How Long Does It Take To Develop Chlamydia

Can Certain Stds Lie Dormant And Not Be Detected

In some cases, an STD may be asymptomatic because its latent, or lying dormant in your body. Latent STDs can cause someone to remain undiagnosed until symptoms begin to appear. This may put them at risk for long-term complications.

Chlamydia, hepatitis C, HIV, HSV , and syphilis can all have periods of latency.

The best way to ensure that dormant STDs receive the proper diagnosis and treatment is regular STD screening. The CDC recommends that all sexually active adults with new or multiple sexual partners receive at least yearly testing for most STDs, especially chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Its also recommended that people who have sex without a condom or other barrier method receive STD testing more frequently.

How Long Can You Have Chlamydia Without Knowing

If youve had intercourse with an infected man or woman, chlamydia symptoms may appear between 1 3 weeks after contact.

However, you may still be asymptomatic after a chlamydia infection. This is because chlamydia can be silent or dormant for months and years without showing symptoms.

In men, about 50 70 percent will show symptoms of chlamydia while only 30 50 percent of women will be symptomatic. Absent symptoms of chlamydia do not mean absent infection. You should take chlamydia test to confirm if you have the infection or not.

Do I Need To Have A Test To Check That The Chlamydia Has Gone

If you take the treatment according to the instructions, you wont usually need a test to check the chlamydia has gone.

If youre aged under 25, you should be offered a repeat test 3 months after finishing the treatment. This is because youre at a higher risk of getting chlamydia again.

Whatever your age, you may need a repeat test or more treatment if:

• you think youve come into contact with chlamydia again
• you had sex without a condom with a partner before the treatment for both of you was finished
• you didnt complete the treatment or didnt take it according to the instructions
• the signs and symptoms dont go away
• your test was negative but you develop signs or symptoms of chlamydia
• youre pregnant.

A repeat test can be done 56 weeks after the first test.

If the chlamydia was in your rectum , you may need another test around 3 weeks after finishing the treatment. Your doctor, nurse or clinic will let you know if you need another test.

You can go back to the doctor, nurse or clinic if you have any questions or need advice on how to protect yourself from infection in the future.

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I Was Treated For Chlamydia When Can I Have Sex Again

You should not have sex again until you and your sex partner have completed treatment. If your doctor prescribes a single dose of medication, you should wait seven days after taking the medicine before having sex. If your doctor prescribes a medicine for you to take for seven days, you should wait until you have taken all of the doses before having sex.

Who Should Be Tested 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.31,41 CDC recommends yearly chlamydia screening of all sexually active women younger than 25, as well as older women with risk factors such as new or multiple partners, or a sex partner who has a sexually transmitted infection.40 Rectal chlamydia testing can be considered for females based on sexual behaviors and exposure. 40 Pregnant women under 25 or older pregnant women at increased risk for chlamydia should be screened during their first prenatal visit and again during their third trimester.40 Women diagnosed with chlamydial infection should be retested approximately 3 months after treatment.40 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.

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Getting Treated For Chlamydia And Often Gonorrhea

If you have your own doctor, he will prescribe the antibiotics you need to treat chlamydia. If you dont have your own doctor, you can often find free or low-cost care at either a Planned Parenthood site or a community health clinic.

Listen carefully to the instructions for taking the medicine that you are given by the doctor or other healthcare provider, and follow them closely.

Ask questions if you dont understand something. Also, if you have other questions as you take your medicine, you can always call the pharmacist for help. They are often easier to reach than the doctor.

If you test positive for chlamydia, your healthcare provider is likely to also recommend that you be treated for gonorrhea. This is because the cost of treating gonorrhea is less than the cost of testing for the infection.

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Does Trichomoniasis Mean Your Partner Cheated

The bottom line

People can have trichomoniasis for months without showing any symptoms. If you or your partner suddenly have symptoms or test positive for it, it doesnt necessarily mean that someones cheating. Either partner may have gotten it in a previous relationship and unknowingly passed it on.

