Exactly How Typical Is Chlamydia
In 2017, greater than 1.7 million instances of chlamydia were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and also Prevention . Numerous situations go unreported, so the real number of chlamydia infections every year might be closer to 3 million.
Men and women can both obtain the infection, however much more cases in females are reported.
Infection rates are greatest amongst younger ladies, with the greatest prices of infection happening in ladies between ages 15 and also 24.
The CDC advises that all sexually active women ages 25 years as well as younger obtain evaluated for chlamydia each year, in addition to older women with threat elements like several or brand-new companions.
Statistically, a person is more probable to get an STI if theyve made love with more than someone. Other danger variables consist of having had an STI in the past, or presently have an infection because this can lower resistance.
Rates for chlamydia as well as other STIs have actually been climbing up in the last few years.
Does Chlamydia Mean Your Partner Cheated
If you become infected, it may not mean your partner cheated Provided youve been totally faithful yourself, you may logically assume the source of your infection is your partner and that they must have been intimate with someone else, picked up an STD, and then shared it with you.
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How Does Chlamydia Affect A Pregnant Woman
Chlamydia in pregnant women can be passed on to the baby causing serious complications in the newborn such as ophthalmia neonatorum and pneumonia. Untreated chlamydia in pregnant women is also likely to cause preterm labor . Chlamydia infection is also associated with a high risk of ectopic pregnancy .
Pregnant women should get tested for chlamydia at their first prenatal visit because testing and treatment are the best ways to prevent complications.
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What’s The Treatment For Chlamydia
Chlamydia is treated with antibiotics. If you take the treatment according to instructions, its over 95% effective at treating chlamydia.
- Youll be given a course of antibiotics for 3 or 7 days or sometimes up to two weeks.
- If theres a high chance you have chlamydia, treatment may be started before the results of the test are back. Youll always be given treatment if a sexual partner is found to have chlamydia.
- You may also need other treatment if complications have occurred.
- Tell the doctor or nurse if youre pregnant, or think you might be, or youre breastfeeding. This may affect the type of antibiotic youre given.
- Complementary therapies cant cure chlamydia.
How Long Does Treatment Take
Treatment time for chlamydia can vary from one to seven days. Azithromycin requires only one dose for one day, while you must take other antibiotics multiple times a day for seven days.
To cure a chlamydia infection, take the antibiotics exactly as prescribed by your doctor and for the full length of the prescription, being sure to take every dose. There should be no medication left at the end of the treatment period. You cannot save medication in case you acquire chlamydia again.
Contact your doctor if you still have symptoms but have taken all your antibiotics. You will need a follow-up test with your doctor
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When Will The Signs And Symptoms Go Away
You should notice an improvement quite quickly after having treatment.
- Discharge or pain when you urinate should improve within a week.
- Bleeding between periods or heavier periods should improve by your next period.
- Pelvic pain and pain in the testicles should start to improve quickly but may take up to two weeks to go away.
If you have pelvic pain or painful sex that doesnt improve, see your doctor or nurse as it may be necessary to have some further treatment or investigate other possible causes of the pain.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Chlamydia
Yes! It is curable for both men and women and it is one of the common diseases to be passed on sexually. The hardest thing is noticing the infection itself as it remains symptomless so it can be difficult to realise you have it in the first place.
Its unclear whether chlamydia can be spread through just touching another persons genitals. In most cases, it is usually caught through unprotected vaginal, oral or anal sex. It is also possible to catch the infection through unprotected or uncleaned shared toys.
Most people dont show signs of the infection and it rare for people to recognise symptoms as the infection. If you do get symptoms of the sexually transmitted disease then they usually appear one to three weeks after having unprotected sex with an infected person. It is possible for symptoms to develop months after the initial infection and symptoms can come and go.
Yes! Chlamydial conjunctivitis is redness and swelling of the clear membrane that lines the inside of your eyelids and covers the white of your eyes. In some cases the infection when in the eye is known as pink eye. Although relatively harmless in adults, eye infection in newborn babies can lead to blindness.
