What Are The Three Types Of Stds
There are three main classifications of STDs, depending upon their cause. These are bacterial, viral and parasitic.
- Bacteria cause gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.
- Viral STDs are caused by viruses, and include genital herpes, genital warts .
- Parasites cause parasitic STDs. These include trichomoniasis, scabies and pubic lice.
How Long Does Chlamydia Last
Chlamydia typically goes away within 1 to 2 weeks. You should avoid sex during this time to prevent transmitting the disease. Your doctor may prescribe a one-dose medication or a medication youll take daily for about a week. If they prescribe a one-dose pill, you should wait 7 days before having sex again.
Am I At Risk For Chlamydia
Anyone who has sex can get chlamydia through unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex. However, sexually active young people are at a higher risk of getting chlamydia. This is due to behaviors and biological factors common among young people. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are also at risk since chlamydia can spread through oral and anal sex.
Have an honest and open talk with your health care provider. Ask whether you should be tested for chlamydia or other STDs. If you are a sexually active woman younger than 25 years, you should get a test for chlamydia every year. If you are an older woman with risk factors such as new or multiple sex partners, or a sex partner who has an STD, you should get a test for chlamydia every year. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men as well as pregnant women should also get tested for chlamydia.
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Can You Get Chlamydia More Than Once
Its possible to have chlamydia multiple times. The bacteria will not create antibodies to protect your body from further infection. You can get re-infected by continuing sexual relations with a partner who is untested and untreated.
Its best to always use condoms with partners who may have chlamydia.
Hard Call: Your Girlfriend Has Chlamydia May I Phone In Your Prescription
Eighteen-year-old Eva had recently had unprotected sex with her boyfriend and came into my office for an urgent appointment to get checked out.
While I performed my usual cervical exam and testing, I used my 20-minute visit to talk with Eva about self-empowerment and the importance of protecting herself from disease: I am really glad that you’re here with me today. This is an important first step in taking charge of your health and learning how to take care of yourself…
The next day I found out that unfortunately, Eva had contracted chlamydia, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the country and the state. My next moves were clear: The job of informing my young patient of her infection is one that I am used to, but never look forward to. What is even less comfortable is the task of informing and treating the partner, an individual who is most likely not my patient, and with whom I do not have a relationship.
Eva and I made this difficult call together. We weathered the denial, shock and anger from her boyfriend. It took a minute to shift the conversation from blame to education, then learning and most importantly, assurance. I assured Eva’s boyfriend that this disease was treatable and this was an opportunity to get treatment and get better.
This disease is overwhelmingly a scourge of the young.
Symptoms in women may include: An abnormal vaginal discharge
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Can You Forgive Him Can You Rebuild That Trust Together
Until the doctors visit, you felt that youd be able to forgive him for the infidelity. Understandably, the stakes of his betrayal feel heightened with the chlamydia diagnosis. There is a more tangible consequence of his actions now.
There are a couple of other points to consider. First, you didnt mention whether or not you had symptoms that led you to get tested.
The typical incubation period for chlamydia is one to three weeks, and, in some cases, it can take up to six weeks. So if you were experiencing symptoms, the infection was transmitted sometime in the past six weeks, which doesnt add up with the end of his affair.
If you were asymptomatic, you might have had it much longer, even before this relationship . Up to 75% of women and 50% of men have no symptoms at all.
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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.
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Its Okay To Be Cautious He Jeopardized Your Physical And Emotional Well
You are young, and its okay if this is not your person. While I am all for forgiveness, I also know from experience that life is too short to spend time in a relationship where you feel unappreciated, in a relationship with someone who is reckless with your heart and health.
If you choose to rebuild things, getting some guidance from a therapist would be so helpful. I understand that you feel reluctant to talk to friends about this, but while you take the time to figure things out, lean on your friends. Focus on giving yourself some joy, even in small ways, today.
Whatever you decide, I promise that you will be able to enjoy your birthday again. This feels huge right now, but as someone with 20 more years of living, I can tell you that even the sharpest wounds become less painful over time.
