Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
What happens if you leave chlamydia untreated for 3 years? Chlamydia is an infection and, in many people, may continue to spread throughout the body. Leaving a chlamydia infection untreated for years increases the risk of developing serious complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and further infections.
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.
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.
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.
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).
In the case of an initial positive, they run a retest (a differential) assuring false-positives aren't sent out. A delay in chlamydia and gonorrhea tests could be due to a lack of materials to sample. Some require the sample to get sent out to a second lab with more specialized equipment.
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.
People who have chlamydia for long periods without treatment risk becoming infertile or developing arthritis. For women, chlamydia can spread into the uterus and fallopian tubes, causing pelvic inflammatory disease. Pelvic inflammatory disease can lead to ectopic pregnancies, chronic pelvic pain and infertility.
Chlamydia can stay dormant in a person's body for years without apparent symptoms. In some cases, symptoms appear within 2-14 days after infection. However, some people, especially men, may have Chlamydia for years without knowing it.
Untreated, about 10-15% of women with chlamydia will develop PID. Chlamydia can also cause fallopian tube infection without any symptoms. PID and “silent” infection in the upper genital tract may cause permanent damage to the fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues, which can lead to infertility.
If you're not treated for chlamydia, you may have some serious complications. In women, the untreated chlamydia infection may spread to your fallopian tubes or uterus. This may cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
Symptoms can occur within 2-14 days after infection. However, a person may have chlamydia for months, or even years, without knowing it.
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.
Urine tests take about 2 to 5 days to show a positive (you have it) or negative (you don't have it) result. Blood tests can come back with results in a few minutes if the blood is analyzed on site. But they can take a week or more if sent to an off-site lab.
Positive tests can take longer than negative results to return from the lab. Sometimes people collect their negative HIV result and forget to listen for the other results. Very occasionally a clinician may have not booked a test onto the computer system so we get a positive result and have to add this test on manually.
Getting the results
If results are negative, you might be asked to be have tests again in 3–6 months. If results are positive, you'll be asked to see the doctor about treatment. Test results are usually available within 48 hours.
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.
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.
In the year after untreated chlamydia infection, 9.5% of women developed PID(8); however, as many as 30% of women have developed PID after concurrent gonococcal and chlamydial infection(9). Once women have PID, up to 15–20% subsequently develop infertility(7) with a large proportion of this infertility being TFI(10).
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.
The main symptom of infertility is not getting pregnant. There may be no other obvious symptoms. Sometimes, women with infertility may have irregular or absent menstrual periods. In some cases, men with infertility may have some signs of hormonal problems, such as changes in hair growth or sexual function.