How Do You Know If Chlamydia Is Gone After Treatment

If I Have Chlamydia Am I At Risk Of Other Sexually Transmitted Infections

Yes. By definition, having unprotected sex means risk of STI. As well as chlamydia, there are also genital warts, genital herpes, gonorrhoea, HIV, pubic lice, and syphilis. Like with chlamydia, gonorrhoea may well cause no symptoms, so being tested is the only way to really know. This can be done at your local sexual health clinic.

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What Exactly Causes Chlamydia

A type of bacterium called Chlamydia trachomatis causes chlamydia. This bacterium can take hold in the tissues of your genitals, anus, eyes, or throat.

Its usually transmitted from one person to another during penetrative vaginal or anal sex or oral sex, although sex without penetration can also transmit it.

Chlamydia can also be transmitted to a baby during vaginal delivery if the person giving birth has an untreated chlamydia infection.

How Often Should I Get Checked For Chlamydia

Sexual health check-ups are recommended for anyone who is sexually active. Frequency of testing also depends on your STI risk:

• An annual sexual health check-up is highly recommended if you are sexually active especially if you are under 25.
• Get checked more often during the year if you frequently change sexual partners.
• Remember, you are at greater risk if you have sex without a condom with 1 or multiple sexual partners.

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Why Cant I Repeat The Chlamydia Test After Ive Taken My Treatment To Check It Worked

You can, but it takes up to 6 weeks for the test to go back to negative after an infection. If you re-test too early a positive result can be a sign of continuing or re-infection, but itâs most likely to be positive from the initial infection, so itâs not at all helpful.

If you are under 25 years of age, it is recommended to have a repeat test 3 months after treatment as a significant number of young people get repeat infections which are linked to an increased risk of complications.

How Soon Can You Retest After Chlamydia Treatment

igmg87 over a year ago

I was diagnosed with Chlamydia a week ago, I had not had sex with anyone for over a month prior to that. Doctor prescribed me Azithromycin 500mg 2 tablets as a one time dose. My doctor told me I needed to retest after 3 months to make sure that I didnât have it or have been reinfected. Iâm very paranoid because Iâve never had an std, & I donât want to have sex with anyone unless I test first & its negative. Can I retest a week after I finish the antibiotic treatment or will it still show positive? I donât want to get back with my ex boyfriend unless both of our results are negative. I still plan on retesting in 3 months

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Biomajor10over a year ago

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Where Can I Get Tested

Sexual health clinics, a genitourinary medicine clinics or GP surgeries provide free and confidential chlamydia testing. In England there is a national screening program for people under 25 years test kits are available in many pharmacies, contraception clinics, or colleges. Home testing kits may also be purchased in some pharmacies and online.

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.

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Will I Need To Go Back To The Clinic

If you take your antibiotics correctly, you may not need to return to the clinic.

However, you will be advised to go back for another chlamydia test if:

• you had sex before you and your partner finished treatment
• you forgot to take your medication or didnt take it properly
• your symptoms dont go away
• youre pregnant

If youre under 25 years of age, you should be offered a repeat test for chlamydia 3 to 6 months after finishing your treatment because youre at a higher risk of catching it again.

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How Long Will It Take For Chlamydia To Show Up In Men

Both women and men need the same amount of time forchlamydia symptoms to show up, and there is no major difference in the timelinenecessary for the bacteria to reproduce. The only huge difference is thefrequency of the symptoms men might experience. Based on statistics, 70% of mendont notice any symptoms at all, while 90% of women dont notice physicalsymptoms only.

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How Is Chlamydia Spread Can You Still Have Symptoms Chlamydia After Treatment

You can obtain 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 have an orgasm.

If you have actually had chlamydia and were dealt with in the past, you can still get contaminated once more. This can happen if you have unguarded sex with somebody that has chlamydia.

If you are pregnant, you can provide chlamydia to your child during giving birth.

How Is Chlamydia Treated

If detected early, chlamydia can be treated with a single dose of antibiotic.

If complications from chlamydia infection are present such as pelvic inflammatory disease in women a longer course of antibiotics will be required.

Do not have sex for 7 days after you and your current partner have completed treatment. This includes all kinds of sex with or without a condom.

You can get reinfected with chlamydia if you have sex within the 7 days.

After you have completed treatment, have another test for chlamydia in 3 months time to make sure you have not been re-infected.

