How To Tell The Difference Between A Uti And Chlamydia

What Is A Yeast Infection

Yeast Infection is a disease that exists in female and caused by a fungus known as Candida and has the symptoms of itching of the vagina, burning during urination, soreness, pain during intercourse and discharge of white color. It is possible for a lady to transmit yeast contamination to a male sex accomplice, despite the fact that yeast disease is not thought to be a natural sexually-transmitted infection since it can happen in ladies who are not sexually dynamic.

The growth Candida is a normally happening microorganism in the vaginal region. Lactobacillus microscopic organisms hold its development under control. Be that as it may, if theres an irregularity in your framework, these microscopic organisms wont work viable. It prompts an abundance of yeast, which causes the side effects of vaginal yeast diseases. Ladies with basic yeast disorders ought to catch up with their specialists to ensure the drug worked. A follow-up will likewise be vital if your indications return inside two months.

If you perceive that you have a yeast disease, you can similarly treat yourself at home with OTC items. A solid vagina has many microscopic organisms and a few yeast cells. The most widely recognized microbes, Lactobacillus acidophilus, help monitor different living beings like yeast. When something happens to change the size of these living beings, yeast can become excessive and cause indications.

What Can Be Done To Prevent The Spread Of Chlamydia

• Limit your number of sex partners
• Use a male or female condom
• If you think you are infected or have been exposed, avoid any sexual contact and visit a local sexually transmitted disease clinic, a hospital or your doctor. Either bring your sex partners with you when you are treated or notify them immediately so they can obtain examination and treatment.

Is There Anything Else I Need To Know About A Chlamydia Test

Chlamydia testing enables diagnosis and treatment of the infection before it can cause serious health problems. If you are at risk for chlamydia due to your age and/or lifestyle, talk to your health care provider about getting tested.

You can also take steps to prevent getting infected with chlamydia The best way to prevent chlamydia or any sexually transmitted disease is to not have vaginal, anal or oral sex. If you are sexually active, you can reduce your risk of infection by:

• Being in a long-term relationship with one partner who has tested negative for STDs
• Using condoms correctly every time you have sex

Also Check: How Can You Get Chlamydia

What Can Happen If Chlamydia Is Not Treated

In women

Chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease . PID is a serious infection of the reproductive organs. PID can cause:

• Infertility.
• Tubal pregnancies, which can lead to death of the mother and unborn child.
• Inflammation surrounding the liver.

A mother also can pass the infection to her child during birth. Infection in newborns can lead to:

• Eye infections .

What Is The Difference Between The Two

Unlike a sexually transmitted disease, a UTI cannot be transmitted via sexual or non-sexual contact. But there are some sexual contexts that can increase your risk of getting a UTI not urinating after having sex is a good example.

As mentioned above, STDs and UTIs can often have symptoms similar to each other. Symptoms that can present themselves with both STDs and UTIs are:

• Difficulty urinating
• Urine that has dark or cloudy appearance
• Urine that has an unusual odor

Some of the common symptoms of an STD that are not that of UTIs are:

• Pain during intercourse
• Upset stomach
• Blisters, sores or rashes in the genitals

The American Society for Microbiology reports that UTIs and STDs are often not diagnosed correctly. This is especially common in the emergency room. In a recent study, clinical researchers determined 65% of patients with an STD were improperly diagnosed with a UTI. The reason for this in part is that a UTI and STD can show similar results in a urinalysis, which can cause the misdiagnosis.

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How Is Chlamydia Diagnosed

There are a number of diagnostic tests for chlamydia, including nucleic acid amplification tests , cell culture, and others. NAATs are the most sensitive tests, and can be performed on easily obtainable specimens such as vaginal swabs or urine.43

Vaginal swabs, either patient- or clinician-collected, are the optimal specimen to screen for genital chlamydia using NAATs in women urine is the specimen of choice for men, and is an effective alternative specimen type for women.43 Self-collected vaginal swab specimens perform at least as well as other approved specimens using NAATs.44 In addition, patients may prefer self-collected vaginal swabs or urine-based screening to the more invasive endocervical or urethral swab specimens.45 Adolescent girls may be particularly good candidates for self-collected vaginal swab- or urine-based screening because pelvic exams are not indicated if they are asymptomatic.

