Most people with chlamydia don't have symptoms, which means you may not know if you or your partner has it. If untreated, chlamydia can cause serious complications such as infertility and chronic pain. Once diagnosed, chlamydia is easy to treat with antibiotics.
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
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).
Anita Ravi, MD, MPH, MSHP, a practicing family physician in New York City, urges physicians to make STI screenings a routine part of patient care so as to help catch and treat chlamydia, which can have long term health repercussions if not treated. “You could have chlamydia for years and not know it,” Ravi says.
Symptoms can develop within a few days or weeks, but sometimes they do not appear until months or even years later.
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 lie dormant for months or years and it is often detected through screening and routine sexual health testing. If symptoms do develop, it usually takes 1-3 weeks after exposure to notice signs.
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.
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.
Yes, Chlamydia can be dormant in the body for several years without any flare-up to trigger a symptomatic infection. This means a person could live with Chlamydia for many years without knowing because the typical symptoms don't appear.
Chlamydiae exist as two stages: (1) infectious particles called elementary bodies and (2) intracytoplasmic, reproductive forms called reticulate bodies. The chlamydiae consist of three species, C trachomatis, C psittaci, and C pneumoniae.
Most people who have chlamydia don't notice any symptoms.
If you do get symptoms, these usually appear between 1 and 3 weeks after having unprotected sex with an infected person. For some people they don't develop until many months later. Sometimes the symptoms can disappear after a few days.
Without medical intervention, a chlamydia infection can persist for years if gone unnoticed [1].
However if the infection is left untreated in women it can spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Pelvic inflammatory disease can result in serious complications, including infertility, ectopic pregnancy and long-term abdominal pain.
According to the court of law, you cannot file a lawsuit against someone for every type of STD or STI. But most severe STDs like HIV/AIDs let you sue someone and get compensation for the damages caused to your physical well-being and financial health.
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.
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.
A significant number of men do not typically show symptoms for STDs such as chlamydia although they are very capable of spreading the disease. Even though they are generally asymptomatic or dormant, they will still test positive for the STD. Most STDs that are in a dormant stage can be detected with a test.
Irritation or itching around your genitals. 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.
Is chlamydia serious? Although chlamydia does not usually cause any symptoms and can normally be treated with a short course of antibiotics, it can be serious if it's not treated early on. If left untreated, the infection can spread to other parts of your body and lead to long-term health problems, especially in women.
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.
Can you develop a chlamydia infection on your own? Fortunately, you can't contract chlamydia on your own because it spreads through sexual contact with other people. Chlamydia bacteria does, however, thrive in vaginal fluid, semen, and pre-ejaculate (the fluids that the penis may release before sexual climax).