Could I Get Chlamydia
Anyone who is sexually active, including people who experience sexual violence, can get chlamydia.
Although less common, chlamydia can also be passed on:
- when a person with the infection in their mouth or throat gives oral sex to another person
- when a person gives oral sex to a person with an infection of the genitals
- through sharing sex toys or during a hand job or fingering if infected fluids get onto the toy or hand
How Do You Prevent Chlamydia
Using a new male or female condom or dental dam every time you have sex is the best way to protect against chlamydia.
Chlamydia can be passed on by sharing sex toys. Always cover sex toys with a new condom and wash them after use to reduce your risk of getting chlamydia and other STIs.
Its important to regularly test for chlamydia, even if you dont have any symptoms, especially if youve had multiple sexual partners.
The contraceptive pill and other types of contraception wont prevent you getting chlamydia, and neither will PrEP.
Who Is Most Likely To Get Chlamydia
Chlamydia is most common among:
- People under age 25
- People who have more than one sexual contact
- People whose sexual contact have more than one sexual contact
- People who do not use condoms
- People with a history of STIs
Talk to your health care provider if you think you might be at risk for chlamydia.
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How Can I Reduce My Chances Of Getting Chlamydia
If you are sexually active, you can do the following things to lower your chances of getting chlamydia:
PrEP, Pre Exposure Prophylaxis, a pill taken daily to prevent HIV infection, will NOT protect you from chlamydia. PrEP is also known by the brand name Truvada or Descovy.
Having chlamydia once does NOT protect you from getting it again.
For more information, visit CDCs chlamydia webpage featuring factsheets, posters, videos, statistics and more. Please contact your local health department for questions and reporting issues.
To submit a question or comment to the HIV/STD/HepC Program, please click on the suggestion box to access our online form.
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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.
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People At Increased Risk
People of all ages can get sick from C. pneumoniae. It most commonly infects people for the first time when they are school-aged children or young adults. However, reinfection is most common in older adults.
People at increased risk include those who live or work in crowded settings where outbreaks most commonly occur8, such as:
How To Treat Chlamydia
If you do get chlamydia, the good news is that it is easily curable. Your care provider will likely prescribe a single dose of azithromycin or a course of doxycycline, which you will take twice daily for a week. Its much better to get treatment as soon as you suspect you may have chlamydia to prevent serious symptoms.
You should take the full course of medications as prescribed, even if your symptoms seem to clear up early. This makes sure your body is totally free of the infection. Your care provider may like to perform an additional STI test after you complete the course of treatment to confirm that your chlamydia is gone.
After successful treatment, you can catch chlamydia again. Taking preventative measures such as using condoms will reduce the risks though. Some medical teams suggest postponing sex until a week after you finish treatment to make sure the infection is really gone.
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What If Im Pregnant And Have Chlamydia
It is important to be tested for chlamydia if you are pregnant as untreated chlamydia can lead to complications such as premature labour and birth or your baby being born with a low birthweight. You can also pass the infection on to your baby. If this happens, your baby could develop an eye infection or a lung infection .
With the right treatment during pregnancy, these complications can be avoided. If your baby develops symptoms then they should also be tested to check for chlamydia. Antibiotics can be used to treat them.
How Does Chlamydia Affect Pregnancy
For pregnant women, chlamydia may lead to premature birth, or babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Premature birth is the most common cause of infant death and can lead to long-term health and development problems in children.
Babies born to mothers who have chlamydia can get:
- Infections in their eyes, called conjunctivitis or pinkeye. Signs include discharge from the eyes and swollen eyelids. The signs most often show up within two weeks after birth.
- Pneumonia. Signs include congestion, cough, and rapid or labored breathing, although these are not always present. Signs most often show up one to three months after birth.
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Whats The Treatment For Chlamydia
Chlamydia is usually easy to get rid of. Your nurse or doctor will get you antibiotics to treat the infection. Sometimes you only have to take one dose of medication. Another chlamydia treatment lasts for 7 days. Your doctor will help you figure out which treatment is best for you.