NAATs have demonstrated improved sensitivity and specificity compared with culture for the detection of C. trachomatis at rectal and oropharyngeal sites.40 Certain NAAT test platforms have been cleared by FDA for these non-genital sites and data indicate NAAT performance on self-collected rectal swabs is comparable to clinician-collected rectal swabs. 40

When To See Your Obgyn

Ultimately, you cant know for sure if you have a yeast infection or an STD unless you get tested by a doctor. Youll want to set up an appointment as soon as possible if you have any of the following symptoms:

• Vaginal or vulvar itching, soreness, and irritation
• A burning feeling during sex or urination
• Think, white discharge
• Any discharge that has an unusual odor or color
• Redness and swelling around your vulva or genital area
• Unusual skin conditions on your vulva such as blisters, cracking, or scaly white patches
• Bleeding after sex or between menstrual periods
• Lower abdominal pain
• Bleeding during or after a bowel movement
• Anal leakage

All of these symptoms can be indicators of a yeast infection, STDs, or other medical conditions that need to be addressed by a medical professional.

Also Check: How Long Does It Take To Cure Chlamydia

So How Can You Tell If Youre Suffering Due To A Uti Or An Sti

Its difficult to differentiate a UTI from an STI based on symptoms alone, since both infections cause burning during urination, pelvic pain, and a frequent, sudden urge to urinate. However, if you are sexually active and are also experiencing vaginal symptoms such as discharge, bleeding and/or irregular periods, it may suggest an STI. Make sure to talk to your doctor about your specific symptoms and risk factors for these types of infections.

The only way to determine exactly what kind of infection you are dealing with is to head to the doctor for testing.

What Are The Symptoms Of Chlamydia

Chlamydia is known as a silent infection because most infected people are asymptomatic and lack abnormal physical examination findings. Estimates of the proportion of chlamydia-infected people who develop symptoms vary by setting and study methodology two published studies that incorporated modeling techniques to address limitations of point prevalence surveys estimated that only about 10% of men and 5-30% of women with laboratory-confirmed chlamydial infection develop symptoms.21.22 The incubation period of chlamydia is poorly defined. However, given the relatively slow replication cycle of the organism, symptoms may not appear until several weeks after exposure in those persons who develop symptoms.

In women, the bacteria initially infect the cervix, where the infection may cause signs and symptoms of cervicitis , and sometimes the urethra, which may result in signs and symptoms of urethritis . Infection can spread from the cervix to the upper reproductive tract , causing pelvic inflammatory disease , which may be asymptomatic 23 or acute, with typical symptoms of abdominal and/or pelvic pain, along with signs of cervical motion tenderness, and uterine or adnexal tenderness on examination.

Men who are symptomatic typically have urethritis, with a mucoid or watery urethral discharge and dysuria. A minority of infected men develop epididymitis , presenting with unilateral testicular pain, tenderness, and swelling.24

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How To Get Tested

A person can meet with a doctor to get a diagnosis for either of these infections.

The doctor will collect bodily fluids to test for the infection. The test can use either a urine sample or a sample from the vagina or penis, which a doctor will collect with a cotton swab.

Most health insurance plans, including Medicare, cover sexually transmitted infection testing completely. If a person does not have health insurance, they can go to a free clinic, their local health departments STI clinic, a student health center, or an urgent care clinic.

Because both chlamydia and gonorrhea can present with no symptoms, it is important that people who are sexually active get tested regularly.

After a doctor has determined which infection a person has contracted, they will prescribe an antibiotic.

People should take the full course of antibiotics and wait an additional 7 days before having sex again. This helps prevent a person from spreading the infection to another person and possibly reinfecting themselves later.

A person can contract both chlamydia and gonorrhea again, even if they have already experienced and treated the STI before.

Protecting Yourself Against Stis:

• Use a condom. However, nothing is 100% safe. If youâre concerned you might have an STI, even after safe sex, check with your doctor.

At the clinic, your doctor may ask you questions like âDid you use a condom?â or âDid you have multiple sexual partners?â It’s not so they can judge you. Itâs so they can organize what further tests you need. So, donât be shy or feel ashamed about your answers.

With a few minor changes, you can take good care of yourself. You can start making better health choices now by

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How To Tell If It’s A Uti Vs Std

If you’re confused about your symptoms and whether they might be indicative of a UTI or STD, this breakdown can help.

When it comes to your sex life, there are a lot of acronyms out there the fun ones, such as DTF or DTR are just as confusing to keep up with as the more serious likes of UTI, STI, and STD. While no one really likes to talk about the latter three, it’s sexually and medically important to know the differences between them, so you can recognize the symptoms and seek proper treatment if and when you need it. Here’s the difference between UTIs and STIs, how to tell if it’s a UTI vs STD/STI depending on your symptoms, and what to do about it.

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What Is Chlamydia Infections

Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease mostly seen in women. This STI doesnt have evident symptoms in most cases. Usually, the signals of chlamydia come a week after the intercourse.

For women, the symptoms include vaginal discharge with bad odour, painful and abnormal periods, pain while intercourse, fever, abdominal pain, itching, burning sensation, and pain while urinating.

The symptoms in men include abnormal discharge from the penis, burning sensation around the penis, itching, and pain or swelling around testicles.