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Get Retested Following Treatment

Many people have more than one chlamydia infection. If youre a girl or woman and your sex partners are not treated for the infection, you will be at high risk for reinfection. Repeated infections with chlamydia make it much more likely that your ability to have children will be affected. Repeated infections also raise your risk of painful complications, such as pelvic inflammatory disease.

Both women and men with chlamydia should be retested about three months after they are first diagnosed and treated. Go to be retested even if you think your sex partners were successfully treated.

You Can Catch Chlamydia If Youve Only Had Sex Once

You may have heard that its not possible to get chlamydia from a single sex act. If youve had sex with someone who has the infection, you could get it, too. One encounter is all it takes to pass on the bacteria, so get tested.

In up to 15 percent of women with untreated chlamydia, the infection spreads to the uterus and uterine tubes, leading to symptomatic pelvic inflammatory disease.

If youve had unprotected sex and are worried that you might have chlamydia, get tested. The test is easy and painless. Your doctor could take a sample of your cells with a cotton swab or ask you to pee in a cup. The sample is tested for chlamydia bacteria. If your doctor says you have chlamydia, dont worry. Its treatable.

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How Can I Reduce My Risk Of Getting Chlamydia

If you are sexually active, the following things can lower your chances of getting chlamydia:

• Being in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and does not have chlamydia and
• Using condoms the right way every time you have sex.

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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.

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What Can Happen If Chlamydia Isnt Treated

Untreated chlamydia can put your health at risk. Make an appointment with your provider immediately if you notice any symptoms of chlamydia, and get regular STI screenings to avoid complications later.

Complications of chlamydia for people with vaginas

Untreated chlamydia can cause:

• Pelvic inflammatory disease . PID is a serious condition that requires hospitalization. It can occur when an untreated STI, like chlamydia, damages your reproductive organs. PID can lead to infertility and chronic pelvic pain. It can also cause an ectopic pregnancy,which is life-threatening for the fetus and potentially deadly for the mother or gestational parent, too.
• Pregnancy complications. An untreated infection can lead to pre-term delivery. Also, if youre pregnant and have chlamydia, you can pass the infection on to your newborn. Babies born with chlamydia may have pneumonia or conjunctivitis that could lead to blindness if not treated.

Complications of chlamydia for people with penises

Untreated chlamydia can cause:

• Epididymitis. Infection can spread to the testicles and the tube that carries sperm to your testicles , causing symptoms like pain, swelling and tenderness in your testicles.
• Reduced fertility. Chlamydia can harm your sperm, negatively impacting your ability to conceive.

Complications of chlamydia that can affect all genders

Untreated chlamydia can:

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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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Im Pregnant How Does Chlamydia Affect My Baby

If you are pregnant and have chlamydia, you can pass the infection to your baby during delivery. This could cause an eye infection or pneumonia in your newborn. Having chlamydia may also make it more likely to deliver your baby too early.

If you are pregnant, you should get tested for chlamydia at your first prenatal visit. Testing and treatment are the best ways to prevent health problems.

When To Get Tested

The timing of testing depends on which STI you may have been exposed to. With some STIs, a test can return an accurate diagnosis within a few weeks. Others may require you to wait for months before the test can accurately detect antibodies and other markers of infection.

The time between the first infection and when a test can reliably detect that infection is known as the window period.

While the incubation period and window period are often closely aligned, a few tests can diagnose an STI well before symptoms appear or when the infection is asymptomatic.

Testing prematurely within the window period can increase the risk of a false-negative result. This means that you have been infected even if the test says you haven’t.

Here is a general overview of window periods for some of the more common STIs:

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What Happens If Chlamydia Goes Untreated

If a person is not treated for chlamydia, complications may occur. Women frequently develop pelvic inflammatory disease . PID can cause infertility , chronic pelvic pain, tubal pregnancies, and the continued spread of the disease. In men, untreated chlamydia can cause urethral infection and complications such as swollen and tender testicles. Chlamydia infection during pregnancy may result in premature rupture of membranes, preterm delivery and possible tubal pregnancy in a small percent of women. In addition, chlamydia can cause conjunctival and pneumonic infection in the newborn. Persons with a chlamydia infection have an increased chance of getting other infections such as gonorrhea or HIV.

