing pain, fever, and, potentially, infertility.
In women, the chlamydia bacteria often infect the cells of the cervix. If not treated, the infectioncan spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause an infection called pelvic inflammatorydisease . This happens in up to 40% of women with untreated chlamydia. PID can cause permanent damageto the fallopian tubes, uterus, and tissues surrounding the ovaries. This damage can lead to chronic pelvicpain, infertility, and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy .
In pregnant women, there is some evidence that chlamydia infections can lead to premature delivery.Babies who are born when their mothers are infected can get chlamydial infections in their eyes and respiratorytracts. Chlamydia is a leading cause of early infant pneumonia and conjunctivitis in newborns.
Compared to women who do not have chlamydia, women infected with chlamydia may also have higher riskof acquiring HIV infection from an infected partner. Chlamydia can cause proctitis in persons having receptive anal intercourse. The bacterium also can be found inthe throats of women and men having oral sex with an infected male partner.
Rules For Successful Treatment
The patient should make sure that the doctor is informed if the patient is pregnant or has any allergies. These conditions influence the choice of the medicine prescribed. No matter which antibiotic the patient takes treating chlamydia the following points should be remembered:
- The treatment of all partners on the infected person is obligatory
- Abstain from sex contacts during the treatment and until the negative result on chlamydia test is received
- It is unadvisable to interrupt the course of antibiotics treatment as it will result in the necessity to start again from the beginning. Although the symptoms may disappear, the infection may still remain in the body
- It is necessary to get tested after 34 months after the end of the treatment to make sure the infection is no longer in the body.
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Getting A Medical Diagnosis
Chlamydia Symptoms & Treatment
FAST FACTS
- Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection that is normally passed on through sex without a condom or sharing sex toys with someone who has the infection.
- Using male or female condoms and dental dams during sex will help to protect you from getting chlamydia.
- Chlamydia is often symptomless however if left untreated it can lead to long-term health problems.
- Chlamydia is easily treated with antibiotics.
- Chlamydia can be passed on from mother to child during pregnancy, so its important for pregnant women to get tested.
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Chlamydia Test For Women
To diagnose the infection, your doctor can use a few different chlamydia tests. Your doctor will likely ask you about your symptoms and why you think you have the infection. When this happens, its important to be as honest as possible.
Your health care provider will probably use a swab to take a sample from the cervix and send it to a lab to be analyzed. If theres a possibility the bacteria is in your throat or anus, these areas may be swabbed as well. Other tests include a chlamydia urine test to check for the presence of the bacteria.
Although many physicians do it, a chlamydia test is not automatically done at the time that a Pap test is done.
For this reason, its important for women, especially sexually active women aged 25 and under, to ask their health care provider whether theyre getting tested for chlamydia every year.
If you think you may have been exposed to an STD, youll have to ask for a screening.
Fortunately, chlamydia is easy to treat. If you suspect that you have it, youll need to:
- See your health care provider immediately before the infection does damage to your reproductive organs.
- Listen to your doctor and take all of your medicine. Even if your symptoms go away, you should finish your pills.
- Tell your sexual partner. They should know about the infection so that they too can be tested and treated.
- Avoid having sexual intercourse until you and your partner have been cured.
Since chlamydia is a bacteria, your doctor will prescribe you antibiotics.
What Are The Risks Of Chlamydia Infection
Untreated chlamydia can lead to many serious health conditions.
Women can develop pelvic inflammatory disease. This can lead to pelvic pain, complications with pregnancy, and fertility difficulties. Sometimes women become infertile from the effects of untreated chlamydia.
Men may develop inflammation of their testicles from untreated chlamydia and may also experience fertility issues.
Babies who acquire chlamydia during childbirth can develop pink eye and pneumonia. Its important for women to be treated for chlamydia during pregnancy to avoid spreading it to an infant.
Sexual behavior of any kind puts you at risk of contracting chlamydia. Some ways to reduce your chances of getting chlamydia include:
- refraining from sexual activity
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Get Retested Following Treatment
Many people have more than one chlamydia infection. If youre a girl or woman and your sex partners are not treated for the infection, you will be at high risk for reinfection. Repeated infections with chlamydia make it much more likely that your ability to have children will be affected. Repeated infections also raise your risk of painful complications, such as pelvic inflammatory disease.
Both women and men with chlamydia should be retested about three months after they are first diagnosed and treated. Go to be retested even if you think your sex partners were successfully treated.
