How Is Chlamydia Transmitted
As Chlamydia is a communicable disease, rather an infection, there are severe chances of it to be spread to other people in physical contact. But, there are certain clauses that need to keep in consideration. Chlamydia is definitely contagious which is why one should always practice safe sex or even ensure to be assured of their partners health report before going further with any kind of unprotected physical intimacy.
The bacteria causing the infection is often times, rather, for the most part, is transmitted from the infected to the uninfected person through unprotected sex or even via kissing. Any kind of body fluid exchange has the capability of transmitting the infection to the uninfected person.
Chlamydia is passed when the mucous membrane which is the skin covering the specified openings of the body comes in direct contact with the secretions or body fluids of the infected person. While oral sex is not predominantly a reason behind this infection, there still remains a possible chance of contracting this via that medium too.
Rare cases, but sometimes, the infection is even transmitted via eye infections. Even pregnant women have the possibility of transmitting the infection to their newborn babies.
How To Clear Chlamydia Without Antibiotics
Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. While we are unable to recommend any treatment not recommended by the CDC in the treatment of chlamydia there are some who have utilized alternative treatment to reduce infection but does not cure it. These remedies include garlic, turmeric, or dieting.
Is There An Over Counter Treatment For Chlamydia
No, the CDC recommended treatment for chlamydia requires a prescription, but you do not need to visit the doctorâs office in person to get a prescription. Technology has made doctor visits online quick and easy. Just complete an online consultation visit and a prescription can be sent to a local pharmacy.
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Can Apple Cider Vinegar Cure Chlamydia
Apple cider vinegar can cure chlamydia because it helps keep the vagina sterile and expels all parasites and eliminates infections and the unpleasant smell of vaginal discharge.
Studies have shown that apple cider vinegar is effective against bacteria. It also helps maintain a normal balance in your body between good and bad bacteria.
To use apple cider vinegar for chlamydia, add a few tablespoons to the tub.
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Signs And Symptoms Of Chlamydia:
As per the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 75% of women and 50% of men dont recognize the symptoms of chlamydia. So, here we are explaining you the signs and symptoms of chlamydia which helps you to recognize the problem early.
Chlamydia symptoms in women include lower abdominal pain, painful urination, painful sexual intercourse, vaginal discharge, bleeding after sex and between periods, inflammation or infection in the eyes, rectal pain and discharge, persistent sore throat, fever, nausea, lower back pain, etc.
Chlamydia symptoms in men include painful urination, testicular tenderness, and swelling, rectal pain and discharge, cloudy or thick discharge from the penis, sore throat, redness or itching along with swelling at the opening of the urethra, etc.
The most common risk factors for chlamydia include improper usage of condoms, multiple sexual partners, having unprotected sex, being sexually active or having a partner who is considered at high risk, etc. However, the study brings to light new information about the potential risk factor is that the exact reason behind this disease is unclear till now. In general, if youre diagnosed with chlamydia then your doctor will prescribe an oral antibiotic for a period of 5 10 days .
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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.
How Can I Reduce My Risk Of Getting Chlamydia
The only way to avoid STDs is to not have vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
If you are sexually active, you can do the following things to lower your chances of getting chlamydia:
- Be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and has negative STD test results
- Use latex condoms the right way every time you have sex.
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What Can Be Complications Of Delayed Treated Or Untreated Or Improperly Treated Chlamydia
Some people ignore the infection that may complicate the case. Untreated or improperly treated chlamydia have ill effects on health and treatment both. If left untreated, the chances of contracting other STD like gonorrhea or HIV increases. The patient may develop reactive arthritis as a consequence.
Females develop serious affections for reproduction system and can become infertile. She can also suffer from Pelvic inflammatory diseases and ectopic pregnancy. Chlamydia may induce premature birth, stillbirth and low weight baby in untreated cases of chlamydia during pregnancy. Untreated chlamydial infected pregnant women can transmit the infection to their unborn infants during delivery. Infants of infected pregnant women may develop chlamydial conjunctivitis and pneumonia if exposed to the bacteria during birth.
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How Do You Get Chlamydia
You can get chlamydia from any type of sex. Chlamydia infections like to live in the type of tissue that lines the openings of your body like the vagina, the urethra, the rectum, or the throat. It can get passed between two people any time these tissues come together which happens most often during unprotected vaginal or anal sex. Its less common but not impossible to get chlamydia from oral sex.
