Untreated chlamydia can increase a woman's risk for developing: pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and chronic pelvic pain. In fact, women who become reinfected with chlamydia have an even higher risk for PID and ectopic pregnancy than those with a first infection.
Women who have had chlamydia infections more than once are at higher risk of serious reproductive health complications. Men often don't have health problems from chlamydia. Sometimes it can infect the epididymis (the tube that carries sperm). This can cause pain, fever, and, rarely, infertility.
Repeat infection
This may be due to sexual partners not receiving treatment or as a result of sexual contact with a new partner with a chlamydia infection. It is also possible for a chlamydia test to produce a false-positive result, meaning that a test result is positive, but there is no active infection.
You Can Get Chlamydia More Than Once
With some diseases, having one infection makes you immune to future infections. That's not the case with chlamydia. If you engage in sexual activity with a person who has a chlamydia infection, you can get it again, even if you've just completed treatment for it.
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.
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.
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.
Risks of reinfection
Contracting chlamydia multiple times can increase a female's risk of serious reproductive health problems, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can cause several health issues, including : infertility.
Both you and your partner(s) need to be treated for chlamydia before you have sex again, or you could get re-infected. Just like strep, you can get it many times in your life – getting treated for it once doesn't mean you're good for life.
If a person's symptoms continue for more than a few days after receiving treatment, he or she should return to a health care provider to be reevaluated. Repeat infection with chlamydia is common. Women whose sex partners have not been appropriately treated are at high risk for re-infection.
You need to take the full course of antibiotics. 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.
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.
Does that mean it's out of my body for good? If you took all of the antibiotic as it was prescribed, the chlamydia infection was likely cured. However, you can still get chlamydia again in the future, either from the same partner (if that person wasn't treated) or a new partner.
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].
With treatment, chlamydia should go away within a week or two, however, the test may remain positive for 4 weeks after treatment. It's important to take all antibiotics to fight the infection. Don't have sex during treatment, or you could get reinfected.
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.
Chlamydia isn't spread through casual contact, so you CAN'T get chlamydia from sharing food or drinks, kissing, hugging, holding hands, coughing, sneezing, or sitting on the toilet. Using condoms and/or dental dams every time you have sex is the best way to help prevent chlamydia.
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.
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.
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. Do not share medicine for chlamydia with anyone.
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).
Any remaining chlamydia bacteria can replicate and potentially even become resistant to the initial antibiotics—meaning you may require even more powerful medication to treat the infection.
Chlamydia can eventually cause excessive damage and scarring to the fallopian tubes, ovaries, or testicles, all of which can contribute to a higher risk of infertility.
It may take upwards of a year for most people to develop PID, but others can develop it earlier, depending on the severity of the infection.