What Is The Treatment For Chlamydia
Chlamydia is treated with antibiotics. The recommended antibiotic treatment is doxycycline taken twice a day for seven days or azrithromycin taken in one single dose. Other alternative medications may be used but are not as effective as azrithromycin and doxycycline. Persons being treated for chlamydia should not have sexual intercourse for seven days after single dose therapy or until completion of all seven days of antibiotics . Patients can be re-infected if their sex partners are not treated.
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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.
How Do You Know If Chlamydia Is Gone After Treatment
If youve had treatment after testing and taking the right antibiotics, its always important to confirm chlamydia cure. You can wait till five weeks after medications and recheck for chlamydia to verify cure.
If you still test positive after five weeks, please let your health professional know right away
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Am I At Risk For Chlamydia
Anyone who has sex can get chlamydia through unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex. However, sexually active young people are at a higher risk of getting chlamydia. This is due to behaviors and biological factors common among young people. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are also at risk since chlamydia can spread through oral and anal sex.
Have an honest and open talk with your health care provider. Ask whether you should be tested for chlamydia or other STDs. If you are a sexually active woman younger than 25 years, you should get a test for chlamydia every year. If you are an older woman with risk factors such as new or multiple sex partners, or a sex partner who has an STD, you should get a test for chlamydia every year. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men as well as pregnant women should also get tested for chlamydia.
What If I Don’t 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 doesn’t cause symptoms initially, PID can cause permanent damage to your reproductive system and can lead to long-term pelvic pain, inability to get pregnant, and potentially deadly pregnancy outside the uterus.
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 fathering children. Untreated chlamydia may also increase your chances of getting or giving HIV – the virus that causes AIDS.
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Exactly How Is Chlamydia Spread Does Chlamydia Go Away By Itself
You can get chlamydia by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with somebody who has chlamydia.
If your sex companion is male you can still get chlamydia even if he does not ejaculate.
If youve had chlamydia and were treated in the past, you can still obtain infected again. This can happen if you have vulnerable sex with a person that has chlamydia.
If you are expectant, you can offer chlamydia to your child during giving birth.
Chlamydia Can Live In Your Gut And Reinfect You After Youre Cured
Doctors have known that chlamydia can reappear, but until now theyve been stumped as to how exactly it happens
Chlamydia is the most commonly reported sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. Thankfully, its also curable. But new research suggests that for some people, curing chlamydia doesnt prevent reinfection, even if theyre not exposed to it again. Apparently the disease can live inside your gut, and reinfect you out of the blue.
Apparently doctors have known that chlamydia can reappear in cured patients for about 80 years, but theyve been stumped as to how exactly it happens. This study points out that, in many animals, chlamydia has been found to live in the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, if gastrointestinal infection occurs in most hosts, the authors write, then it is very likely that gastrointestinal infection occurs in humans as well.
The study in question doesnt actually test this theory on any human beings. Instead it looks at data in animal models about reinfection, and the failure of certain drugs to treat chlamydia when it lives in the gut. From there, they propose that women who are infected with chlamydia could see the same kind of issues: the drugs theyre given might cure the disease genitally, but not gastrointestinally, leaving the bug to live inside waiting for the right time to strike.
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What Can Happen If Chlamydia Is Not Treated
In women
Chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease . PID is a serious infection of the reproductive organs. PID can cause:
- Infertility.
- Tubal pregnancies, which can lead to death of the mother and unborn child.
- Inflammation surrounding the liver.
A mother also can pass the infection to her child during birth. Infection in newborns can lead to:
- Eye infections .
Can Chlamydia Be Cured
Yes, chlamydia can be cured with the right treatment. It is important that you take all of the medication your doctor prescribes to cure your infection. When taken properly it will stop the infection and could decrease your chances of having complications later on. You should not share medication for chlamydia with anyone.
Repeat infection with chlamydia is common. You should be tested again about three months after you are treated, even if your sex partner was treated.
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What Does A Chlamydia Test Involve
- If you have a vulva, you may be asked to take a swab around the inside of your vagina yourself.
- A doctor or nurse may take a swab during an internal examination of your vagina and cervix .
