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How Can You Have Chlamydia And Not Know It

What Complications Can Result From Chlamydial Infection

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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

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 Gonorrhea.

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.footnote 4

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.

Also Check: How Soon Do You Get Symptoms Of Chlamydia

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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How Can I Protect Myself From Chlamydia

The only way to avoid getting chlamydia is to abstain from having vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who has a chlamydia infection. And be sure that sex toys that carry the bacteria dont come in contact with your genitals.

Its not always possible to know if a current or potential partner has chlamydia, though, especially since many people with chlamydia never notice symptoms. With prevention in mind, its a good idea to make safer sex practices a regular part of your sex life:

  • Use condoms during intercourse, anal sex and oral sex.
  • Use dental dams during oral sex or vagina-to-vagina contact.
  • Dont share sex toys, but if you do, wash them after each use and cover toys used for penetration with a condom.
  • Have sex with only one partner, who only has sex with you.

So Can You Have Chlamydia For Years

What Every Woman Should Know About Chlamydia

According to the experts, chlamydia was never been known to exist for years. This infection can actually fester for almost 2 months but was never been known to last for years without any visible signs and symptoms. On the other hand, if a person is infected for years, he/she is likely to have developed other problems like PID . Moreover, this disease can never stay dormant for years because it should have been diagnosed in medical tests.

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What Happens If Ive Had Chlamydia For 4 Months

People who have chlamydia for long periods without treatment risk becoming infertile or developing arthritis. For women, chlamydia can spread into the uterus and fallopian tubes, causing pelvic inflammatory disease. Pelvic inflammatory disease can lead to ectopic pregnancies, chronic pelvic pain and infertility.

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 Long Does It Take For Chlamydia To Show Up Tests And Mor

Chlamydia can infect the body and show no signs or symptoms but it never goes away unless treated. chlamydia has been known to infect people for up to 10 years before the person actually knowing they have it because they may have been asymptomatic to the side effects 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

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How To Tell Your Partners You Have Chlamydia

WHY I CAN’T HAVE CHILDREN | STORYTIME

You did the right thing. You peed in a plastic cup and got the results: chlamydia.

Its not a big deal – its the most common sexually transmitted infection you can pick up. 80 per cent of people who have chlamydia dont have any symptoms. The doctor will give you one dose of antibiotics and boom, youre cured.

But then, the doctor says you need to contact your former sexual partners and let them know. That you might have exposed them to an STI. That if they dont get tested and treated it could have serious consequences . How are you going start that conversation?

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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.

Chlamydia Signs In Ladies Can You Have Chlamydia And Not Know

Chlamydia is frequently known as the quiet infection. Thats since individuals with chlamydia may not experience symptoms whatsoever.

If a woman agreements the STI, it might take a number of weeks before any type of symptoms appear.

A few of the most typical signs of chlamydia in females consist of:

  • agonizing sexual relations
  • discomfort in the reduced abdomen
  • swelling of the cervix
  • hemorrhaging between durations

In some ladies, the infection can spread to the fallopian tubes, which may cause a problem called pelvic inflammatory illness .

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Can You Test Negative For Chlamydia And Still Have It

This is because the bacteria needs enough time to multiply within your body in order for it to reach a detectable level when taking a chlamydia test. For chlamydia this is often 14 days. If you test before that 14 days is over, you may test negative, but you could still pass the bacteria on following your test.

Who Does Chlamydia Affect

How to recognize and treat Chlamydia trachomatis

Anyone whos sexually active can get chlamydia. The bacteria that causes chlamydia gets transmitted through vaginal fluid and semen, which means that people of all genders who have sex can become infected with chlamydia and infect their partners, too. If youre pregnant and have chlamydia, you can pass it on to your newborn.

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Faq: How Long Can You Have Gonorrhea And Not Know

Gonorrhea symptoms normally show up between 1 and 10 days after you get the infection. Some people dont see any symptoms until after theyve had the infection for months.19-Apr-2021

How long does gonorrhea last in your system after treatment?

  • The duration to cure gonorrhea actually depends on how long the person has had the infection. If the infection has not spread to the cervix or the urethra, then the infection will clear up within 2 days of starting the treatment. If the infection has spread, then it will take several days or weeks for gonorrhea to cure.

