Men rarely have health problems from chlamydia. The infection can cause a fever and pain in the tubes attached to the testicles. This can, in rare cases, lead to infertility. Untreated chlamydia may also increase your chances of getting or giving HIV.
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.
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).
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, 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.
If chlamydia is left untreated, the infection can cause swelling in the epididymis (the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles) and the testicles. This could affect your fertility. Read more about the complications of chlamydia.
What are the symptoms? Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
There is no clear timeline on how long it may take for this to occur - while one study suggests that after exposure to the bacteria, it can take a few weeks for PID to develop, the NHS estimates that 1 in 10 women with untreated chlamydia could go on to develop PID within a year.
Chlamydia is very common: it's the most frequently reported infectious disease in Australia, and nearly 97,000 men and women are diagnosed with it each year. If you're sexually active and under 30 years of age, you are at the highest risk of contracting chlamydia.
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.
Chlamydia cannot be passed on through casual contact, such as kissing and hugging, or from sharing baths, towels, swimming pools, toilet seats or cutlery.
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).
Can you tell how long you've had chlamydia? For most people, symptoms of chlamydia show up between one week and three months after unprotected sex. But, it can take longer than three months. Your healthcare provider may learn more about the infection when they diagnose it.
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.
Chlamydia is most common among young people. Two-thirds of new chlamydial infections occur among youth aged 15-24 years. Estimates show that 1 in 20 sexually active young women aged 14-24 years has chlamydia. Disparities persist among racial and ethnic minority groups.
Chlamydia Treatment in Men
During Chlamydia treatment, men undergo a 7 to 14 day course of antibiotics. The antibiotics generally used are azithromycin and doxycycline. A single dose of azithromycin or a double dose of doxycycline for 7 to 14 days should clear the infection in most cases.
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.
Even without symptoms, the disease can cause complications, particularly infertility. The longer the infection is untreated, the more damage that can be done. If symptoms do show up, they usually occur within weeks of exposure. Men and women may face painful urination, an abnormal discharge from the urethra, or both.
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.
While long-term problems in men are rare, some men with untreated chlamydia may develop epididymitis. This refers to inflammation in the epididymis, a coiled tube at the back of the testicles that is responsible for storing and carrying sperm.
Cloudy urine. Abnormal vaginal discharge. Abnormal vaginal bleeding with intercourse or between periods.
Yes, it's possible to pass on chlamydia through oral sex – many STIs are most commonly spread via oral sex. Oral sex is the stimulation of the genitals using the mouth, lips and/or tongue – in other words, when a person puts their lips/mouth/tongue to another person's penis/vulva/anus.