- You may be asked to provide a urine sample. Before having this test, youre advised not to pass urine for 12 hours.
- A doctor or nurse may take a swab from the entrance of the urethra .
- If youve had anal or oral sex, a doctor or nurse may swab your rectum or throat . These swabs arent done routinely on everyone.
- If you have symptoms of conjunctivitis swabs will be used to collect a sample of discharge from your eye.
A swab looks a bit like a cotton bud but is smaller and rounded. It sometimes has a small plastic loop on the end rather than a cotton tip. Its wiped over the parts of the body that could be infected. This only takes a few seconds and isnt painful, though it may be uncomfortable for a moment.
Cervical screening and routine blood tests dont detect chlamydia.
If youre not sure whether youve been tested for chlamydia, just ask.
What Are The Potential Causes Of Chlamydia
Chlamydia gets spread due to sexual contact and it is overly infectious. The name of the infection is suggested after the bacterium that acts like major cause for its production, it is Chlamydia trachomatis.
The strange fact is that, most of the males or females that have these bacteria in their body, does not report any specific symptom and it never let them know if they are affected with the disease Chlamydia. This virus usually gets transmitted via oral, anal or vaginal sex.
It is also possible to find Chlamydia symptoms in newborn child as they get transmitted from a Chlamydia positive mother. Reports say that almost 2/3rd newborn babies get infected with Chlamydia from infected mothers.
The most common problems faced by newborns due to Chlamydia infection appears in form of eye issues, respiratory troubles etc. whereas in adults, this diseases causes problems like genital infections.
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Chlamydial Infection Among Adolescents And Adults
Chlamydial infection is the most frequently reported bacterial infectious disease in the United States, and prevalence is highest among persons aged 24 years . Multiple sequelae can result from C. trachomatis infection among women, the most serious of which include PID, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility. Certain women who receive a diagnosis of uncomplicated cervical infection already have subclinical upper genital tract infection.
Asymptomatic infection is common among both men and women. To detect chlamydial infection, health care providers frequently rely on screening tests. Annual screening of all sexually active women aged < 25 years is recommended, as is screening of older women at increased risk for infection . In a community-based cohort of female college students, incident chlamydial infection was also associated with BV and high-risk HPV infection . Although chlamydia incidence might be higher among certain women aged 25 years in certain communities, overall, the largest proportion of infection is among women aged < 25 years .
How Is Chlamydia Spread
You can get chlamydia by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has chlamydia.
If your sex partner is male you can still get chlamydia even if he does not ejaculate .
If youve had chlamydia and were treated in the past, you can still get infected again. This can happen if you have unprotected sex with someone who has chlamydia.
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Some Common Stds And Their Symptoms:
Chlamydia
As a common bacterial STD, Chlamydia is a treatable and curable disease. With proper prescription antibiotics, you can take care of its STD symptoms easily. It affects about 2.8 million people in the U.S annually, which is a very high count. Most of the infected may not show any symptoms, giving you more reason to get tested. Untreated Chlamydia can cause long-term or permanent harm to your reproductive organs.
Its symptoms may only start to show after one to three weeks of exposure to the infection. They include
Gonorrhea:
Gonorrhea is another common bacterial sexually transmitted disease among late teens and is also known as the clap. You can cure and treat it with the proper medications. Reports show that gonorrhea infects about 800,000 people in the U.S. each year. Most of its STD symptoms are usually mild, and you may dismiss it without being aware of it.
Some of its common symptoms include
Syphilis:
The STD symptoms according to stages are as follows
Primary Syphilis:
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How You Get Chlamydia
Due to the fact that chlamydia does not disappear on its own if left unattended, and because it might at times be asymptomatic, it is essential to comprehend how you get chlamydia so you can be checked for the disease if you are at risk.
Chlamydia is gone through sex. Complete penetration does not need to occur for the chlamydia to be passed from the penis to the vagin or vice versa.
In addition, chlamydia can be passed from the vagina to the rectum or anus when a woman wipes with toilet paper or otherwise spreads the bacteria from the vagina to the anus.
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