When To Get Tested
What Is The Chlamydia Trachomatis Test
The Chlamydia trachomatis causes a sexually transmitted disease known as chlamydia. The disease is a common STD that can be contracted during anal, oral or vaginal sex. It can also spread by using and sharing affected sex toys. The CDC estimates approximately 2.86 million are affected by the diseases annually.
There are other signs and symptoms of chlamydia but they dont usually show up. Symptoms generally occur within 2 to 21 days after being exposed to the STD so testing is very important.
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When Should I Call My Doctor About A Chlamydia Test
A note from Cleveland Clinic
A chlamydia test is essential to limiting the spread of this sexually transmitted infection. Its especially important to get screened for chlamydia regularly if youre at a higher risk of this STI. Untreated, the infection can cause health problems and you can spread it to your partner. While youre waiting for results and during treatment, avoid having sex. Wait until your provider says its safe to have sex again. Be sure to use a condom and practice safe sex to avoid getting an STI.
Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 01/28/2022.
References
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What If My Std Test Is Negative
If you get a negative test result, it means that the tests did not find an STI. Each STI has a window period. This is the time between when a person comes in contact with an STI, and when the STI will show up on a test. If the test is taken too soon after contact there is a chance that a test result is not accurate.
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When Should I Get A Gonorrhea Test
Because many people who are infected with gonorrhea do not have any noticeable symptoms, a number of health organizations recommend regular gonorrhea screening for certain adolescents and adults between the ages of 15 and 65, including:
- Women under 25: All sexually active women younger than age 25 should get yearly screening for gonorrhea.
- Women 25 and older: Women 25 and older who have risk factors for gonorrhea infection should be screened yearly.
- Pregnant women: Because gonorrhea can be passed from mother to child during childbirth, all pregnant women under 25 should be tested. Pregnant women 25 and older should be screened if at an increased risk of gonorrhea infection.
- Men who have sex with men: Men who have sex with men should be screened annually for gonorrhea, or every 3 to 6 months if they are at an increased risk for contracting gonorrhea.
- People with HIV: People diagnosed with HIV should be screened for gonorrhea at least once per year.
Regular screening for gonorrhea in heterosexual men without symptoms is not generally recommended.
Risk factors that impact the frequency of gonorrhea screening include:
- A new sexual partner in the past 60 days
- Multiple sex partners
- Painful bowel movements
- Sore throat
After being treated for gonorrhea, its recommended to test for gonorrhea again three months after completing antibiotics.
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What Do The Results Mean
A positive result means you have been infected with chlamydia. The infection requires treatment with antibiotics. Your health care provider will give you instructions on how to take your medicine. Be sure to take all the required doses. In addition, let your sexual partner know you tested positive for chlamydia, so he or she can be tested and treated promptly.
Learn more about laboratory tests, reference ranges, and understanding results.
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.
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Purpose Of This Report
This report updates CDCâs 2002 recommendations regarding screening tests to detect C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae infections and provides new recommendations regarding optimal specimen types, the use of tests to detect rectal and oropharyngeal C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae infections, and information regarding when supplemental testing is indicated . These recommendations are intended for use by clinical laboratory directors, laboratory staff, clinicians, and disease control personnel who must choose among the multiple available tests, establish standard operating procedures for collecting and processing specimens, interpret test results for laboratory reporting, and counsel and treat patients.
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Heres How The Average At Home Chlamydia Test Works:
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How Is Chlamydia Tested For In Women
For women, the Superdrug home test kit is a vaginal swab test, which looks a little bit like a long cotton bud. You insert the swab into your vagina and rotate it for 10 to 15 seconds. When you have got your sample, place the swab into the tube provided. Then simply fill out your details and send your sample back to us. You get your test result within 2 to 3 days after we get your sample in the post.
Women can also get tested for chlamydia with a urine test, but results are less accurate than a swab test.
Am I At Risk For Chlamydia
You may face an increased risk of chlamydia if you have unprotected sex or have multiple sex partners. However, there are other risk factors besides these, so talk with your healthcare provider if you want to know more about your risk and what it could mean for your sexual health. And donât forget: when it comes to prevention and risk-reduction, regular STI screening can be a great place to start.
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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.
False Negatives For Chlamydia Tests
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Can Chlamydia Testing Ever Be Wrong
In answering this question, its important to be clear about which type of chlamydia test is being used. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Preventative Services Task Force now recommend that nucleic acid amplification tests are used to diagnose chlamydia and also gonorrhea. The CDC has recommended this type of test since 2002.
Older testing technologies, including culture-based methods, are not as accurate and are also more complicated to perform. A proportion of infections may be missed by older tests.
The NAAT tests are very accurate, even if like any test false results can occasionally occur. If the test says that you do not have chlamydia, this result is accurate for around 99 in every 100 people.