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 don’t 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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Can You Get Gonorrhea Without Being Sexually Active

Gonorrhea is almost always transmitted during sex and it is highly unlikely that you catch it without having sex. However, you can catch it without penetration, for example if your genitals touch those of an infected partner.

What Is The Treatment For Chlamydia

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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 cure 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.49 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.50,51 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.40

Infants infected with chlamydia may develop ophthalmia neonatorum and/or pneumonia.10 Chlamydial infection in infants can be treated with antibiotics.

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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.

What Is Herpes And What Causes It

Herpes is a very common STD caused by the herpes simplex virus, or HSV. There are two different types of herpes:

  • HSV-1 is a typical cause of cold sores or fever blisters that appear on the lips. This form of herpes spreads through skin-to-skin contact with an infected person and sometimes affects the genitals.
  • HSV-2 is the most common cause of genital herpes, which can lead to symptoms like small blisters on the genitals, painful urination, swollen lymph nodes around the groin, and more. You can contract this virus through sexual contact with someone who has it. This HSV infection is highly contagious, and it can spread to you regardless of whether your partner has an open sore. If you are infected but donât have symptoms, you have asymptomatic herpes.

After an initial infection, the herpes virus doesnât go away. Instead, it lies dormant in the body before it can cause symptoms to reappear. Some people may experience a symptomatic recurrence multiple times a year, while others may go years between flare-ups. In the case of asymptomatic herpes, however, you may not have any noticeable symptoms at any point during the infection.

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Nucleic Acid Amplification Test

The most common test for chlamydia, this is a simple, non-invasive test during which you collect a swab or urine sample yourself . A doctor can assist in taking a swab if you prefer.

The sample is then sent to be tested to see if there is genetic material that indicates the presence of chlamydia bacteria. Results come back quicker than the traditional culture test.

How To Help Partners Get Treatment

How to recognize and treat Chlamydia trachomatis

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.

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How Common Is Chlamydia

In the United States, chlamydia infection rates are on the rise, making chlamydia the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection in the country. In 2016, almost 1.6 million cases of chlamydia were reported to the Centers for Disease Control .

In the U.S., women are about twice as likely to be reported to have chlamydia as men. However, this is likely due to screening practices, since women are often screened during their annual pelvic exams. Men do not generally have similar annual screenings of their reproductive organs.

Since women are more likely to be asymptomatic, the number of people who actually have chlamydia could be even higher. Also, as testing becomes more sensitive and screening becomes more common and available, this trend is expected to continue to rise.

People aged 15 to 25 years old make up almost two thirds of all chlamydia cases reported in 2016 to the CDC . More specifically, up to 1 in 20 sexually active young women aged 14-24 could have chlamydia in the US .

Outside of the US, chlamydia is also very common. In 2012, the worldwide estimate of chlamydia infections was around 131 million new cases of chlamydia per year . This number is close to that of the entire population of Japan.

The Std You May Have And Not Even Know It

Why the CDC is sounding the alarm on this scary infection

No wonder chlamydia has been nicknamed the silent stalker: After analyzing the latest data, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than one in 100 U.S. adults currently have this sexually transmitted disease. That works out to 1.8 million casesyet only 1.4 of those have been reported. In other words, 400,000 people may have it and be clueless about the risk it poses to themselves and their partners.

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But its not necessarily their fault theyre in the dark. Most of the time, chlamydia has zero symptoms. In men and women, it can trigger signs such as abnormal discharge and pain, especially during urination, but the most common symptom is actually none at all, says Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., clinical professor of ob-gyn at Yale University.

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But heres the good news: A simple test at your gynos office can diagnose chlamydia, and if you have it, a quick course of antibiotics will cure the infection. Ob-gyn guidelines call for all sexually active women under age 25 to be tested yearly, but if youre over 25 and arent sure of your partners status, consider getting tested, just to play it safe. Read this for more information on this scary STD.

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How Can I Prevent Chlamydia

It’s easier to prevent an STI like chlamydia than it is to treat it:

  • Don’t have more than one sex partner at a time. The safest sex is with one partner who has sex only with you. Every time you add a new sex partner, you are being exposed to all of the infections that all of their partners may have.
  • Use a condom every time you have sex. Latex and polyurethane condoms keep out the viruses and bacteria that cause STIs.
  • Be responsible. Don’t have sex if you have symptoms of an infection or if you are being treated for an STI.
  • Wait to have sex with a new partner until both of you have been tested for STIs.

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