Overall, chlamydia can come back for various reasons, including inadequate treatment, reinfection, and immune system issues. To reduce your risk of recurrence, it's important to practice safe sex, get tested regularly, and communicate with your sexual partners about any STDs you may have or have had in the past.
Thankfully, it's also curable. But new research suggests that for some people, curing chlamydia doesn't prevent reinfection, even if they're not exposed to it again. Apparently the disease can live inside your gut, and reinfect you out of the blue.
Estimates for reinfections vary, with many sources reporting it as a common occurrence. According to the CDC , in 2021, many individuals reacquired a chlamydia infection after receiving treatment in the previous months.
Once treated, a chlamydial infection can clear up in about a week with the proper antibiotics. To avoid spreading chlamydia, it's important to avoid having sex until your treatment is complete (follow your doctor's directions) and the infection is cured.
For some people they don't develop until many months later. Sometimes the symptoms can disappear after a few days. Even if the symptoms disappear you may still have the infection and be able to pass it on.
Whilst Chlamydia often lays dormant in many people, the disease may flare up and cause symptoms due to a change in the immune system such as a cold or flu. Symptoms include: Unusual discharge from bottom, vagina or penis. Testicle pain and swelling.
Chlamydial reinfections are very common—as many as 1 in 5 people will have a repeat infection with chlamydia within the first few months after they are treated for their initial infection.
Late-stage chlamydia refers to an infection that has spread to other parts of the body. For example, it may have spread to the cervix (cervicitis), testicular tubes (epididymitis), eyes (conjunctivitis), or throat (pharyngitis), causing inflammation and pain.
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.
How long does chlamydia last? With treatment, chlamydia should go away within a week or two, however, the test may remain positive for 4 weeks after treatment. It's important to take all antibiotics to fight the infection. Don't have sex during treatment, or you could get reinfected.
Women who have had chlamydia infections more than once are at higher risk of serious reproductive health complications. Men often don't have health problems from chlamydia. Sometimes it can infect the epididymis (the tube that carries sperm). This can cause pain, fever, and, rarely, infertility.
Chlamydial infection occasionally persists due to treatment failure, but repeat positivity upon retesting is most often due to reinfection from an untreated sexual partner or an infected new partner [4, 5].
Chlamydia is a widespread sexually transmitted infection that can cause serious health problems if left untreated. While it cannot go away on its own, Chlamydia can be cured with antibiotics. Getting tested regularly for this STI is important if you are sexually active and not in a committed monogamous relationship.
Apart from being infected at birth you can not catch chlamydia without performing some form of sexual act. However, you don't have to have penetrative sex to get infected, it is enough if your genitals come in contact with an infected person's sexual fluids (for example if your genitals touch).
How is chlamydia spread? 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.
Although being in a monogamous, long-term relationship can limit your risk of getting an STI, it doesn't guarantee that you won't contract an infection.
Chlamydia can lie dormant in your body for many years and cause a low-grade infection that rarely presents any flare-ups.
Like other Chlamydia species, the C. trachomatis life cycle consists of two morphologically distinct life stages: elementary bodies and reticulate bodies. Elementary bodies are spore-like and infectious, whereas reticulate bodies are in the replicative stage and are seen only within host cells.
While it is possible to have vaginal, oral, or anal sex with an infected partner and not get infected, it's unlikely. For more information, check out the “Prevention” link on the home page. What symptoms can develop if you get chlamydia or gonorrhea after giving oral sex?
In the first few months following treatment for initial infection, as many as 1 in 5 people will experience reinfection. If people experience reinfection after antibiotic treatment resulting in a negative test result, it is usually due to reinfection from a sexual partner.
o It is very important to get tested again for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea about three months after you were treated in order to find any new infections early, before they do more harm to your body. You should get tested again even if you are sure that all of the people you are having sex with got medicine.
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
If you take the treatment according to the instructions, you won't usually need a test to check the chlamydia has gone. If you're aged under 25, you should be offered a repeat test 3 months after finishing the treatment.