What is Chlamydia?  

Chlamydia is a curable STD successfully treated with antibiotics. It is an infection caused by the bacteria, Chlamydia trachomatis, and occurs in the urethra, pelvis, anus, eyes, or the throat. Approximately 4 million new cases arise each year, as many as one in 10 adolescent females test positive, making Chlamydia the most common of all bacterial STDs. It can be contracted through intimate touching, genital-to-genital contact, vaginal sex, anal sex, and can even be passed to a child during birth. It can be spread to different parts of one’s own body with contaminated fingers.  

Symptoms

It is estimated that seventy-five percent of women and fifty percent of men are asymptomatic. If any, symptoms may develop one to three weeks after infection. Women may have pain in their lower belly, painful urination, painful intercourse, inflamed rectum, inflammation of the lining of the eye (“pink eye”), vaginal discharge, or bleeding between periods. Men may have painful urination, pain or inflammation in the testicles or rectum, penile discharge, or inflammation of the lining of the eye. But remember, many have mild, or no symptoms at all.  

Treatment

Antibiotics used to treat Chlamydia are azithromycin (taken for one day only), doxycycline (taken for seven days), erythromycin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, or amoxicillin. Penicillin won’t cure chlamydial infections.  Left untreated in women, it may lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy, and infertility. If men don’t take antibiotics, it may cause pain and swelling in the scrotal area and may result in sterility. If left untreated in men or women, Chlamydia can be spread to their sexual partners during intimate contact. Women risk passing it to their infants during pregnancy and delivery, resulting in pneumonia, low birth weight, prematurity, or an inflammation of the eyes (conjunctivitis). In extreme cases, the fate of an infected infant may be blindness or death due to complications from pneumonia. Even if a person is treated and cured, they can become reinfected if exposed to it again.

Testing

 A urine or a swab test can be used to collect fluid from the penis or vagina for testing. A urine test does not require a pelvic exam or a swabbing of pus from the penis, and results are available within 24 hours. All sex partners should be tested, so they can receive treatment. They can infect other sexual partners, and even reinfect you after you have been treated.

Click here for a "Chlamydia Test" which can be done in the
privacy of your own home:

You will receive detailed, easy to follow

instructions in your test kit for

Chlamydia or Gonnorhea.