If left untreated, the infection can spread to other parts of your body and lead to long-term health problems, especially in women. In women, untreated chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
It is often called the 'silent infection' because most people do not realise they have it. It can affect women and men of all ages, but most frequently occurs in young people (under 25) who regularly change sexual partners. Chlamydia is spread by having unprotected sex of any kind with an infected person.
Chlamydia can infect the penis, vagina, cervix, anus, urethra, eyes, and throat. Most people with chlamydia don't have any symptoms and feel totally fine, so they might not even know they're infected. Chlamydia can be easily cleared up with antibiotics.
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.
Laboratory tests can diagnose chlamydia. Your healthcare provider may ask you to provide a urine sample for testing, or they might use (or ask you to use) a cotton swab to get a vaginal sample.
If the infection spreads, you might get lower abdominal pain, pain during sex, nausea, or fever. The majority of chlamydial infections in men do not cause any symptoms. You can get chlamydia in the urethra (inside the penis), rectum, or throat. You may not notice any symptoms.
Without medical intervention, a chlamydia infection can persist for years if gone unnoticed [1].
In women, chlamydia can spread to the womb, ovaries or fallopian tubes. This can cause a condition called pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can cause a number of serious problems, such as: difficulty getting pregnant or infertility.
Early-stage Chlamydia trachomatis infections often cause few or no signs and symptoms. Even when signs and symptoms occur, they're often mild, making them easy to overlook. Signs and symptoms of Chlamydia trachomatis infection can include: Painful urination.
How is chlamydia diagnosed? Diagnose chlamydia with nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), cell culture, and other types of tests. NAATs are the most sensitive tests to use on easy-to-obtain specimens. This includes vaginal swabs (either clinician- or patient-collected) or urine.
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
You can't get chlamydia from kissing someone who has it — or from other casual contact, such as hugging, sharing towels or eating utensils, or using the same toilet. Chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted infection (STI), is spread through: Vaginal, oral, or anal sex. Touching an infected person's genitals.
Is there a cure for chlamydia? Yes, the right treatment can cure chlamydia. It is important that you take all of the medicine your healthcare provider gives you to cure your infection.
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.
Can chlamydia go away without treatment? It can, but it can take a long time. If you delay seeking treatment you risk the infection causing long-term damage and you may still be able to pass the infection on to someone else.
Untreated chlamydia may persist without symptoms for long periods, may progress to cause complications, or may resolve spontaneously without treatment (“self-cure”).
The origins of both sexually transmitted and ocular C. trachomatis are unclear, but it seems likely that they evolved with humans and shared a common ancestor with environmental chlamydiae some 700 million years ago. Subsequently, evolution within mammalian cells has been accompanied by radical reduction in the C.
C. trachomatis infection appears to elicit a strong natural immune response that reduces substantially the susceptibility to reinfection. Immunity mechanism can be either a reduction in susceptibility to reinfection or a reduction in infectious-period duration upon reinfection, or a combination of both.
It's not a big deal - it's the most common sexually transmitted infection you can pick up. 80 per cent of people who have chlamydia don't have any symptoms. The doctor will give you one dose of antibiotics and boom, you're cured.
Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the UK. In 2018 alone, 49% of all new diagnoses of STDs were Chlamydia. A possible reason for this is that the Chlamydia can lay dormant for many years without the carrier knowing.
There are a few reasons why you might contract chlamydia a second time: The initial infection wasn't cured because the course of antibiotics wasn't completed as directed. A sexual partner transmitted chlamydia to you. You used a sex toy that was contaminated with chlamydia.