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If Your Partner Did Not Get Treated

Itâs important to understand that the antibiotics used to treat chlamydia donât work like a vaccine. They eliminate the existing chlamydia infection, but antibiotics donât make you immune to the disease. That means that you can get reinfected by a sexual partner who has chlamydia.

If you are in a committed monogamous relationship, itâs important that your sex partner also gets tested and treated for chlamydia as soon as you receive your diagnosis. Without proper diagnosis and treatment, you and your partner may end up just passing the infection back and forth through unprotected sex until you both receive treatment.

Easily check for chlamydia from the comfort and privacy of home with the at-home chlamydia test, or try the at-home STD Test to check for 6 common sexually transmitted infections with a single test kit.

If you are not in a committed monogamous relationship, talk to any recent sexual partners to make sure that they also get tested to prevent the potential spread of the disease. You and your sex partner should also get tested again about three to four months following treatment to ensure that the chlamydia infection is no longer in your system.

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Why Wait Seven Days After Chlamydia Treatment

If youre getting treatment for chlamydia, avoid oral, anal, or vaginal sex until seven days after the treatment is over. As chlamydia is a bacteria, your health care provider will most likely prescribe you antibiotics that need time to be effective.

If your partner is getting treatment, you should wait seven days after they take all of their medicine. If you dont wait for the treatment to be effective and have sex earlier, you can get the infection again.

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How Do You Catch Chlamydia

You can get chlamydia through:

• Unprotected oral sex and sex without a condom. You dont even have to experience penetration to get it as you can transmit the bacteria by only touching genitals together.
• Anal sex can also result in a chlamydia infection.
• Sharing sex toys.
• Infected mothers who have the infection might transfer it to their newborn baby during birth. For this reason, all expecting mothers should double-check for chlamydia with their OB-GYN.
• You can get a chlamydia infection in the eye if infected semen or vaginal fluid gets into your eyes.

You cant catch chlamydia through kissing, hugging, sharing baths, towels, swimming pools, toilet seats, or cutlery.

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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How Do You Know When Chlamydia Is Gone

Chlamydia is an usual sexually transmitted disease that can contaminate both men and women. It can cause serious, irreversible damage to a womans reproductive system. How Do You Know When Chlamydia Is Gone

This can make it hard or impossible for her to get pregnant in the future. Chlamydia can additionally create a possibly deadly ectopic maternity a pregnancy that happens outside the womb.

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.

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What You Need To Know:

Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection caused by bacteria. Chlamydia is spread during oral, vaginal, or anal sex. The infection most often affects the urethra, rectum, or throat. The urethra is the tube that carries urine from your bladder to the outside of your body. Anyone with multiple sex partners is at higher risk for chlamydia. Your risk is also increased if you have another STI, such as gonorrhea.

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.

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Making The Diagnosis For Chlamydia

Once you go to visit the doctor, he will use cotton swab to collect Chlamydia bacteria samples from different parts of your body like urethra, rectum or cervix. The diagnosis may also demand 1st urine sample from first urination of the day.

All the samples are processed in a lab setup and careful reports are compiled. Here is one important thing to know that in case if you find your reports Chlamydia positive then never forget to let your partner know about this disease and get them tested too. There are more chances that the bacteria might have taken its path to your partners body via last intercourse.

How To Tell Your Partner You Have Chlamydia

The first thing you need to do when your test comes back positive is to tell your partner. Your sexual partner should know about the infection so that they too can be tested and treated. If you dont tell them about your condition, youre risking getting reinfected.

Here are some tips for handling the conversation:

• Educate yourself about the STD youve contracted so you can thoroughly explain to your partner what exactly you have, the treatment, and how you plan on keeping them safe.
• Inform your current or most recent sexual partner about a positive STD test by telling them face-to-face, or by calling them. Sending them a message is not the most respectful way.
• When telling them the news, stay calm and collected. Sit them down and tell them youve been tested. Tell them that the results are positive and discuss the next steps.
• Make sure you keep your partner from getting infected. Use condoms at all times, take antibiotics, and abstain from intercourse during your treatment.

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Can You Get Chlamydia If You Use A Condom

A condom lowers your chances of getting chlamydia if used correctly.

Correct use of a condom includes:

Testing Before The Incubation Period

Every STD test has an advised date from which a test becomes accurate. 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.

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