Without medical intervention, a chlamydia infection can persist for years if gone unnoticed [1].
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. This can lead to long-term complications, including infertility.
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).
You should never wait for chlamydia to go away on its own. Left untreated, chlamydia can cause serious harm to your health.
In women, untreated chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Some of the complications of PID are: Formation of scar tissue that blocks fallopian tubes; Ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy outside the womb);
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.
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.
Young, sexually active females need testing every year. Most people who have chlamydia don't know it. Often the disease has no symptoms. You can pass chlamydia to others without knowing it.
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
Some complications of these STIs can happen to anyone. Others are unique to each sex due to differences in sexual anatomy. Gonorrhea has more severe possible complications and is more likely to cause long-term problems like infertility.
Increased risk of fertility issues
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.
The majority of people who have chlamydia aren't aware of any signs or symptoms, even after several months or years with infection. Nonetheless the impact of untreated chlamydia can be serious for women, causing significant damage to the reproductive organs.
Amongst the few mathematical modelling studies with explicit descriptions of progression from chlamydia infection to PID, it has been proposed that PID develops in the first half of a chlamydia infection, in the second half, or can occur at any time during a chlamydia infection [13].
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.
If one partner tests positive for chlamydia and the other does not, there are a few possible explanations: The positive test result could be incorrect. The negative test result could be incorrect. The chlamydia might not have transmitted from the person to their partner.
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.
You can't transmit chlamydia through kissing, sharing drinking glasses, or hugging. However, you can transmit the disease: through vaginal, oral, or anal sex without a condom or other barrier method with someone who has the disease. to your baby through childbirth if you're pregnant.
The origins of both sexually transmitted and ocular C. trachomatis are unclear, but it seems likely that they evolved with humans and shared a common ancestor with environmental chlamydiae some 700 million years ago. Subsequently, evolution within mammalian cells has been accompanied by radical reduction in the C.
Understanding Trichomoniasis
Chlamydia and trichomoniasis are similar infections and they are commonly confused, but it's important to know the difference, as the two infections are not treated with the same antibiotic. Trichomoniasis (trich) is caused by a parasite called Trichomonas Vaginalis.
Chlamydia is often asymptomatic, meaning that many people don't know they have it. Chlamydia symptoms can include pus-like yellow discharge; frequent or painful urination; spotting between periods or after sex; and/or rectal pain, bleeding, or discharge.
Chlamydiae exist as two stages: (1) infectious particles called elementary bodies and (2) intracytoplasmic, reproductive forms called reticulate bodies.
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.