Throat Swab For Gonorrhea And Chlamydia

Almost Everyone Needs Tested

If youre sexually active and not in a long-term relationship, you should be tested for STDs on a regular basis. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers this general testing guide:

• Everyone 13 to 64: At least once for HIV.
• Sexually active women under 25: Yearly for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
• All pregnant women: Tested for syphilis, HIV and hepatitis B
• All women in at-risk pregnancies: Tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
• Those having unprotected sex or sharing needles: Yearly for HIV.

Also, sexually active bisexual or gay men should get frequent tests for HIV, up to every 3-6 months, and yearly tests for syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea.

It Is Easy To Get Tested For Chlamydia

Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection that can affect both men and women. While both genders can be affected, the specific effects and method of diagnosis for the bacterial infection differs between male patients and female patients. We looked at the methods used to assist in the diagnosis of chlamydia among men in this post, as well as some particular factors that are unique to a male patient with this condition.

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What Should I Do If My Test Results Are Positive

Most at-home STI testing companies have healthcare professionals on staff who will call you to discuss next steps.

Gonorrhea cant go away on its own. So, the first step will involve going on antibiotics, which will either include an intramuscular injection or oral dose. The exact dosage and type of medication will vary based on how much the infection has progressed. Learn more about gonorrhea treatment here.

Next, they will help you figure out how to talk with your current partner, as well as determine how far back in your sexual history you should be alerting folks. .

Finally, 1 to 2 weeks later, your healthcare professional will have you get re-tested for gonorrhea. This is known as test-of-cure and is important because reinfection is super common. Experts also

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Why Do I Need This Test

You may have this test if you have certain risk factors that increase the chance of gonorrhea infection. You may also have this test if your healthcare provider thinks that you have gonorrhea.

Females with gonorrhea often have no symptoms. Those with symptoms may have:

• Vaginal discharge

• Bleeding between periods

If you are pregnant, you may also be checked for gonorrhea as part of prenatal testing. Thatâs because gonorrhea can be passed to the baby during delivery. This may cause blindness or a blood infection that can cause death. Finding and treating gonorrhea prevents these problems.

Males also may not have symptoms. If symptoms happen, they may include:

• Pain when urinating

• Painful or swollen testicles

During And After The Test

When you have a urine STD 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.

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Do You Need An Std Test

Apple Messages is a new way to contact us about our services, your appointments and more. Please keep in mind, that texting, messages and chat are not completely secure forms of communication and our team members will never divulge your personal health data without your explicit permission to do so and an acknowledgement that you understand the risks of this information being on your side once it has left our server. We can not protect your information once its on your personal device. Please be mindful of risks involved and be careful what you disclose, especially if you have no protections on your device. If youd like a more secure form of communication, we have encrypted emails and chat available upon request.

Specimen Collection And Handling

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Is This Chlamydia & Gonorrhoea Test Accurate

Yes, this is an accurate test that allows you to test for Gonorrhoea & Chlamydia in the throat, from the comfort and privacy of your own home with a swab sample. However, if you are not sure which STI or STD you may have, or you are concerned about a risky encounter, a Better2Know Full STI Screen may be more suitable for you as it tests for a number of sexually transmitted diseases.

You may have a chlamydia and/ or gonorrhoea infection in your throat if you have given oral sex to someone who has one or both of these infections. The infections are localised, so a urine test will not detect whether or not you have an infection in your throat. The only way to know is to get tested.

Elimination Of Access Barriers

Uptake of STI testing remains a public health challenge, with particularly low testing rates among young men and gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men . Other studies and one recent systematic review have shown that self-collection of specimens for STI testing is acceptable among these marginalized populations . The Odesanmi et al. systematic review found that home-based screening significantly increased the uptake compared to clinic-based testing . Self-sampling can eliminate access barriers to STI testing, such as stigma, shame, negative interactions with service providers, concerns about privacy and confidentiality, inaccessible hours, and travel time to clinics. Furthermore, Gilbert el al. showed that self-collection can be feasibly used within existing community venue-based HIV surveillance systems for MSM.

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What Do The Results Mean

Your results will be given as negative, also called normal, or positive, also called abnormal.

Negative/Normal: No gonorrhea bacteria were found. If you have certain symptoms, you may get additional STD tests to find out the cause.