If youre treated for chlamydia, its really important for your sexual partners to get treated also. Otherwise, you can keep passing the infection back and forth, or to other people. Sometimes your doctor will give you medicine for both you and your partner.
Does Oral Chlamydia Go Away
Chlamydia, whether it is oral or genital does not go away on its own.
It is possible for the symptoms of chlamydia to go away for a short period of time, but that does not mean you no longer have chlamydia. The infection may persist in the body in the absence of treatment .
A short course of antibiotics are required to treat chlamydia, and a follow up test is required to ensure the risk of re-infection.
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How To Prevent Catching Chlamydia
Using condoms and dental dams when you have penetrative or oral sex are among the best ways to protect yourself against chlamydia. Even if you have been careful, its a good idea to get tested for STIs regularly to make sure you dont have chlamydia. Since the infection often doesnt cause symptoms, regular screening is the best way to make sure you are free of the infection and arent passing it on to others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages sexually-active people under 25 to get an STI test for chlamydia and other infections every year.
It Is Easy To Get Tested For Chlamydia
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection that can affect both men and women. While both genders can be affected, the specific effects and method of diagnosis for the bacterial infection differs between male patients and female patients. We looked at the methods used to assist in the diagnosis of chlamydia among men in this post, as well as some particular factors that are unique to a male patient with this condition.
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How Does Chlamydia Affect A Pregnant Woman And Her Baby
In pregnant women, untreated chlamydia has been associated with pre-term delivery,34 as well as ophthalmia neonatorum and pneumonia in the newborn. In published prospective studies, chlamydial conjunctivitis has been identified in 18-44% and chlamydial pneumonia in 3-16% of infants born to women with untreated chlamydial cervical infection at the time of delivery.9-12 Neonatal prophylaxis against gonococcal conjunctivitis routinely performed at birth does not effectively prevent chlamydial conjunctivitis.37-39
Screening and treatment of chlamydia in pregnant women is the best method for preventing neonatal chlamydial disease. All pregnant women should be screened for chlamydia at their first prenatal visit. Pregnant women under 25 and those at increased risk for chlamydia should be screened again in their third trimester. Pregnant women with chlamydial infection should be retested 3 weeks and 3 months after completion of recommended therapy.40
What Is The Prognosis For A Female With Chlamydia
As discussed previously, chlamydia infection can progress to pelvic inflammatory disease if untreated, which can have serious consequences. Complications include permanent damage to the reproductive organs, including infertility and an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy. Chlamydia infection in pregnancy can also lead to low birth weight and premature delivery as well as pneumonia and eye damage in the newborn.
Having an untreated chlamydia infection can also increase a persons risk for acquiring HIV infection. It can also increase the risk that a person with HIV infection will transmit the infection to others during sexual intercourse.
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How Long For Chlamydia To Show Up
Most people who have chlamydia have no symptomsat least not at first.
Some never develop symptoms, while others only develop them 1-3 weeks after having unprotected sex with an infected partner.
Below is a breakdown of how long it takes for chlamydia to show up in different sexes and parts of the body.
What Happens If You Dont Get Treated For Chlamydia
Even though chlamydia is common and doesnt usually cause any symptoms, it can become a big deal if its not caught and treated early.
Chlamydia can spread to your uterus and fallopian tubes if it goes untreated for a long time. This can cause you to have pelvic inflammatory disease . PID can cause permanent damage that leads to pain, infertility, or ectopic pregnancy. So getting tested regularly for chlamydia really lowers your chances of getting PID.
Having chlamydia may increase your chances of getting or spreading HIV.
If you have chlamydia during your pregnancy and dont treat it, you can pass it to your baby when youre giving birth. Chlamydia can also cause eye infections and pneumonia in newborns, and it also increases the risk of delivering your baby too early.