Female Complications Of Untreated Chlamydia
Some women develop PID, an infection that can damage the uterus, cervix, and ovaries. PID is a painful disease that often requires hospital treatment.
Women can also become infertile if chlamydia is left untreated because the fallopian tubes may become scarred.
Pregnant women with the infection can pass the bacteria to their babies during birth, which can cause eye infections and pneumonia in newborns.
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Where Can I Get A Test
There are a number of services you can go to. Choose the one you feel most comfortable with.
A chlamydia test can be done at:
- a genitourinary medicine or sexual health clinic
- your general practice
- contraception and young peoples clinics
- some pharmacies.
Abortion clinics, antenatal services and some gynaecology services may also offer a chlamydia test.
In England, if youre a woman aged under 25 years old, you may be offered a chlamydia test as part of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme when you visit some service for other reasons, for example at a pharmacy or your GP.
The NCSP aims to identify people without symptoms to reduce the complications of untreated infection. If chlamydia is not treated, it can cause health complications, especially in women. Untreated chlamydia in women can cause pain in the pelvis, ectopic pregnancy and infertility .
If you are a woman aged under 25 years old and you are offered a chlamydia test as part of the NCSP you should consider taking it.
In many areas, free home self-sampling tests for chlamydia are available to order online. This is where you take your own sample and send it to be tested. See www.nhs.uk
Its also possible to buy a chlamydia test to do at home. The accuracy of these tests varies. Some types are very accurate when carried out according to the instructions, others can be less reliable. If you buy a testing kit make sure you get advice from a pharmacist or your doctor.
How Chlamydia Is Treated
Chlamydia can usually be treated easily with antibiotics.
You may be given a course of doxycycline to take for a week or azithromycin to take once a day for 3 days.
If you have doxycycline, you should not have sex until you and your current sexual partner have finished treatment.
If you have azithromycin, you should wait 7 days after treatment before having sex .
Its important that your current sexual partner and any other recent sexual partners you have had are also tested and treated to help stop the spread of the infection.
Under-25s who have chlamydia should be offered another test 3 to 6 months after being treated.
This is because young adults who test positive for chlamydia are at increased risk of catching it again.
Sexual health or genitourinary medicine clinics can help you contact your sexual partners.
Either you or the clinic can speak to them, or they can be sent a note advising them to get tested.
The note will not have your name on it, so your confidentiality will be protected.
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What Is The Best Home Remedy For Chlamydia
The only consistently proven cure for chlamydia is antibiotics. There are a few products and home remedies out there recommended by countless websites for curing chlamydia at home. Unfortunately, the results of these treatments can be inconsistent and never involve the use of actual antibiotics. The only guaranteed method of treating bacterial infections, like chlamydia, is antibiotics.
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.
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How Long Does Chlamydia Last
The primary factor about the symptoms of Chlamydia is the fact that they are often not even detected until at least 1-3 weeks after one has contracted the infection which is why there is no set timeline as to how long this infection lasts in an individual.
If the symptoms are diagnosed in the initial stages of inception, chances are that the process of recovery would be faster than one would normally expect but there are even exceptions where the symptoms are sometimes not even detected for months which are where the bacteria spread to unexplainable amounts and causes a problem.
In situations like these, there are chances that the infection would persist for a longer period of time and take up a good time to completely heal.
If you are here wondering is Chlamydia curable, let me clear it out for you that it actually is curable. It is just necessary to get yourself checked out for any possible signs and symptoms and walk yourself from there because if the symptoms are diagnosed at an initial stage, there are chances that the over the counter Chlamydia treatment would be more than enough to cure the problem and that too, right from the roots.
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When Should I See My Healthcare Provider
When it comes to chlamydia, its a good idea to be proactive. Speak with your healthcare provider about your risks of infection. Make a plan to get screened regularly for STIs based on your providers recommendations for how often you should be tested. Make an appointment with your healthcare provider if your partner tests positive for chlamydia or if you notice any signs or symptoms that you may be infected.
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How Can You Tell If You Have Chlamydia
You can have chlamydia without experiencing any symptoms. In fact, many womenâapproximately 70% of those who are infectedâare completely asymptomatic, which means that they are also unaware that they are carrying Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria.
