How Can I Know If I Have Chlamydia
If you think you have chlamydia, or any STI, contact your healthcare provider. He or she will examine you and perform tests, if necessary, to determine if you have an STI.
To check for chlamydia, a woman is given a pelvic exam. A sample of fluid is taken from the vagina. In men, a sample of fluid may be taken from the penis. The fluid is sent to a laboratory for testing. The cultures can also be taken from a urine test. Your provider will discuss which way is the best way to check for an infection in your particular situation.
What Are The Symptoms Of A Uti
One of the most common symptoms of a UTI is a frequent and urgent need to pee. You might feel like you need to pee all the time, even if you just went. Other UTI symptoms include:
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pain or burning when you pee
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bad-smelling or cloudy urine
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blood or pus in your urine
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soreness, pressure, or cramps in your lower belly, back, or sides
If the infection goes to your kidneys, your UTI symptoms may also include:
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pain in your mid-back
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How To Get Rid Of Dark Area Around Mouth
How to Get Rid of the Dark Area Around the Mouth 1 Method 1 of 3: Diagnosing Your Dark Area. Understand why you have dark spots around your mouth. 2 Method 2 of 3: Creams, Scrubs, and Prescriptions. Exfoliate daily with a mild facial exfoliant. 3 Method 3 of 3: Natural Remedies. Lighten your skin naturally with lemon juice.
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What Do I Need To Know If I Get Treated For Chlamydia
If youre getting treated for chlamydia:
- Take all of your medicine the way your nurse or doctor tells you to, even if any symptoms you may be having go away sooner. The infection stays in your body until you finish the antibiotics.
- Your partner should also get treated for chlamydia so you dont re-infect each other or anyone else.
- Dont have sex for 7 days. If you only have 1 dose of medication, wait for 7 days after you take it before having sex. If youre taking medicine for 7 days, dont have sex until youve finished all of your pills.
- Get tested again in 3-4 months to make sure your infection is gone.
- Dont share your medicine with anyone. Your nurse or doctor may give you a separate dose of antibiotics for your partner. Make sure you both take all of the medicine you get.
- Even if you finish your treatment and the chlamydia is totally gone, its possible to get a new chlamydia infection again if youre exposed in the future. Chlamydia isnt a one-time-only deal. So use condoms and get tested regularly.
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How Soon After Unprotected Sex Can I Test For Chlamydia And Gonorrhoea
You should test for chlamydia and gonorrhoea 14 days after you have had unprotected sex, unless you already have symptoms.
This is because chlamydia and gonorrhoea have an incubation period, meaning they may not show up on a test if you take it too early. To get the most accurate results you need to wait for 2 weeks after exposure to get tested.
There is a small chance that the infection may not show up on a test, and give you a negative result. Therefore, if you receive a negative test, you should repeat the test 6 weeks later to confirm your results.
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Limit Your Sexual Partners
While there is no offence in having multiple sexual partners, there is definitely more chances of being exposed the bacteria if you are engaging yourself with several partners at the same time. Moreover, if you are not even aware of their records, there are higher risks of being exposed to such sexually transmitted infections without your knowledge.
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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.
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How Can You Protect Yourself From Getting Chlamydia
The only method that is 100% effective in preventing STDs is abstinence, but if youre sexually active, the best way to avoid chlamydia is to be mutually monogamous with someone who has testednegative for chlamydia. Condoms give good protection against chlamydia during vaginal sex and during oral sex on a male. Its important for both partners to get tested because its easy to get re-infected if one partner still has it. If you test positive for chlamydia, get tested again three months later to make sure you dont have it again. If youre sexually active and under 25, you should get tested for chlamydia every year better safe than sorry.
For protection against chlamydia during oral sex on a female, you can use a dental dam as a barrier between the mouth and vulva. A dental dam is a thin square of latex that is placed over a womans vulva before her partner performs oral sex on her and acts as a barrier between the vulva and the mouth. They are sold in some stores, but you can make your own dental dam using a latex glove or a male condom. For protection against Chlamydia during any type of anal sex , you can use a female condom.
Will An Std Go Away On Its Own
No, dont expect an STI to go away on its own. Ignoring symptoms, noncompliance or denial can put both you and your partner at considerable health risk and lead to long-term problems. Even if you dont have symptoms, theres still a risk of complications and passing the infection to your sexual partners.
