How Is Chlamydia Tested
Chlamydia tests involve a simple urine test or swab. Routine urine tests can screen for gonorrhea and chlamydia at the same time. However, a swab test gives a more accurate result.
A doctor can swab a womans cervix or a mans urethra for a test sample. A rectal swab is also possible if anal sex has put you at risk. Sometimes, you can take these samples yourself.
A swab test is usually better than a urine test. Swab results tell doctors if the infection is from chlamydia or gonorrhea. Knowing which helps your doctor choose the right antibiotic. This is important since gonorrhea is becoming resistant to most antibiotics.
Still, the standard test is urine for a male and a swab for a female patient.
When Should I Get Tested
Don’t delay getting tested if you think you might have chlamydia. Being diagnosed and treated as soon as possible will reduce your risk of developing any serious complications of chlamydia.
You can get a chlamydia test at any time although you might be advised to repeat the test later on if you have it less than 2 weeks since you had sex because the infection might not always be found in the early stages.
You should consider getting tested for chlamydia if:
- you think you could have a sexually transmitted infection
- a sexual partner tells you they have an STI
- you’re pregnant or planning a pregnancy
- you’re offered a chlamydia test as part of the NCSP
If you live in England, you’re a woman under 25 and sexually active, it’s recommended that you have a chlamydia test once a year, and when you have sex with new or casual partners.
If you live in England, you’re a man under 25 and sexually active, it’s recommended that you have a chlamydia test once a year if you are not using condoms with new or casual partners.
If you have chlamydia, you may 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.
Do Stds Show Up In Routine Blood Tests
Routine blood tests include complete blood counts , complete metabolic panels , lipid panels, thyroid panels, and enzyme markers. These tests can identify a wide range of health conditions, but they are not designed to test for STDs.
Routine blood tests may reveal signs of an STD, such as an elevated white blood cell count. But, an elevated white blood cell count can be caused by countless other conditions, so this is not a reliable way to test for STDs.
Do not assume that your physician is testing you for STDs simply because they have ordered a blood test. STD testing is not included in these routine tests. The bestand onlyway to test for STDs is with an STD test.
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Chlamydia Can Be Treated And Cured With Antibiotics
Individuals diagnosed with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for one week after finishing antibiotics. Keep in mind that it is possible to become reinfected with chlamydia after receiving treatment. This is why it is crucial for partners of those who have chlamydia to also get tested and treated if found positive. Chlamydia often occurs along with gonorrhea . If you have one of these STDs, you might have the other because the risk factors and symptoms are very similar. Getting tested for both is important.
Whether or not symptoms are present, testing or screening for chlamydia can be done as early as 24 hours after exposure. The incubation times vary from person-to-person for the most accurate results, get tested two weeks after initial exposure. If you test positive for chlamydia, it is advised to get retested two weeks after completing treatment to be sure that all of the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria is cleared from your system.
What Types Of Tests Are Out There
There are plenty of tests that make staying informed accessible, but theres no single test for every STD. Most tests require a urine or blood sample, or a swab of the area where the infection might be present. If you have a sore and we want to pinpoint the cause, a swab can additionally identify whether a specific virus or bacteria is present. There are also rapid HIV tests you can buy for home use results are available in about 20 minutes.
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If Youre Taking The Medication Incorrectly
Chlamydia is relatively easy to treat with antibiotics once it has been detected. The actual course, however, can vary from person to person. Sometimes a healthcare provider will prescribe one large dose, while other cases may require you to take antibiotics over the course of seven days.
Your healthcare provider will determine the best treatment regimen for you, but regardless, make sure you take the antibiotics as instructed and complete the full course. It can be tempting to stop early once you notice your symptoms getting better, but that can leave some lingering bacteria. Any remaining chlamydia bacteria can replicate and potentially even become resistant to the initial antibioticsâmeaning you may require even more powerful medication to treat the infection.
Itâs also important not to have sex while you are getting treated. While the antibiotics are usually quite effective, the infection stays in your body until the antibiotics have fully run their course. If you receive medication to treat a chlamydia infection, be sure to ask your healthcare provider how long to wait before having sex again.
Who Is At Risk For Chlamydia
Any sexually active person can be infected with chlamydia. It is a very common STD, especially among young people.3 It is estimated that 1 in 20 sexually active young women aged 14-24 years has chlamydia.5
Sexually active young people are at high risk of acquiring chlamydia for a combination of behavioral, biological, and cultural reasons. Some young people dont use condoms consistently.15 Some adolescents may move from one monogamous relationship to the next more rapidly than the likely infectivity period of chlamydia, thus increasing risk of transmission.16 Teenage girls and young women may have cervical ectopy .17 Cervical ectopy may increase susceptibility to chlamydial infection. The higher prevalence of chlamydia among young people also may reflect multiple barriers to accessing STD prevention services, such as lack of transportation, cost, and perceived stigma.16-20
Men who have sex with men are also at risk for chlamydial infection since chlamydia can be transmitted by oral or anal sex. 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
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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.