Testing and treatment for chlamydia is quick, easy, and the best way to avoid all of these problems.
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How Do You Get Oral Chlamydia
You increase your risk of getting oral pharyngeal chlamydial infections by not using protection or having multiple sexual partners. One study looked into the rates of oral chlamydia infection in heterosexuals who had known or suspected genital infection and reported recent unprotected oral sex. It found that 7% of women and almost 3% of men had positive throat swabs .
Not only can you get an oral chlamydia infection from oral sex, but if you have pharyngeal chlamydia, you may infect the genitals of a partner. One study found that 3.5% of MSW whose only exposure in the past three months was receiving fellatio from a woman were positive for urethral chlamydia .
Another study found that close to 5% of MSM whose only exposure in the past three months was receiving fellatio from a man were positive for urethral chlamydia .
Who Is At Risk For Chlamydia
Any sexually active person can be infected with chlamydia. Anyone with genital symptoms such as discharge, burning during urination, unusual sores, or rash should refrain from having sex until they are able to see a health care provider about their symptoms.
Because chlamydia is usually asymptomatic, screening is necessary to identify most infections. Screening programs have been demonstrated to reduce rates of adverse sequelae in women. CDC recommends yearly chlamydia screening of all sexually active women age 25 or younger and older women with risk factors for chlamydial infections . Pregnant women should be screened during their first prenatal care visit. Pregnant women younger than 25 or at increased risk for chlamydia should be screened again in their third trimester. Any woman who is sexually active should discuss her risk factors with a health care provider who can then determine if more frequent screening is necessary.
Routine screening is not recommended for men. However, the screening of sexually active young men should be considered in clinical settings with a high prevalence of chlamydia when resources permit and do not hinder screening efforts in women.
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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 .
It’s 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.
What Is The Treatment For Chlamydia
Antibiotics can easily cure chlamydia. Treatment options are the same, whether a person also has HIV or not.
Patients treated with single-dose antibiotics should not have sex for seven days. Patients treated with a seven-day course of antibiotics should not have sex until they complete treatment, and their symptoms are gone. This helps prevent spreading the infection to sex partners. It is important to take all medicine prescribed to cure chlamydia. Medicine should not be shared with anyone. Although treatment will cure the infection, it will not repair any long-term damage done by the disease. If a persons symptoms continue for more than a few days after receiving treatment, a healthcare provider should reevaluate them.
Repeat infection with chlamydia is common.49 Women whose sex partners do not receive appropriate treatment are at high risk for re-infection. Having multiple chlamydial infections increases a womans risk of serious reproductive health problems .50,51A healthcare provider should retest those with chlamydia about three months after treatment of an initial infection. Retesting is necessary even if their partners receive successful treatment.40
Infants with chlamydia may develop conjunctivitis and/or pneumonia.10 Healthcare providers can treat infection in infants with antibiotics.
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Chlamydia And Infertility: What You Need To Know
Chlamydia is asexually transmitted infection and is a preventable cause of pelvic inflammatory disease . The CDC estimates there are 4 million new chlamydia infections each year. When left untreated, about 10-15% of sexually active individuals with chlamydia will develop PID. PID can cause permanent damage to reproductive organs and tissues, leading to infertility.
Continue reading to learn more about chlamydia, its effects on fertility, and how you can prevent the infection and spread of chlamydia.
Can You Prevent Chlamydia
You can lower your risk of getting chlamydia and other STIs by:
- not having sex with someone with chlamydia, even with a condom, until theyve finished treatment and 1 week has passed since their last dose of antibiotics
- regularly getting tested for STIs, especially if you are under 30 and sexually active
Remember that most people with chlamydia dont show any symptoms and dont know they have it, so feeling ‘well’ does not mean that you or your partner are not infected. If in doubt, get tested.
If you have chlamydia, you can help reduce the spread by letting your recent sexual partners know so they can get tested and treated.
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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
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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