The lack of symptoms can cause health problems over time because an untreated chlamydia infection can lead to complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease . Also, if you become pregnant and have chlamydia, you may develop an ectopic pregnancy . Some people with untreated chlamydia may develop reactive arthritis, a form of joint inflammation thatâs caused by the chlamydia bacterium . Untreated chlamydia can also damage your reproductive organs, which could potentially lead to infertility.
Thankfully, effective treatments exist for chlamydial infections. But to get treatment, you first need to determine if you have chlamydia in the first place. As mentioned above, you could have chlamydia without any symptoms. But there are certain telltale symptoms you may experience that can help identify it.
Chlamydia symptoms look very different in men and women. If your male partner experiences urethritis , or has discharge from his penis, he may have chlamydia. If thatâs the case, you should both test for sexually transmitted infections.
What Is The Treatment For Chlamydia
Chlamydia can be easily cured with antibiotics. HIV-positive persons with chlamydia should receive the same treatment as those who are HIV-negative.
Persons with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for 7 days after single dose antibiotics or until completion of a 7-day course of antibiotics, to prevent spreading the infection to partners. It is important to take all of the medication prescribed to cure chlamydia. Medication for chlamydia should not be shared with anyone. Although medication will stop the infection, it will not repair any permanent damage done by the disease. If a persons symptoms continue for more than a few days after receiving treatment, he or she should return to a health care provider to be reevaluated.
Repeat infection with chlamydia is common. Women whose sex partners have not been appropriately treated are at high risk for re-infection. Having multiple chlamydial infections increases a womans risk of serious reproductive health complications, including pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancy. Women and men with chlamydia should be retested about three months after treatment of an initial infection, regardless of whether they believe that their sex partners were successfully treated.
Infants infected with chlamydia may develop ophthalmia neonatorum and/or pneumonia. Chlamydial infection in infants can be treated with antibiotics.
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Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections
A sexually transmitted infection is an infection thats spread through sexual contact. This includes skin-to-skin contact.
In general, STIs are preventable. Almost 20 million new STI cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, according to the .
Being mindful of sexual health and protection may help many avoid these infections.
The only guaranteed method to prevent STIs is to abstain from all sexual contact. However, when engaging in sexual activity, there are steps to limit the risk of STIs.
Effective STI prevention begins before any sexual activity. Here are some steps you can take to reduce your STI risk:
- Talk honestly with potential partners about both of your sexual histories.
- Get tested, along with your partner, before having sex.
- Avoid sexual contact when under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
- Get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus , hepatitis A, and hepatitis B .
- Consider pre-exposure prophylaxis , a medication that someone who is HIV negative can take to reduce their risk of contracting HIV.
- Use barrier methods every time you engage in sexual activity.
Having a conversation about sexual health with your partner is key, but not everyone with an STI knows they have one. Thats why its so important to get tested.
If you or your partner has an STI diagnosis, talk about it. That way you can both make informed decisions.
Using barrier methods can lower your risk of contracting STIs. These methods can include:
Youre Not Immune To Chlamydia Once Youve Had It
Once youve had some diseases, you cant catch them again. Unfortunately, this isnt true for chlamydia. Repeat chlamydia infections are common.
If youve had chlamydia in the past, you have no immunity against the infection. If youre sexually active with somebody who has the infection, you could catch it again. Since reinfection is common, you should get tested for chlamydia about three months after being treated for the infection.
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How Is Chlamydia Treated
Chlamydia can be cleared up with antibiotics in about a week or two. But dont stop taking your medication just because your symptoms improve. Ask your provider about what follow-up is needed to be sure your infection is gone after youve finished taking your medicine.
Part of your treatment should also include avoiding sexual activities that could cause you to get re-infected and ensuring that any sexual partners who may be infected also get treatment. You should:
- Abstain from sex until your infection has cleared up. Starting treatment doesnt mean that youre in the clear. Take all your medication as your provider directs, and avoid all sexual contact in the meantime.
- Contact all sexual partners. Tell any sexual partners from the last 3 months that youre infected so that they can get tested, too.
- Get tested for other STIs . Its common to have multiple STIs, and its important to receive treatment thats tailored to each infection.
Antibiotics can get rid of your infection, but they cant reverse any harm the bacteria may have caused to your body before treatment. This is why its so important to get screened regularly for chlamydia, to see your provider at the first sign of symptoms, and get treatment immediately if youre infected.