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Getting Treated For Chlamydia At Broadgate Gp

Whether youre a man or a woman, being regularly tested or screened for chlamydia is important to ensure youre in full health. Should you be sexually active or if youve recently gotten with a new partner then getting a test can help to make sure both of you are clear or are treated should one or both of you test positive.

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How Long Does It Take To Show Signs Of Chlamydia

Chlamydia is the most prevalent bacteria on the planet. Based on 2018 statistics, around 2.86 million are infected annually, and more than two-thirds of those infected are young teenagers and adults between the ages of 15 and 24. Every sexually active individual is exposed to chlamydia and can get infected no matter how many or how few partners theyve changed.

Here, we will help you answer some of the most common questions you might have about this infection. We will talk about when you can expect the infection to turn up, how to recognize it, and why you need to get tested.

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How Long Does Chlamydia Take To Show Up

Although chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases , many people have no idea that theyre infected.

Like gonorrhea and HPV, chlamydia can occur without any symptoms, and even if you have symptoms, they may not happen for some time.

This makes it hard to figure out whats going on and when to see a doctor.

To help you stay healthy, in this article, Ill explain how long chlamydia can take to show up, the symptoms to look for, how to get tested, common treatments, and when to see a healthcare provider.

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What Is A Window Period

A window period is the phase between being exposed to an infection and the correct time when a test can detect the organism in the system, by measuring the produced antibodies. If you get tested without taking into consideration the infections window period, you might end up with a false-negative result. This means that you may have been infected but, you did not give your body enough time to develop enough antibodies that can be detected. To be 100% sure about your results, it is recommended to be tested after the end of the window period, even if symptoms did not show.

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Is Azithromycin Better Than Doxycycline At Curing Chlamydia

STD guidelines still favor azithromycin over doxycycline for the treatment of chlamydia. This is because of the following reasons:

• Cure rates of azithromycin and doxycycline are similar, 97% and 98-100% respectively, according to a meta-analysis of 12 trials.
• Azithromycin is given as a single dose, doxycycline needs to be given for seven days, either as a once-daily or twice-daily dose.
• The dose of azithromycin can be easily supervised if need be it is much harder to supervise seven days of once daily or twice daily doxycycline treatment
• People are more likely to take a single dose of azithromycin than finish a seven-day course of doxycycline.

Recently, some reports have suggested that doxycycline may be more effective than azithromycin, particularly when medication adherence can be assured. There is also some concern that azithromycin may not be as effective for anogenital chlamydial infections.

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How Soon Can You Be Tested

Every STD has its own incubation period. For some STDs, the body begins to produce antibodies and symptoms in as little as a few days. For others, it can take weeks or months for symptoms to appear. Here are the ranges of incubation periods for some of the most common STDs.

While retesting is recommended for bacterial STDs, some STDs are lifelong viral infections. In the case of a lifelong viral infection, a blood test will always detect the STD, even after treatment has been successful. Therefore, retesting would only be necessary if you wanted to reconfirm an original diagnosis.

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Chlamydia Is A Serious Infection

Chlamydia is Americas most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection. Every year, an estimated 2.86 million infections occur. Since its so common, you may assume that its no big deal. However, chlamydia can be a very serious infection.

Chlamydia is very common, but that doesnt mean it cant have a serious impact on your health. The infection can cause a number of long-term complications. In up to 15 percent of women with untreated chlamydia, the infection spreads to the uterus and uterine tubes, leading to symptomatic pelvic inflammatory disease. In addition, some women experience subclinical inflammation of the upper genital tract. This can cause permanent damage to the affected tissues.

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Am I At Risk For Chlamydia

If you are sexually active, have an honest and open talk with your healthcare provider. Ask them if you should get tested for chlamydia or other STDs. Gay or bisexual men and pregnant people should also get tested for chlamydia. If you are a sexually active woman, you should get tested for chlamydia every year if you are:

• Younger than 25 years old.
• 25 years and older with risk factors, such as new or multiple sex partners, or a sex partner who has a sexually transmitted infection.