Chlamydia can occur in body parts like the anus, throat, and eyes. Discomfort and abnormalities in these areas also indicate the disease. Having sex without a condom or sharing sex toys can lead to transmission of the disease from an infected person to another individual. It can also be transmitted from a mother to child during pregnancy.

Chlamydia can be transmitted through unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex. It can pass even through genital contact. One can prevent the disease by having safe sex. Use a condom or dental dam. Clean sex toys before and after use. Take regular tests to prevent the spread.

This disease is treatable using antibiotics. It is key to treat chlamydia as if untreated, it can have serious repercussions. Untreated chlamydia in women can lead to PID, and in men, it can cause pain in testicles.

Is It An Std Or Uti How To Tell The Difference Between Their Almost Similar Symptoms

A burning pain when you pee, a funky smell down there, cloudy or bloody urine is it an STD or a UTI?

Though they tend to have some similar symptoms, these two are very different.

STDs are a group of infections that are spread through sexual contact be it oral, vaginal or anal sex. Even simple foreplay with skin-to-skin contact can cause some STDs.

A UTI is an infection of the urinary tract system which includes the kidneys, bladder and urethra. An infection in any of these parts is what causes a UTI.

Its very easy to confuse the beginning stages of an STD for a UTI not just for the average person but also for doctors. A study found that emergency departments misdiagnosed STIs and UTIs 50% of the time with STDs getting underdiagnosed.

This is because they sometimes have similar symptoms which include smelly urine, a burning sensation and just general discomfort in your genital area.

Its important to know which is which.

If its an STD you need to start treatment immediately without delay lest it causes serious and sometimes irreversible health problems.

If its a UTI you need a completely different treatment regimen.

Heres how to tell the difference.

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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

Chlamydia Infection Vs Yeast Infection

Chlamydia Infection is a disease that transmits through sexual intercourse and has the primary causing source of bacterium Chlamydia trachomatous with the symptoms of discharge from the penis, burning while urination, swelling of the testicles and pain the in adjoining area.

Yeast Infection is a disease that exists in female and caused by a fungus known as Candida and has the symptoms of itching of the vagina, burning during urination, soreness, pain during intercourse and discharge of white color.

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Where Can I Get More Information

Health care providers with STD consultation requests can contact the STD Clinical Consultation Network . This service is provided by the National Network of STD Clinical Prevention Training Centers and operates five days a week. STDCCN is convenient, simple, and free to health care providers and clinicians. More information is available at www.stdccn.orgexternal icon.

Division of STD Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-38271-800-783-987

References

1. OFarrell N, Morison L, Moodley P, et al. Genital ulcers and concomitant complaints in men attending a sexually transmitted infections clinic: implications for sexually transmitted infections management. Sexually transmitted diseases 2008 35:545-9.

2. White JA. Manifestations and management of lymphogranuloma venereum. Current opinion in infectious diseases 2009 22:57-66.

3. Kreisel KM, Spicknall IH, Gargano JW, Lewis FM, Lewis RM, Markowitz LE, Roberts H, Satcher Johnson A, Song R, St. Cyr SB, Weston EJ, Torrone EA, Weinstock HS. Sexually transmitted infections among US women and men: Prevalence and incidence estimates, 2018. Sex Transm Dis 2021 in press.

4. CDC. Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance, 2019. Atlanta, GA: Department of Health and Human Services April 2021.

5. Torrone E, Papp J, Weinstock H. Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis Genital Infection Among Persons Aged 1439 Years United States, 20072012. MMWR 2014 63:834-8.

How Can You Tell The Difference Between A Uti And Sti

This is where it gets tricky. Because the symptoms of UTIs and STDs can overlap, it may be difficult to tell exactly what you’re dealing with. In fact, one study found that ER doctors misdiagnosed STIs and UTIs more than half the time.

“Certain STIs including gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas might cause symptoms such as painful or frequent urination, similar to a UTI,” says Dr. Dweck. Patients with herpes who are having an outbreak sometimes complain that they experience burning when urinating, says Dr. Olcha however, herpes usually presents with painful vesicles , which is not a symptom of UTIs.

This all sounds scary, but rest assured: A quick visit to your ob-gyn can clear the air. To determine if you have a UTI, your doctor will analyze a urine sample for bacteria or high levels of white blood cells, which are signs of infection, according to the AUA, or send a urine culture to a lab. If they do indeed think you have a UTI, your doc will likely prescribe a round of antibiotics to clear the infection. Some doctors may also provide a mild bladder analgesic to provide quicker relief, says Dr. Dweck.

Depending on your symptoms or if you think there’s a possibility it may be something other than a UTI your doctor may recommend you do an STI test as well. If they don’t offer or recommend it, you can always ask to do an STI test. STI tests are analyzed in a lab and often take a few to come back with results.

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