Although chlamydia is highly contagious, it does not always transmit to a person's sexual partners. It is also possible to have a false-negative test result.
This is because the bacteria needs enough time to multiply within your body in order for it to reach a detectable level when taking a chlamydia test. For chlamydia this is often 14 days. If you test before that 14 days is over, you may test negative, but you could still pass the bacteria on following your test.
Certain STIs will show up on a test within a couple of weeks of infection, while others will take much longer. This means if you test too early for certain STIs, the infection might not show up. In other words, it's possible to have an STI even if you tested negative the first time.
This leads us to our question of the day –– can chlamydia be dormant and undetected? There are two parts to the answer. First, yes, chlamydia can lie unnoticed for long periods of time. However, even if chlamydia remains asymptomatic, tests can still detect its presence.
There are many potential causes of symptoms similar to those of sexually transmitted infections. This includes yeast infections, urinary tract infections, and even allergies. It's important to consider these other possibilities and discuss them with your healthcare provider.
While some internet rumors state that chlamydia can be “dormant” and go undetected on tests, no reputable sources support this. Chlamydia bacteria can be present in the body without causing symptoms, but it will still appear on laboratory testing. Chlamydia is highly curable with proper antibiotic treatment.
Using a test with 97.2% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity,3 the positive and negative predictive values are 49.7% and 99.9%, respectively. That means the chance that a positive result is a false positive is greater than 50%.
As most people do not have symptoms, it is possible the person (who tested positive) could have had chlamydia/gonorrhea from a previous relationship, and has not passed it to their partner yet. It is never 100% that you will pass an STI when you have sex.
Following single-dose treatment for chlamydia, both pregnant and nonpregnant women should test negative with NAAT by 30 days post-treatment. Clinicians should collect a test-of-cure in pregnant women no earlier than 1 month. To avoid reinfection, women should avoid condomless intercourse for at least 1 month.
This can sometimes occur with tests used to diagnose sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For example, a person's urine test for chlamydia may be positive but their genital culture may come back negative. False-negative results are those in which you have a condition but the test says you don't.
How did I get chlamydia if I didn't cheat? You can get chlamydia if your partner had vaginal, oral or anal sex with someone who was infected and then had sex with you.
If 2 people who don't have any STDs have sex, it's not possible for either of them to get one. A couple can't create an STD from nothing — they have to get spread from one person to another.
Chlamydia Incubation Period: between 7 and 21 days. Chlamydia Window Period: between 1 and 5 days.
You can get chlamydia by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has chlamydia. Also, you can still get chlamydia even if your sex partner does not ejaculate (cum). A pregnant person with chlamydia can give the infection to their baby during childbirth.
your genitals coming into contact with your partner's genitals – this means you can get chlamydia from someone even if there's no penetration, orgasm or ejaculation. infected semen or vaginal fluid getting into your eye.
Some refer to chlamydia as a “silent” infection. This is because most people with the infection have no symptoms or abnormal physical exam findings.
Symptoms in men
pain when urinating. white, cloudy or watery discharge from the tip of the penis. burning or itching in the urethra (the tube that carries urine out of the body)
Some chlamydia and gonorrhea tests have a sensitivity rate of 99.8% and a specificity of 99.3%. It all depends on the type of test and the specific infection or disease that's being tested for.
Chlamydia. Symptoms usually appear after 1 to 3 weeks but can start much later. Symptoms include: discharge from the vagina or penis.
Can you get an STI in a long term relationship? Yes! Even if you're in a long-term, monogamous relationship, it's possible for you or your partner to have a previously undiagnosed and untreated STI.
Chlamydia. A doctor can test for chlamydia by swabbing the vagina, cervix, rectum, or throat, or by taking a urine sample. If symptoms appear, they usually present within 7–21 days of exposure. A test can normally detect chlamydia within 1–2 weeks of exposure.
Yes, chlamydia can lie dormant in the body, causing a low-grade infection without symptoms.
You should know that you can still test positive and negative as a couple when cheating didn't take place. Historically, this has been known as a discordant STI result, and it refers to a situation where a sexually active couple receives different negative and positive diagnoses after taking an STI test.
What can be mistaken for chlamydia? Dozens of conditions cause overlapping symptoms similar to chlamydia, including gonorrhea, bacterial vaginosis, urinary tract infections, and yeast infections, to name a few.
A negative chlamydia test means that there is no evidence of a chlamydia infection at the time the test sample was collected.