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Treating And Curing Syphilis
Primary and secondary syphilis are easy to treat with a penicillin injection. Penicillin is one of the most widely used antibiotics and is usually effective in treating syphilis. People who are allergic to penicillin will likely be treated with a different antibiotic, such as:
- azithromycin
- ceftriaxone
If you have neurosyphilis, youll get daily doses of penicillin intravenously. This will often require a brief hospital stay. Unfortunately, the damage caused by late syphilis cant be reversed. The bacteria can be killed, but treatment will most likely focus on easing pain and discomfort.
During treatment, make sure to avoid sexual contact until all sores on your body are healed and your doctor tells you its safe to resume sex. If youre sexually active, your partner should be treated as well. Dont resume sexual activity until you and your partner have completed treatment.
The best way to prevent syphilis is to practice safe sex. Use condoms during any type of sexual contact. In addition, it may be helpful to:
- Use a dental dam or condoms during oral sex.
- Avoid sharing sex toys.
- Get screened for STIs and talk to your partners about their results.
Syphilis can also be transmitted through shared needles. Avoid sharing needles if using injected drugs.
How To Test For Chlamydia
You can use an at-home chlamydia test or get tested at a clinic. A chlamydia test kit like the Everlywell test requires a urine sample you collect with materials included with the kit. You then send the sample to a lab and get secure, online results a few days later. Screening at a clinic may require a urine sample or oral and/or rectal samples collected with a swab . How you get your results will depend on the clinic you go to.
Hereâs how to test for chlamydia at home using the Everlywell Chlamydia & Gonorrhea Test kit:
- Register your kit online. Use the unique ID included inside your kit and go to www.everlywell.com/register. Write your date of birth and the sample collection date on the transport tube provided by the kit.
- Collect your sample by urinating into the specimen collection cup thatâs included with the kit.
- Use the pipette to place the sample into a transport tube, and put the tube into the biohazard bag .
- Place the bag into the shipping envelope , apply the prepaid shipping label, and place your envelope in the mail. Your sample will then arrive at a laboratory, where it will be analyzed for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
- Just days later, youâll be notified that your results are ready. You can privately view your results online on our secure platform.
Taking a chlamydia test at home is a great way to skip the trip to your doctorâs office âand, instead, check for chlamydial infections from the comfort and privacy of your home.
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Can You Test For Stds And Treat Them At Home
If you suspect youve been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease or are experiencing symptoms of what we also refer to as a sexually transmitted infection , you may be reluctant to talk to you doctor.
Let me reassure you you shouldnt be. Not only are doctors well-experienced in treating STIs, theyre also your best defense against severe and lasting complications that can result from untreated infections.
That said, if youre searching STI symptoms or treatments online, youll no doubt stumble upon home testing kits along with a variety of natural STI remedies with dubious claims of success.
Lets pick through what you can trust and whats best left to a medical professional.
Chlamydia Vs Gonorrhea: Best Courses Of Treatment For Each
If you have it, youll want to know how to get rid of chlamydia and fast. The good news is that both chlamydia and gonorrhea can be knocked out with a course of strong oral antibiotics. Your first step as mentioned earlier is to see a physician as soon as possible and be very forthcoming about your condition and symptoms. He or she will then prescribe medication for you, and the most common ones for treating chlamydia and gonorrhea are:
- Doxycycline
- Cefixime
- Azithromycin
One of the most important reminders regarding taking medication to treat the clap or chlamydia is that you must finish the entirety of the medication prescribed every last pill! Even if your symptoms have disappeared, taking all of the medication ensure that bacteria causing the infection are wiped out entirely and theres no chance of them re-establishing themselves.
How to get rid of chlamydia? Taking antibiotics as directed by your physician is the only way.
Provided you do so, you can expect to be cured of either infection in one to two weeks. Lastly, preventing a recurrence of either chlamydia or gonorrhea is best assured by now choosing not to engage in casual sex with partners you dont know well, and ideally enjoying sex within a committed, monogamous relationship.
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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.
Female Complications Of Untreated Chlamydia
Some women develop PID, an infection that can damage the uterus, cervix, and ovaries. PID is a painful disease that often requires hospital treatment.
Women can also become infertile if chlamydia is left untreated because the fallopian tubes may become scarred.