Is It Possible To Prevent Chlamydia
Since most people who have the infection do not have symptoms and may not be aware they are infected, it is commonly spread, and it can be difficult to prevent the infection. Male condoms can reduce the risk of spreading or acquiring the infection. Having a mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested or treated also reduces the risk of contracting chlamydia infection.
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What Are Symptoms Of Chlamydia
A 90% of chlamydial infected individuals are unaware of their infection as the disease does not exhibit symptoms. You can experience symptoms when they occur, in one to three weeks of exposure to the bacteria. The symptoms can be vaginal discharges and vaginal bleeding with pain when involved in sexual activities in females whereas males may experience pain, discharges and swelling in testicles.
How Does Chlamydia Treatment Work
Chlamydia treatment works by stopping the bacteria that causes chlamydia from producing an important protein which it needs to multiply. This stops the bacteria from growing and replicating, so your symptoms should improve as your body is cleared of chlamydia.
The first line treatment for chlamydia in the UK is doxycycline. The usual dose is one tablet to be taken twice daily for 7 days. You can swallow doxycycline tablets whole with water and take them with or without food. You should sit up for about 30 minutes after each dose to prevent symptoms of throat irritation or stomach upset.
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How Long Does Chlamydia Last
Once you are infected with chlamydia, it is unclear how long chlamydia can last in your system until treatment. Some estimate it can last for years. Once you have been infected, you can get tested immediately. In some cases, if you test negative but the suspected sexual encounter was recent, a doctor may advise you to come back after two weeks to be retested to ensure it is a fully correct diagnosis. After completing treatment the infection usually clears in 7 to 10 days.
Treatment Of Other Types
Two other conditions caused by Chlamydia trachomatis are uncommon in the United States, but very common worldwide:
- Lymphogranuloma venereum : Lymphogranuloma venereum is treated in the same way as standard genital chlamydia infections, but a longer course of therapy is used . Other care may also be required to treat genital ulcers or abscessed inguinal nodes if they occur.
- Trachoma: Trachoma is the leading preventable cause of blindness worldwide and often requires aggressive treatment with antibiotics and surgery addressing unsanitary living conditions is also necessary.
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How Do You Know If Chlamydia Is Gone After Treatment
Your chlamydia symptoms should improve within a week of completing your course of antibiotics.
You do not need an immediate follow-up test to check if your chlamydia treatment has worked, as dead chlamydia bacteria may be detected 3 to 5 weeks after treatment, which would give a false positive result. But, if you have a rectal infection, you should have a test after treatment is completed.
If you are under 25 and have tested positive for chlamydia, it is recommended you take a repeat test 3 months after completing your treatment, to check you have not caught chlamydia again.
Urogenital Infection In Women
In women, chlamydial infection of the lower genital tract occurs in the endocervix. It can cause an odorless, mucoid vaginal discharge, typically with no external pruritus, although many women have minimal or no symptoms.2 An ascending infection can result in pelvic inflammatory disease .
Physical findings of urogenital chlamydial infection in women include cervicitis with a yellow or cloudy mucoid discharge from the os. The cervix tends to bleed easily when rubbed with a polyester swab or scraped with a spatula. Chlamydial infection cannot be distinguished from other urogenital infections by symptoms alone. Clinical microscopy and the amine test can be used to help differentiate chlamydial infection from other lower genital tract infections such as urinary tract infection, bacterial vaginosis, and trichomoniasis.3 In addition, chlamydial infection in the lower genital tract does not cause vaginitis thus, if vaginal findings are present, they usually indicate a different diagnosis or a coinfection.
Some women with C. trachomatis infection develop urethritis symptoms may consist of dysuria without frequency or urgency. A urethral discharge can be elicited by compressing the urethra during the pelvic examination. Urinalysis usually will show more than five white blood cells per high-powered field, but urethral cultures generally are negative.
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How Over The Counter Antibiotics Help To Get Rid Of Chlamydia
Just went for accurate Chlamydia swab test and want to know about possible OTC for it? Here are some helpful tips for you. The existence of antibiotics has brought a new era in a medical world. Antibiotics are been used in a clinical practice which has allowed or helps in saving millions of lives, that is if been prescribed by a medical expert who knows the pros and cons of the disease. Although antibiotics are been prescribed and are always taken to preventive measures without further considerations. This now decreases the number of resistant, making bacterial strains reduce along side with it.
Over the counter has helped a lot in reducing the stress in rushing to hospitals or clinics in a far distance. The only good thing there is just know the right prescription for it and the problem is solved. So with over the counter antibiotics, it has helped so far by in various ways: