How Long Does Chlamydia Treatment Take

How Long Does It Take For Chlamydia To Go Away After Treatment

Chlamydia infection usually clears after one week of completing your antibiotic treatment. During treatment, you should avoid drinking alcohol as this can reduce how effective the antibiotic is.

You should also avoid having sex during treatment as you could still pass on the infection to your partner. It is common for partners to pass chlamydia between one another if they continue to have sex without completing their treatment, causing repeated 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.

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.

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How Long Does It Take To Show Up In People With Penises

Theres no significant difference in the amount of time it takes for chlamydia symptoms to show up for people with penises as compared to people with vulvas.

The only major difference in the time it takes for symptoms to show up among people of various sexes may be related to how often symptoms show up.

According to the Childrens National Health System, 90 percent of people with vulvas dont ever experience any physical symptoms, while 70 percent of people with penises never notice any symptoms.

This difference in who actually experiences symptoms between these two groups may have some effect on how long it takes for symptoms show up. But theres never been any definitive link between your sex and when your symptoms appear.

How Long Does It Take To Show Up On A Test

There are several tests that you doctor might use to diagnose chlamydia:

• Urine test. Youll pee in a cup thats sent off to a laboratory testing facility to see if any chlamydia bacteria are present in your urine.
• Blood test. Your doctor will use a sterile needle to draw some of your blood and send it to a lab to see if antibodies to the chlamydia bacteria are present in your bloodstream.
• Swab. Your doctor will use a cotton round or stick to take a small sample of tissue or fluid that carries the infection, which is then sent to a lab to be cultured so that lab technicians can see what bacteria grows from the sample.

How long it takes for the results to show up depends on the test and on your specific health insurance plan.

• Urine tests take about 2 to 5 days to show a positive or negative result.
• Blood tests can come back with results in a few minutes if the blood is analyzed on site. But they can take a week or more if sent to an off-site lab.
• Swab results take about 2 to 3 days to show a positive or negative.

1 to 3 weeks to show up in people with vulvas.

Symptoms may take up a few months to show up. This is because bacteria are living creatures and have an incubation period that affects how long it takes them to cluster together and become infectious.

This incubation period is dependent on a variety of factors, including:

• how much of the bacteria you were exposed to
• how quickly the bacteria reproduce
• how strong your immune system is against the bacteria

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Treating Toddlers And Children

Chlamydia in toddlers and children may occur as a result of sexual abuse and should be investigated. With that said, chlamydia transmitted during childbirth can sometimes take up to three years before symptoms develop in the child’s throat, rectum, or genitals.

If chlamydia is confirmed, either erythromycin, azithromycin, or doxycycline may be used depending on the child’s age and/or weight.

Female Complications Of Unattended Chlamydia

Some females create PID, an infection that can damage the uterus, cervix, and also ovaries. PID is an agonizing illness that often calls for healthcare facility treatment.

Women can likewise end up being sterile if chlamydia is left untreated due to the fact that the fallopian tubes may end up being marked.

Expectant women with the infection can pass the microorganisms to their infants throughout birth, which can create eye infections as well as pneumonia in infants. How Long Does It Take To Cure From Chlamydia

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How Common Is Chlamydia

CDC estimates that there were four million chlamydial infections in 2018.3 Chlamydia is also the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the United States.4 However, a large number of cases are not reported because most people with chlamydia are asymptomatic and do not seek testing. Chlamydia is most common among young people. Two-thirds of new chlamydial infections occur among youth aged 15-24 years.3 It is estimated that 1 in 20 sexually active young women aged 14-24 years has chlamydia.5

Disparities persist among racial and ethnic minority groups. In 2019, reported chlamydia rates for African Americans/Blacks were nearly six times that of Whites.4 Chlamydia is also common among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men . Among MSM screened for rectal chlamydial infection, positivity has ranged from 3.0% to 10.5%.6,7 Among MSM screened for pharyngeal chlamydial infection, positivity has ranged from 0.5% to 2.3%.7.8

Parents Have A Role In Chlamydia Prevention

Parents can do two main things to help their kids avoid getting chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections , says Dombrowski. These two things are:

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Testing And Treating Sexual Partners

If you test positive for chlamydia, it’s important that your current sexual partner and any other recent sexual partners you’ve had are also tested and treated.

A specialist sexual health adviser can help you contact your recent sexual partners, or the clinic can contact them for you if you prefer.

Either you or someone from the clinic can speak to them, or the clinic can send them a note to let them know they may have been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection .

The note will suggest that they go for a check-up. It will not have your name on it, so your confidentiality will be protected.

Page last reviewed: 01 September 2021 Next review due: 01 September 2024

How Can I Prevent Getting Chlamydia

Anyone who is sexually active can catch chlamydia. Youre most at risk if you have a new sexual partner or dont use a barrier method of contraception, such as a condom, when having sex. You can help to prevent the spread of chlamydia by:

• using a dam to cover the female genitals during oral sex or when rubbing female genitals together
• not sharing sex toys. If you do share sex toys, wash them or cover them with a new condom between each person who uses them.

