With or without symptoms, an untreated chlamydia infection can cause long-lasting health effects. For instance, it may lead to the development of: Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) – PID is a painful infection that can wreak havoc on the female reproductive system.
If left untreated, chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which can lead to chronic pain and infertility.
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
It can cause permanent damage to a woman's reproductive system. This can make it difficult or impossible to get pregnant later. Chlamydia can also cause a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy that occurs outside the womb).
Chlamydia can be cured with antibiotics from a health care provider. However, if chlamydia is left untreated, it can cause permanent damage. Your risk of getting other STIs, like gonorrhea or HIV, increases. In males, untreated chlamydia can lead to sterility (inability to make sperm).
There is no time for how long a chlamydia infection must remain in the system to cause infertility, because every body is different. It can take from weeks to two years. Chlamydia can lead to infertility in women due to the amount of scarring it causes to their internal reproductive organs.
Chlamydia can be cleared up with antibiotics in about a week or two. But don't stop taking your medication just because your symptoms improve. Ask your provider about what follow-up is needed to be sure your infection is gone after you've finished taking your medicine. Chlamydia infection can recur.
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.
If left untreated, gonorrhea and chlamydia can cause serious permanent damage, including infertility (unable to get pregnant and have children). Informing your partners gives them the opportunity to get immediate testing, and if necessary, receive treatment.
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.
Being tested means that you can be treated, and the proper treatment will help clear up a chlamydial infection in a matter of weeks. On the other hand, if you don't get tested or don't see a healthcare provider for treatment, chlamydia can live in the body for weeks, months, or even years without being detected.
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. This is because you're at a higher risk of getting chlamydia again.
Finding out whether you have had the infection in the past is trickier - the bacterium will probably disappear from your system within a year. However the disease may have left scars - and a doctor will be able to pick those up.
An untreated chlamydia infection can persist for several years. Although this goes for both men and women, it is believed that men are less likely to carry the bacteria for several years. If you remain infected for a long time you have an increased risk of complications.
Without medical intervention, a chlamydia infection can persist for years if gone unnoticed [1]. Fortunately, once diagnosed, a healthcare provider can provide patients with the right medication to treat the sexually transmitted infection (STI).
In this situation when you're partner gives you an STI, it's easy to assume they cheated. If you have been totally faithful, you may assume that your partner acquired the infection while being unfaithful. Though it's possible they may have been intimate with someone else, it's also possible they never cheated at all.
Approach the conversation in a straightforward manner without being angry, frustrated, or upset. Pick a time when you won't be interrupted and a place where you can have a private conversation with your partner without others overhearing.
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?
They lack several metabolic and biosynthetic pathways and depend on the host cell for intermediates, including ATP. Chlamydiae exist as two stages: (1) infectious particles called elementary bodies and (2) intracytoplasmic, reproductive forms called reticulate bodies.
Chlamydia Dormancy Facts
Although some symptoms can appear within weeks of contact, there have been reports of chlamydia remaining dormant for over twenty years. If you have had recent sexual contact and wonder about chlamydia infections, don't hesitate to test. Listen to your body.
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.
Chlamydia cannot be passed on through casual contact, such as kissing and hugging, or from sharing baths, towels, swimming pools, toilet seats or cutlery.
Persons with chlamydia should abstain from sexual activity for 7 days after single dose antibiotics or until completion of a 7-day course of antibiotics, to prevent spreading the infection to partners. It is important to take all of the medication prescribed to cure chlamydia.
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.