The information within Ask Erin should in no way be interpreted as medical advice because Im not a medical professional. But I am here to help to share the wisdom Ive gained after years of making mistakes. If you have a question for me about relationships, addiction, dating, friendships, depression, parenting, sex, consent, what Im watching, what Im reading, what Im listening to, Rhodizite, or anything at all, use the contact form HERE
Did you know I wrote a book about my 15-year struggle with heroin addiction? Its called STRUNG OUT: One Last Hit and Other Lies that Nearly Killed Me, and its on sale now!
What Are The Best Ways To Avoid Getting An Std
Follow these simple precautions to dramatically decrease your chances of getting infected:
- Be sure to practice safe sex and use a condom.
- Make sure that your partner has tested negative for any STDs.
- Be involved in a monogamous relationship.
In addition, we encourage you to be open and honest with your primary care provider about your sexual health so we can provide any information or treatment you may need.
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I Tested Positive For Chlamydia When Can My Boyfriend And I Have Unprotected Sex Again
By | May 14, 2013, 11:32 a.m.
Category:
I tested positive for Chlamydia, after treatment my BF & i where wondering if we would be able to have unprotected sex again? of course ill be on the birth control pill.
Testing and treatment are important first steps, but its critical that your boyfriend also get treated for chlamydia, if he hasnt already. Even if he doesnt have any symptoms, he needs to get tested and, if positive, treated. That way you wont infect one another when you have sex again.
Chlamydia is easily treated with a round of antibiotics. Your nurse or doctor will tell you exactly what type of antibiotics you need, and when to get tested again to make sure the antibiotics worked. And your boyfriend needs to get his own treatment dont share your antibiotics with him.
Its always a good idea to use condoms, but its especially important to use them until both you and your boyfriend test negative for chlamydia and other STDs. Learn more about chlamydia.
Tags:chlamydia, STD testing, getting tested, unprotected sex
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How Can I Reduce My Risk Of Getting Chlamydia
The only way to avoid STDs is to not have vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
If you are sexually active, you can do the following things to lower your chances of getting chlamydia:
- Be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and has negative STD test results
- Use latex condoms the right way every time you have sex.
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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.
Does Chlamydia Treatment Have Side Effects
An antibiotic called Doxycycline is the most common medicine used to treat chlamydia. Like most medicines, it can cause mild side effects. The most common side effects of Doxycycline are nausea, vomiting, upset stomach, loss of appetite, mild diarrhea, skin rash or itching, change in skin color, vaginal itching, or discharge. These side effects should go away after you finish taking the medicine. Talk to your nurse or doctor about any medicines youre already taking and any medical issues you already have before taking Doxycycline.
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Young People Not Getting Tested
Telling your partner that youve got chlamydia is one thing. But you need to know youve contracted it in the first place.
Thats where it gets tricky.
Professor Jane Hocking heads up the sexual health unit at the University of Melbourne. Hockings new research reveals that around 1 in 5 young people aged 16-29 didnt get tested for chlamydia even after their GP suggested they do so.
For men, 23 per cent didnt provide a specimen, compared with 18 per cent in women, Jane Hocking told Hack. The younger you are, the less likely youll take the test. Among the 16-19 year-olds, it was just over 21 per cent were less likely to leave a specimen, compared with about 18 per cent among the 25-29 year-olds.
Theres already low numbers for sexual health screenings in Australians aged 15-29.
Less than 10 per cent of this age group are screened each year in general practice, the studys authors write in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Doctor Melissa Kang, Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Medical School in Westmead, says talking about sexual health doesnt always come easily. And that can be especially true for young people who have only just started to become sexually active.
All sexually transmitted infections carry some kind of stigmait can kind of mess with peoples sense of who they are, how they feel about themselves.
The awkwardness, the feeling self conscious factor is probably never going to go away, Dr Kang told Hack.
It Depends On How You Define Sex
Theres a massive misconception that STIs can only be transmitted through one type of sex: penis-in-vagina sex.
But an STI can actually be transmitted during any kind of sexual play that involves skin-to-skin contact or body fluid exchange with a person who has an STI.
This includes any kind of play that involves:
An STI test is only able to test for the STIs that are currently beyond their latency period. Meaning, theyve been in the body long enough for the body to create antibodies.
