Your Test Results Once you are infected, you can infect someone else. Both gonorrhea and chlamydia often have no symptoms. Sometimes only one partner will have symptoms, even though both have the disease. That's why notifying your sexual partners about the results of your test is important.
Under tort law, someone could sue you for infecting them with an STD, especially if you failed to tell them about your condition. They could seek compensation for their economic and non-economic damages related to their condition.
(Remember, the signs of chlamydia in women and men can be hard to spot.) And don't feel embarrassed or guilty if you do have chlamydia. “There is a sense of shame around sexually transmitted diseases,” Dr. Grifo says.
Chlamydia is a common STD that can cause infection among both men and women. 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).
Patients with Chlamydia are more likely to suffer relationship breakup soon after diagnosis than STI clinic attenders without an STI. Health advice should include reassurance about sexual relationships as well as safer sex.
What is late-stage chlamydia? 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.
Chlamydia can usually be effectively treated with antibiotics. More than 95% of people will be cured if they take their antibiotics correctly. You may be started on antibiotics once test results have confirmed you have chlamydia.
In this presentation, chlamydial infection will be referred to as chlamydia. All incurable STDs are viral. The most dangerous viral STD is human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which leads to AIDS. Other incurable viral STDs include human papilloma virus (HPV), hepatitis B and genital herpes.
Did you know it's possible for your partner to get treated for Chlamydia without ever having to see a GP or go to a sexual health clinic? This is known as Patient Delivered Partner Therapy (PDPT).
Things to Think About
If you know you are infected with an STD, you should talk to your partner about your diagnosis before having sex. That's true both because it's the right thing to do and because it may protect you from criminal prosecution for failure to disclose that STD.
Always see a doctor if your partner is being treated for chlamydia. You and your partner need to be treated. Also, see the doctor if you or your partner notice any symptoms, such as an unusual discharge.
Symptoms in men
At least half of all men with chlamydia don't notice any symptoms. If they do get symptoms, the most common include: pain when urinating. white, cloudy or watery discharge from the tip of the penis.
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. Having more frequent sex with a partner who has chlamydia may increase a person's risk of contracting it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
If left untreated, chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which can lead to chronic pain and infertility. In men, untreated chlamydia can cause pain and swelling in one or both testicles. If detected early, chlamydia may be treated with a single dose of antibiotics.
Nope! Chlamydia is easily cured with antibiotics. Chlamydia is a bacterial infection (like strep throat or an ear infection), which means that once you've been treated and tested negative for it (to make sure the antibiotics worked), it's gone.
Summary. If you're in a monogamous relationship and either you or your partner develops an STI, keep in mind that the infection may not indicate that your partner was unfaithful. An STI screen may provide answers about who infected whom and when the initial infection took place.
We can't stress this enough; getting angry and accusing your partner of giving you an STD is a bad idea for multiple reasons. First, your current partner might not have given you the STD in question. STDs often remain asymptomatic for weeks or even months at a time.
Even if the infection was due to infidelity, whether or not to forgive is ultimately up to you and your partner's willingness to recommit to you. Generally speaking, an STI does not have to be a relationship dealbreaker.