Positive/Abnormal: You are infected with the gonorrhea bacteria. You will be treated with antibiotics to cure the infection. Be sure to take all the required doses. Antibiotic treatment should stop the infection, but some types of gonorrhea bacteria are becoming resistant to certain antibiotics. If your symptoms donât improve after treatment, your health care provider may order a âsusceptibility test.â A susceptibility test is used to help determine which antibiotic will be most effective in treating your infection.

Regardless of your treatment, be sure to let your sex partner know if you have tested positive for gonorrhea. That way, he or she can be tested and treated promptly.

If you have questions about your results, talk to your health care provider.

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Possible Impacts Of Untreated Infections

While some people may have a chlamydia or gonorrhea infection without knowing it, it won’t go away without being treated. Some of the long-term impacts of the two infections are similar.

Among other health concerns, some of the possible conditions that can occur if either infection is left untreated include:

• Pregnancy concerns, including preterm birth, in the case of chlamydia
• Inflammation or scarring in the genital area
• Arthritis that is associated with swelling in the joints and can spread to other parts the body

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Appendix: Key Questions Reviewed By The Work Group And Member Responsible For Literature Summary

Performance Characteristics

• Does the sensitivity and specificity of available tests for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae vary with respect to anatomic site from which the specimen was collected and/or specimen type?
• Joan Chow, DrPH, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, California
• Katherine Whitaker, PhD, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland

Screening Applications

• What specimen types are optimal for of C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae screening purposes?
• Charlotte Gaydos, DrPH, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
• Sarah Guerry, MD, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, California
• Barbara Van Der Pol, PhD, Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, Indiana

Economic Considerations

How To Swab For Gonorrhea And Chlamydia

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , a record 2 million-plus cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in the United States in 2016. According to the annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report released in September 2017, most of these new diagnoses were cases of chlamydia.

There were also 470,000 gonorrhea cases and almost 28,000 cases of primary and secondary syphilis the most infectious stages of the disease.

All three of these STDs can be cured with antibiotics. But if left undiagnosed and untreated, they can have serious health consequences, including infertility, life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth in infants, and increased risk for HIV transmission.

*Please note: When collecting samples, it is recommended to wear appropriate personal protective equipment .

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This Test Will With > 99% Accuracy Tell You Whether Or Not You Have Been Infected With Chlamydia Or Gonorrhea

Like any Everlywell STI test, our at-home Chlamydia & Gonorrhea Test is delivered in discreet packaging and taken in the privacy of your own home. Once you return your test sample to our lab and your sample is processed, youâll be notified via email when your results are ready. You will then be able to access your results through an easy-to-understand report on our secure online platform.

This at-home gonorrhea and chlamydia test checks whether you test positive for gonorrhea or chlamydia.

In the event that your test results are positive, a board-certified physician in your state will contact you at no additional cost to discuss your particular case, and when appropriate, prescribe medication.

We take customer privacy very seriously, and only you will have access to this information. As is the case with all STD testing whether through Everlywell at-home tests or your healthcare provider â we may be required by law to report positive test results to certain state health departments. This is only done to track the prevalence of a sexually transmitted disease. In rare cases you may not receive a definitive result because of early infection or inadequate sampling and repeat testing is suggested. Donât take a chance on your sexual health. Know where you stand with our at-home Chlamydia & Gonorrhea test. You can also take our at-home STD Test for men or our STD Test for women.

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What Is Gonorrhea Exactly

Gonorrhea, also known as the clap or the drip, is a bacterial sexuality transmitted infection caused by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium. It can target moist areas of the body, including the genitals, rectum, throat, uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes, and eyes.

Like other STIs, gonorrhea doesnt appear *poof* out of nowhere. Instead, its transmitted when a person without gonorrhea comes into contact with the site where a person who is gonorrhea-positive has gonorrhea.

If, for example, person A has throat gonorrhea and goes down on person B, the infection could be transmitted to person Bs genitals.

Likewise, if partner A has genital gonorrhea and scissors with person B, the infection could be transmitted to person Bs genitals.

Symptoms usually appear between 2 and 14 days after exposure, when they do appear which is 50 percent of the time in women and around 90 percent of the time in men. Everyone else is asymptomatic.

When someone *does* experience symptoms, they usually include:

• burning or pain while urinating
• yellow, white, or green discharge
• itching, soreness, or skin irritation
• abdominal, pelvic, rectal, or genital pain

Regardless of whether or not someone has symptoms, the virus can still be transmitted.

