If you have chlamydia, you may be offered another test 3 to 6 months after being treated. This is because young adults who test positive for chlamydia are at increased risk of catching it again.
o It is very important to get tested again for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea about three months after you were treated in order to find any new infections early, before they do more harm to your body. You should get tested again even if you are sure that all of the people you are having sex with got medicine.
Any person who has a positive test for chlamydia or gonorrhea, along with women who have a positive test for trichomonas, should be rescreened 3 months after treatment.
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.
Chlamydial infection occasionally persists due to treatment failure, but repeat positivity upon retesting is most often due to reinfection from an untreated sexual partner or an infected new partner [4, 5].
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.
If people have repeated positive test results after treatment, it may be due to false-positive results or treatment failure. Resistance to antibiotic treatment is rare in chlamydial infections.
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.
It takes seven days for the medicine to cure chlamydia. If you have sex during those first seven days you can still pass the infection on to your sex partners and you can also get re-infected yourself.
Chlamydia reinfection is common. Having chlamydia once does not stop you from getting it again. Even after you've been successfully treated, you can still be reinfected if you have unprotected sex with someone who has the infection.
In some cases, a person may also have a false-negative test result. This can happen if they test too soon after exposure. For example, if a person tests the day after sex with a partner who has chlamydia, the bacteria may not have had the chance to grow to detectable levels.
Chlamydia Incubation Period: between 7 and 21 days. Chlamydia Window Period: between 1 and 5 days.
Conclusions. In the context of a closed population receiving directly observed treatment for urogenital chlamydia infection, the efficacy of azithromycin was 97%, and the efficacy of doxycycline was 100%.
Chlamydia Treatment and Care
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.
For their own survival and reproduction, bacteria need to produce certain proteins. Doxycycline works by entering the bacteria cells and blocking the production of these proteins. When taken correctly, Doxycycline is effective at fighting bacterial infections like Chlamydia in 95% of cases.
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.
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?
Remember, most people don't show any signs at all when they have chlamydia. That's why the only way to find out for sure if you have chlamydia is to get tested.
You and your sex partner(s) should also get tested again about three to four months following treatment to ensure that the chlamydia infection is no longer in your system.
The two most commonly prescribed antibiotics for chlamydia are: doxycycline – taken every day for a week. azithromycin – one dose of 1g, followed by 500mg once a day for 2 days.
For people with uncomplicated genital chlamydia, the WHO STI guideline suggests one of the following options: azithromycin 1 g orally as a single oral dose. doxycycline 100 mg orally twice a day for 7 days.
Chlamydial reinfections are very common—as many as 1 in 5 people will have a repeat infection with chlamydia within the first few months after they are treated for their initial infection.
Don't have sex with anyone while you are being treated. If your treatment is a single dose of antibiotics, wait at least 7 days after you take the dose before you have sex. Even if you use a condom, you and your partner may pass the infection back and forth.
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.