What Happens If I Dont Get Treated
The initial damage that chlamydia causes often goes unnoticed. However, chlamydia can lead to serious health problems.
If you are a woman, untreated chlamydia can spread to your uterus and fallopian tubes . This can cause pelvic inflammatory disease . PID often has no symptoms, however some women may have abdominal and pelvic pain. Even if it doesnt cause symptoms initially, PID can cause permanent damage to your reproductive system. PID can lead to long-term pelvic pain, inability to get pregnant, and potentially deadly ectopic pregnancy .
Men rarely have health problems linked to chlamydia. Infection sometimes spreads to the tube that carries sperm from the testicles, causing pain and fever. Rarely, chlamydia can prevent a man from being able to have children.
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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 To Get Tested
Chlamydia testing is usually ordered by a doctor. In people without symptoms, a doctor can evaluate their risk and suggest an appropriate screening schedule. If a patient has symptoms of this infection, a doctor will order testing to diagnose or rule out chlamydia.
Testing for chlamydia can be conducted at a hospital, doctors office, health clinic, or community health program.
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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.
How Long Does It Take For Stds To Show Up
It may be a simple equation to think that as soon as a sexually transmitted infection enters the body, you can get tested for it and detect it. But, the truth is that the exact processing route is far more complex. We get infected when a pathogen enters our system. If the route is sexual then, the infection is called an STD. The pathogen can be a virus, bacteria or other types of microbes. As soon as any of these enter the body, they start reproducing. When the infection is spread in the body and starts damaging our normal cells, disease can happen. However, every infection has its own time-frame and susceptibility.
When the infection multiplies, our immune system will be alert. Its action begins with the white blood cells and antibodies, produced to fight off the infection. Getting tested for an STD means that you are testing for the antibodies that your system has produced as a result of being exposed to an infection.
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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.
Naat Testing For C Trachomatis
Samples for the RNA-based NAAT were tested using the Aptima Combo 2 assay for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae . Test sensitivity is 9398 % and specificity is > 99 % . Equivocal results were retested using the Aptima CT assay . We considered repeatedly equivocal results as positive and excluded samples with repeatedly invalid results.
Samples for DNA-based NAAT were tested using the Cobas 4800 CT/NG assay for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae , and reported as either negative or positive with corresponding cycle threshold value. Test sensitivity is 8797 % and specificity is > 99 % . Pre-treatment samples with discrepant RNA and DNA results were retested, using the Aptima CT assay for RNA samples, and the Abbott RealTime CT/NG assay for DNA samples.
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Just Diagnosed Next Steps After Testing Positive For Gonorrhea Or Chlamydia
If youve just found out that you have gonorrhea or chlamydia, you may be trying to figure out what to do next. Here are the three most important steps that you can take:
WHY?Many people with gonorrhea and chlamydia dont have symptoms. Why does this matter? Because an untreated infection can lead to serious and permanent health problems, even if you never have symptoms. Gonorrhea and chlamydia can be cured with the right medicine from your doctor. Just make sure you take all of your medicine exactly as your doctor tells you to.
WHERE?Your regular doctor can prescribe antibiotics to cure the STD. But if you dont have insurance or want to see someone else for treatment, there are other low-cost or free options. You can get tested and treated at your local health departments STD clinic, a family planning clinic, a student health center, or an urgent care clinic. You can also find a clinic using GetTested and ask if they offer treatment for gonorrhea and chlamydia.
- In women, untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease which can lead to health problems like ectopic pregnancy or infertility .
- In men, chlamydia and gonorrhea can cause a painful condition in the tubes attached to the testicles. In rare cases, this may prevent him from being able to have children.
- Untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea may also increase your chances of getting or giving HIV the virus that causes AIDS.
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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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How Long Does It Take For Herpes To Show Up
Herpes simplex viruses come in two main types: type-1 that is also referred to as oral herpes and type -2 that is referred to as genital herpes. The first type causes sores around the mouth and lips. The second type causes these sores around the genital area. Both are distinct. This means that you cannot get oral herpes from a person who is infected with genital herpes.
HSV1 & HSV2 Incubation Periods: the initial incubation period for a herpes infection is between 2 and 12 days with an average of 4 days. When the vesicles break, leading to ulcers, it will take the person 2 to 4 weeks to heal.
HSV1 & HSV2 Window Periods: the seroconversion period of this STD is 3-6 weeks. This is the time needed for the person to produce antibodies that can be de detected by testing. The majority of infected individuals have reported detectable antibodies around 16 weeks post exposure.
How To Know If You Have Chlamydia
Chlamydia is incredibly difficult to diagnose due to its symptomless nature for 70% of women and 50% of men. The only certain way to know that you have chlamydia is to get tested. If you do have symptoms then you will still need to be tested to effectively diagnose that the symptoms are caused by chlamydia. If youre sexually active, you should get tested regularly whether you have symptoms or not.
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Recognizing Symptomatic Chlamydia And Getting Care