On the other hand, if the test says that you do have chlamydia, this result is accurate for at least 90 people in every 100. In other words, a few people may be falsely diagnosed with chlamydia when they in fact have another infection or nothing at all.
Occasional false results may be due to mistakes in taking the specimen and running the test, or because of contamination in the laboratory environment.
If you have reason to think that a test result is inaccurate, a second test may provide reassurance. If both tests give the same result, it is almost certainly accurate.
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Where Can I Get Tested For Chlamydia
You can get tested for chlamydia and other STDs at your doctors office, a community health clinic, the health department, or your local Planned Parenthood health center. In some states, you can do an online visit and take a chlamydia test at home.
STD testing isnt always part of your regular checkup or gynecologist exam you have to ask for it. Be open and honest with your nurse or doctor so they can help you figure out which tests you may need. Dont be embarrassed: Your doctor is there to help, not to judge.
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What Is A False Positive
A false positive is when a test result comes back positive, but the patient does not have an STD. This outcome is much rarer than a false negative, because it is a lot harder to detect something that is not there. It would usually be caused by an issue with the test itself.
If you take a test that offers a positive result, but you are highly uncertain of the accuracy, you should take a retest. There are a number of different kinds of STD tests that work in slightly different ways, whether its a different sample type or a different manufacturer. Retesting with a different type of test should offer you increased confidence in the results.
Dr Bani
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Can You Be A Carrier Of Chlamydia And Test Negative
07 September 2020
Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK and is easily passed from one person to another during sex or sexual contact. One of the reasons its passed on so easily is because many people show no symptoms and therefore dont realise they are infectious. In this blog we look at chlamydia testing and a number of different scenarios to answer the question of whether you can carry chlamydia, whilst still testing negative.
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What About Rectal And Oral Swabs
Rectal swabs and oral swabs may also be considered for those who have receptive anal sex or unprotected oral sex.
While neither rectal nor oral swabs are currently approved for the detection of chlamydia, research suggests that doing these extragenital tests is important.
For example, a 2017 study found that among men who have sex with men , 13% had a rectal chlamydia infection but only 3.4% had a positive urethral swab. In women in an urban setting in the United States, 3.7% were found to have an extragenital infection. Those under the age of 18 had the highest incidence of extragenital infection.
What To Think About
- If a chlamydia infection is suspected, do not have sexual intercourse until the test results have come back. If you have a chlamydia infection, do not have sexual intercourse for 7 days after the start of treatment. Your sex partner should also be treated for a chlamydia infection so that you don’t get reinfected and so that others don’t get infected.
- Only one laboratory test is needed to diagnose chlamydia. Your doctor can choose which test to use.
- Screening for and treating chlamydia can help prevent pelvic inflammatory disease . To learn more about the treatment of a chlamydia infection, see the topic Chlamydia.
- Other sexually transmitted infections may be present at the same time as chlamydia. So it is important to be tested and treated for all STIs. Chlamydia as well as other STIs can also increase the chance of getting human immunodeficiency virus . An HIV test may be offered at the same time as a test for chlamydia or other STIs.
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During And After The Test
When you have a urine STI test, it is usually during a regular appointment. You will be asked to pee into a sample collection cup or tube. That tube or cup will be given to one of the medical staff.
Your urine sample will then be sent out to a lab or tested at the clinic. You can leave as soon as you are done giving the sample or when your appointment is finished.
How Are Chlamydia And Gonorrhea Treated
Both chlamydia and gonorrhea can be treated with medication. The CDC recommends that chlamydia be treated with antibiotics, and that gonorrhea be treated with dual therapy. It is important that treatment directions be followed in order to ensure that treatment is successful.
Even with successful treatment, it is important to note that a person can be re-infected with either chlamydia or gonorrhea at any time. For this reason, it is important to continue testing as indicated and to encourage sexual partners to get tested and to seek treatment as necessary.
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How Long Should I Wait Before Getting An Sti Test
The incubation period for chlamydia is 7 to 21 days. If youve had sex with someone whos positive, or if youve had a sexual encounter with a new partner, your results can be detected within the incubation period.
Its recommended to get tested 3 months after treatment to make sure youre in the clear.
Get Lowest Chlamydia Test Cost $79
A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2018 says that nearly 3 million people are diagnosed with Chlamydia in the United States every year. Nearly half of the people diagnosed with Chlamydia are women who fall under the 15 to 24 year age group.
As the symptoms of Chlamydia are not shown at an initial stage of infection, we highly recommend every sexually active young woman to get tested for Chlamydia at least once a year. We also recommend young men getting tested for Chlamydia as well.
The article below covers the chlamydia test cost, symptoms of chlamydia in men and symptoms of chlamydia in women, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and how to get tested for chlamydia sitting at home.
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