Latency period
Sometimes known as the incubation period, the latency period is the amount of time between when a person has been exposed to an infection and when they can test positive for it.
Antibodies are what STI tests are looking for to determine if an STI is present. If antibodies are present, you test positive for the STI. If antibodies arent present, you test negative for the STI.
An STI test cant detect an infection that has not yet surpassed its latency period, nor any STI you were exposed to after the test.
And remember: Its possible to be exposed to an STI during any sexual activity.
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What Are The Effects Of Chlamydia
I think theres this idea of what you don’t know can’t hurt youwhich isn’t true, when it comes to chlamydia what you don’t know can totally hurt you, says Alyx, who got chlamydia during a holiday hookup in her twenties.
“Most of my friends have had chlamydia at some point. Its incredibly common and its pretty easy to treat, if you treat it quickly.
For Alyx, getting tested was a no-brainer, but it wasnt without its awkward moments. I did have to figure out how to say ‘I have chlamydia’ in German Alyx says.
But having the test and popping the antibiotics to treat chlamydia is an important step to curb its potentially-damaging effects.
For women, chlamydia can result in pelvic inflammatory disease – which can lead to abdominal or pelvic pain, and in some cases, infertility. For guys, chlamydia doesnt tend to be as serious – but it can still cause epididymitis .
Alyx isnt surprised that men are less likely to get tested for chlamydia than women. She reckons its a confidence thing.
If you think youre teflon, then you think your dick is teflon too.”
Can Someone Get Chlamydia Without Having Sex
Because chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease, you cannot get an infection without participating in a sexual act. The only exception is if your mother passes the infection to you during birth.
Though you cannot catch chlamydia without sexual activity, you dont have to have penetrative sex to get an infection. Chlamydia can pass from person to person from sharing unclean sex toys with an infected person or allowing your genitals to come into contact with their sexual fluids.
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Chlamydia Can Lead To Infertility
A lot of us dont realize that some sexually transmitted diseases can cause no symptoms, meaning you could have an STD and not know it. And some STDs can silently lead to infertility, ectopic pregnancy, or chronic pelvic pain.
Chlamydia is one of those diseases. CDC estimates that more than 2.8 million people are infected each year.
Chlamydia is most common in sexually active young adults. More than half of all infections involve people ages 18 to 24. You can get chlamydia during oral, vaginal, or anal sexual contact with an infected partner. The disease can cause penile discharge in men and infertility in women. It can also cause serious health problems in newborn babies of infected mothers.
Many women, and some men, are infected with chlamydia but dont know it. Even without symptoms, the disease can cause complications, particularly infertility. The longer the infection is untreated, the more damage that can be done.
If symptoms do show up, they usually occur within weeks of exposure. Men and women may face painful urination, an abnormal discharge from the urethra, or both. Women also may have abdominal pain, bleeding, and an abnormal discharge from the vagina. Symptoms usually appear within one to three weeks after being infected and may be very mild.
In pregnant women, chlamydia can cause premature delivery, the CDC says. A child born to an infected woman can develop an infection in their eyes and respiratory tracts.
What Should I Do If I Have Chlamydia
That means if youve tested positive for chlamydia, you should contact any sexual partners over the past year and alert them. If youve had multiple partners, its impossible to know for sure how you contracted chlamydia. Uncomfortable as it may be to tell an ex you have an STD, its the right thing to do.
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Should I Use A Spermicide To Help Prevent Stis
No. It was once thought that spermicides with nonoxynol-9 could help prevent STIs much like they help prevent pregnancy by damaging the organisms that cause the diseases. New research has shown that nonoxynol-9 can irritate a womans vagina and cervix, actually increasing the risk of STI infection.
Be sure to check the ingredients of any other sex-related products you own, such as lubricants and condoms. Some brands of these products may have nonoxynol-9 added to them. If you are unsure if your spermicide or any other product contains nonoxynol-9, ask your doctor before using it.
How Is Chlamydia Spread
You can get chlamydia by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has chlamydia.
If your sex partner is male you can still get chlamydia even if he does not ejaculate .
If youve had chlamydia and were treated in the past, you can still get infected again. This can happen if you have unprotected sex with someone who has chlamydia.
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