Chlamydia typically goes away within 1 to 2 weeks. You should avoid sex during this time to prevent transmitting the disease. Your doctor may prescribe a one-dose medication or a medication you'll take daily for about a week.
Chlamydia is a common STD that can cause infection among both men and women. It can cause permanent damage to a woman's reproductive system. This can make it difficult or impossible to get pregnant later. Chlamydia can also cause a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy that occurs outside the womb).
It takes 7 days for the medicine to work in your body and cure Chlamydia infection. If you have sex without a condom during the 7 days after taking the medicine, you could still pass the infection to your sex partners, even if you have no symptoms.
Without medical intervention, a chlamydia infection can persist for years if gone unnoticed [1].
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).
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.
Chlamydiae exist as two stages: (1) infectious particles called elementary bodies and (2) intracytoplasmic, reproductive forms called reticulate bodies. The chlamydiae consist of three species, C trachomatis, C psittaci, and C pneumoniae.
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.
If chlamydia is left untreated, it can spread to the womb and cause a serious condition called pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This is a major cause of ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women.
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.
If you've taken all your antibiotics but you still have symptoms, contact your doctor or another healthcare professional. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), you'll need a follow-up test three months after treatment to ensure that the infection is cured.
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.
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.
Following antimicrobial treatment with a single dose of azithromycin or seven days of twice-daily doxycycline, residual nucleic acid from noninfectious chlamydia has been shown to be present in nonpregnant women's urine for up to three weeks (16–21 days).
If not treated, chlamydia can lead to damage to the reproductive system. In women, chlamydial infection can spread to the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), according to the CDC. PID can damage the fallopian tubes and uterus and cause chronic pain, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy.
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.
Retesting 3 months after diagnosis of chlamydia, gonorrhea, or trichomoniasis can detect repeat infection and potentially can be used to enhance population-based prevention (136,137).
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.
It can take from weeks to two years. Chlamydia can lead to infertility in women due to the amount of scarring it causes to their internal reproductive organs. If you have had unprotected sex and not had a chlamydia test, you should get tested before trying to start a family.
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.
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).
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.
The initial damage that chlamydia causes is often unnoticed. However, infections can lead to serious health problems with both short- and long-term effects. If a woman does not receive treatment, chlamydia can spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes, causing PID.