Pregnant women with the infection can pass the bacteria to their babies during birth, which can cause eye infections and pneumonia in newborns.
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Exactly How Common Is Chlamydia
In 2017, more than 1.7 million instances of chlamydia were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Nevertheless, numerous situations go unreported, so the genuine variety of chlamydia infections every year might be closer to 3 million.
Males and female can both get the infection, but much more situations in women are reported.
Infection prices are greatest amongst more youthful ladies, with the greatest rates of infection happening in women in between ages 15 and 24.
The CDC advises that all sexually active females ages 25 years as well as younger get screened for chlamydia each year, in addition to older ladies with threat variables like numerous or brand-new companions.
Statistically, a person is more likely to get an STI if they have actually had sex with greater than a single person. Other threat factors include having had an STI in the past, or presently have an infection since this could lower resistance.
Prices for chlamydia and also other STIs have been climbing up in recent times.
Complications From Chlamydia And Gonorrhea
Ruiz explained that for young women with asymptomatic infection, the effects of chlamydia and gonorrhea could be devastating.
They can cause a lot of damage to fallopian tubes. Years later, women who were asymptomatic and not treated show up with pelvic pain, and you find lots of scar tissue in the pelvis, said Ruiz.
Complications can also include:
- permanent damage to the reproductive system
- infertility
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Goldenseal To Treat Chlamydia
Goldenseal has amazing and beneficial antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties which help heal the symptoms that accompany Chlamydia. It even has astringent properties which help provide with a soothing feeling that curbs the signs and symptoms of itching and irritation to a certain extent.
What to do?
How much?
Till the signs and symptoms of Chlamydia are completely cured.
How To Prevent Chlamydia
Since chlamydia is a STD, the only 100% effective way to not contract the disease is to not have oral, anal, or vaginal sex. If you are sexually active, however, there are a few things you can do to reduce the risk:
- Limit the number of sexual partners Have yourself and your partner get tested before having oral, vaginal, or anal sex and remain monogamous to better ensure you are not exposed. The more partners you have at any given time, the more likelihood of contracting chlamydia or any other STD.
- Use condoms Use condoms as directed every time to help reduce the risk, but condoms are not 100% effective in eliminating the risk.
- Get tested regularly Since having a history of STDs increases your likelihood of contracting another, getting tested regularly helps limit exposure.
- Avoid douching Douche or douching refers to washing out the vagina either with an at-home mix of water and vinegar or using a purchased product that can include antiseptics and fragrances. Between 20% to 40% of women ages 15 to 44 in the US use a douche and believe it helps clean and freshen their vagina as well as avoid getting a STD or pregnancy. Health experts agree that douching is both not effective and increases your risk of a STD or other health problems.
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What Happens If Chlamydia Goes Untreated
Chlamydia often has no symptoms therefore, some people go untreated. Even with those who have symptoms stigma, access, or other reasons get in the way of getting medical attention. Not receiving prompt and proper treatment can create serious health problems. Chlamydia that goes untreated can increase the likelihood of contracting another STD, like gonorrhea or HIV/AIDS, or increasing the likelihood of transmitting that STD to someone else. It is also possible to develop reactive arthritis, or arthritis caused by the bodys reaction to an infection, because of chlamydia. This can affect the joints, urethra, and eyes.
For women, chlamydia that goes untreated can spread through your uterus to your fallopian tubes. Fallopian tubes connect the ovaries to the uterus and transport fertilized eggs during pregnancy. If untreated chlamydia spreads to this area, the result is pelvic inflammatory disease , affecting around 5% of women in the US.
Pelvic inflammatory disease, similar to chlamydia, can have no symptoms or just some pelvic or abdominal pain initially. Unfortunately, PID can do permanent damage to a womens reproductive system, including:
For men, chlamydia rarely leads to health problems. It is very rare for chlamydia to cause infertility in men, but sometimes the infection can spread past the penis causing fever or pain. In addition, it is possible for chlamydia to cause:
Chlamydia: Symptoms & Treatment Options
This is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases. Although its curable, people who are infected with it become more likely to contract HIV.
Symptoms: Most people who have chlamydia arent aware of it, because it rarely has any symptoms. However, the people who have reported symptoms have complained about painful sexual intercourse, unusual discharge from their genitals, and burning while urinating
Treatment: Chlamydia can also be cured with antibiotics.
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