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Information Before Taking The Medicine

The medicine is very safe. However do not take if any of the following are true:

• you are female and have abdominal pain, pain during sex, vomiting, or fever
• you are male and have pain or swelling in the testicles or fever
• you have ever had a bad reaction, rash, breathing problems or allergic reaction after taking azithromycin or other antibiotics. People who are allergic to some antibiotics may be allergic to other types. If you do have allergies to antibiotics, you should check with your doctor before taking this medicine
• you have a serious long-term illness, such as kidney, heart or liver disease
• you are currently taking another prescription medication, including medicine for diabetes.

If any of these circumstances exist, or if you are not sure, do not take the azithromycin. Instead you should talk to your doctor as soon as possible. Your doctor will do some tests and find the best treatment for you.

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How Do I Know If I Have Chlamydia

If you suspect you have chlamydia, your doctor may want to test cervical or penile discharge or urine using one of several available methods.

In most cases of chlamydia, the cure rate is 95%. However, because many women don’t know they have the disease until it has caused serious complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease, sexually active women under age 25 and others at higher risk should be tested for chlamydia once a year during their annual pelvic exam even if they dont have symptoms.

Pregnant women should also be tested as part of their routine lab work.

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Condom Use During The Treatment Period

• Avoid having sex without a condom during treatment because the infection can still be transmitted. Use condoms for 7 days after the start of treatment and until 7 days after all current sexual contacts have been treated.
• If you are on a combined oral contraceptive pill, use a condom for 14 days when having sex, as antibiotics can affect the reliability of the contraceptive pill.

After completing the treatment, phone your doctor or return to the clinic for a follow-up after 3 months to check you have not been re-infected.

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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Why Is This Test Done

These tests may be done to:

• Find out if symptoms are caused by gonorrhea or chlamydia.
• Check people who are at high risk of being infected with gonorrhea or chlamydia.
• Retest people several months after they have been treated for gonorrhea or chlamydia.
• Check for infection in your newborn if you had a gonorrhea or chlamydia infection at the time of delivery.

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Exactly How Is Chlamydia Spread How Long Does It Take To Cure From Chlamydia

If your sex partner is male you can still get chlamydia even if he does not climax.

If youve had chlamydia and were dealt with in the past, you can still get contaminated once more. This can happen if you have unsafe sex with a person that has chlamydia.

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

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How Long Can Chlamydia Lay Dormant

22 February 2021

Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the UK. In 2018 alone, 49% of all new diagnoses of STDs were Chlamydia. A possible reason for this is that the Chlamydia can lay dormant for many years without the carrier knowing. In this blog, we will look at how Chlamydia is transmitted, and how to prevent and treat it.

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How Long Does Chlamydia Last

With adequate treatment, chlamydia can be cleared entirely within one or two weeks, depending on the recommended treatment option. Chlamydia is caused by the bacterial chlamydia trachomatis.

It is usually passed when fluid is exchanged during sexual activities. This infection, typically common among people aged 25 and under, can be completely cured with antibiotics.

To thoroughly heal chlamydia, you must use your antibiotics precisely as your medical specialist prescribes without skipping a dose. This will ensure that the medication is as effective as it is expected to be.

Antibiotics remedy chlamydia by stopping the growth of the bacteria responsible for the infection and limiting its spread in the body. The CDC recommends using doxycycline or azithromycin to treat chlamydia.

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What Happens If Chlamydia Isn’t Treated

Only some people who have chlamydia will have complications. If chlamydia is treated early, its unlikely to cause any long-term problems. But, without proper treatment, the infection can spread to other parts of the body. The more times you have chlamydia the more likely you are to get complications.

• If you have a vulva, chlamydia can spread to other reproductive organs causing pelvic inflammatory disease . This can lead to long-term pelvic pain, blocked fallopian tubes, infertility and ectopic pregnancy .
• In people with a vulva, chlamydia can also cause pain and inflammation around the liver, though this is rare. This usually gets better with the correct antibiotic treatment.

Can Chlamydia Go Away On Its Own

Its highly unlikely that chlamydia will go away on its own, and an infection can last over a year without treatment. Even if your symptoms clear up, it is still possible to transmit it to other people, which is why its crucial to get treatment for chlamydia. You should also regularly get tested for STIs if you are sexually active.

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Being Exposed To Another Std

Being successfully treated for chlamydia, gonorrhea, or another STD does not protect you from other STDs In fact, many people become infected with STDs over and over again because they continue to have unprotected sex with partners who have untreated STDs.

If youâve been treated for an STD and donât want to get another one, the best thing that you can do is change your behaviors to decrease your risk. That means consistently practicing safe sex and always talking to new partners about STD risk before having sex.

Std Prevention In 3 Steps

As previously mentioned, anyone who is sexually active can get an STD. And as you can see from the information provided above, some of these diseases dont show any signs or symptoms.

It is for these reasons that you should do the following if you want to reduce your risk of contracting any sexually transmitted disease:

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The Costs Of Infertility

Treating chlamydia is easy, but for those who do not get treated or get treated too late, living with the damage caused by the infection can be hard.

Rabin has treated many women who never knew they had had chlamydia until they couldnt get pregnant due to blocked fallopian tubes. These women often wind up trying in vitro fertilization , which does not always succeed.

There are all kinds of costs involved for these women, say Rabin. There are emotional costs and physical costs. There are also financial costs with IVF. Its much better to not let the tubes get damaged, she says, and get pregnant the old-fashioned way.