And not only that: The infection can progress. If untreated, gonorrhea can cause

In short: Getting tested is imperative.

Think youre a good candidate for an at-home gonorrhea test? Here, find the best.

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How To Get The Test

After you place your order online, a test kit will be delivered to your address. Most testing kits are discreet, although you may want to verify this with the company before purchasing.

Some pharmacies also sell at-home tests over the counter. If you want to avoid waiting for shipping, you can also check out the home test options at your local pharmacy.

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Who Should Get Tested

If youre experiencing symptoms associated with gonorrhea, you might choose to take an at-home gonorrhea test.

However, because the symptoms of gonorrhea are similar to those of many other STIs, as well as infections like yeast infections, it may be more cost efficient for you to take an at-home STI test that tests for multiple STIs, or to get tested at a doctors office or Planned Parenthood.

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How Is Chlamydia Treated

Chlamydia is treated with antibiotics. The same antibiotics a doctor prescribes to treat chlamydia in the groin may also be prescribed to treat chlamydia in the throat.

Avoid oral sex or intercourse for at least 7 days if youre taking a one-time antibiotic dose. If you take a longer course, you should wait until youve taken all your medication before having sex again.

If youve been treated for chlamydia before, you can get it again. Treatments also can stop complications you may have already experienced due to chlamydia.

After treatment, its a good idea to always have protected sex to avoid contracting a new infection.

CDC , having chlamydia in the throat might increase the risk for getting HIV.

Having chlamydia in the throat can make you more vulnerable to other infections. Your body is so busy fighting off the chlamydia bacteria, it doesnt fend off other infections as effectively. This can cause problems such as mouth infections, tooth loss, gum disease, and dental pain.

Risks of untreated chlamydia infections

• increased risks for ectopic pregnancy
• increased risks for preterm delivery in pregnant women
• inflammation of the upper genital tract
• pelvic inflammatory disease, a condition that affects fertility pelvic pain
• perihepatitis, an inflammation in the capsule that surrounds the liver
• reactive arthritis, a form of inflammatory arthritis

Submission And Collection Notes

Do not use expired kits.

Prior to sampling, the patient should not have urinated for at least one hour. Female patients must not clean the labial area before collection. If the patient has used Replens® vaginal moisturizer, the specimen should be recollected as it will not be tested.

Collect approximately 10-50 mL of first-void urine in a sterile container. Using the provided disposable pipette, transfer urine from the sterile container to the Roche cobas® PCR Urine Sample Kit until the fluid level is between the two black fill lines. Tightly re-cap the Roche cobas®PCR Urine sample tube, and invert 5 times to mix. Urine specimens must be transferred into the Roche cobas® PCR Urine sample tube immediately for stabilization. If specimens cannot be transferred immediately, they can be stored at 2-30°C for up to 24 hours.

The Roche cobas®PCR Urine Sample Kits serve as a nucleic acid stabilizing transport and storage medium for urine specimens. The transferred urine must be between the black fill lines for accurate testing. Inadequate volumes will be cancelled.

If there is an excess of blood in the urine specimen , it should be discarded and recollected when appropriate. If received at the laboratory, these specimens will be cancelled. The Roche cobas®PCR Urine Sample Kits serve as a nucleic acid stabilizing transport and storage medium for urine specimens. The transferred urine must be between the black fill lines for accurate testing. Inadequate volumes will be cancelled.

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Did You Know It Gets In Your Mouth Oh And Your Butt Too

Thats right guys , were talking about those pesky sexually transmitted infections, gonorrhea and chlamydia. And you read that rightit can end up in your mouth and your butt.

So listen up to learn about the only way to test for these two serious infections, because your previous provider may not have done it correctly.

How Does A Chlamydia & Gonorrhoea Swab Test Work

For this test you take a swab of your throat using the kit provided. It is very quick and easy to take a swab and we provide step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

After you have bought your test online, we will post a discreet test kit to your home or chosen address by first class post. The postal packaging is plain so no one will know what it is. Open the pack and you will find a lab form, a swab taking kit and a pre-paid return envelope. In addition, we will email you a copy of the sample collection instruction leaflet. It is important that you follow the instructions on the leaflet carefully. You will get an email to tell you when your results are ready, but you can also log on to our secure website and check your results at a time to suit you.

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