Chlamydia is a common sexually communicated disease that impacts both men and women. The disease affects women in the cervix, rectum, or throat, while men can get affected in the urethra, rectum, or throat.
The disease can be transmitted during oral, vaginal, or anal sex with an infected person. The infection can also be passed to a baby by a woman during childbirth. If you’ve suffered from the disease and have been treated, Chlamydia can re-infect you if you have unsafe sex with someone who has it.
Who is at risk of getting chlamydia?
Mostly young people, particularly young women, are more likely to get chlamydia. If you don’t consistently use a condom, or if you have many sex partners, your odds of getting the disease increase manifold.
What are the symptoms of chlamydia?
Normally, chlamydia has no symptoms, so it’s hard for you to understand that you are infected by the disease. However, if anyone has the disease and they show no symptoms, they can still transmit it to others. If symptoms do manifest themselves, it usually takes many weeks for them to appear after you have sex with a diseased partner.
Symptoms in women include
- Irregular vaginal discharge
- A burning sensation when urinating
- Pain during sexual activity
- Lower stomachache, nausea, and fever are also reported if the infection spreads.
Symptoms in men include
- Discharge from your penis
- A burning sensation when urinating
- Burning or itching around your penis
Diagnosis of chlamydia
Chlamydia can be diagnosed through lab tests; a urine sample is enough for this purpose. Women are sometimes required to use cotton swab to get a sample from your vagina to test for the disease.
People who should be tested for chlamydia
Anyone with symptoms of chlamydia should go to their health provider for a test; an individual who has a partner with a sexually transmitted disease can also see a doctor. People who are more vulnerable should get checked for the disease every year. These include sexually active women who are 25 years of age or younger; older women who have new or several sex partners, or a sex partner who has a sexually communicated ailment. Men who have sex with men are also prone to getting the disease.
Other problems chlamydia can cause
An untreated infection can spread to a woman’s uterus and fallopian tubes, causing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can cause perpetual damage to a woman’s reproductive system, leading to lasting pelvic pain, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy. Women who have been infected by chlamydia more than once are more vulnerable to developing severe procreative health problems.
Men often have minimal complications from the disease. Occasionally it can infect the tube that carries semen. This can cause discomfort, fever, and, seldom, infertility.
A chlamydia infection can have both men and women develop reactive arthritis, a type of arthritis that occurs as a “reaction” to an infection in the body. Children born to sick mothers can get eye infections and pneumonia from chlamydia. Untreated chlamydia may also raise your odds of getting or giving HIV/AIDS.
Treatments for chlamydia
The infection is normally cured by antibiotics. Either a one-time dose of the antibiotics will do, or you may need to take medicine daily for a week. Antibiotics are unable to repair any lasting damage caused by the disease.
To stop spreading chlamydia to your partner, you should avoid having sex until the infection has been fixed. If you took a one-time dose of antibiotics, you should wait one week after taking the medicine to have sex again. If you have to take medicine daily for a week, you should avoid having sex again until you have stopped taking all of the doses of the antibiotics.
Getting a repeat infection is common, so you should get tested again about 3 months following treatment.
How chlamydia can be prevented
To decrease your risk of a chlamydia infection:
- Use condoms properly every time you have sex.
- Restrict the number of sex partners, and avoid going back and forth between partners.
- Practice sexual self-restraint, or restrict sexual contact to one uninfected partner.
- If you have been infected, do not indulge in any sexual activity and consult a doctor.
Any genital indications such as discharge or burning during urination or an uncommon sore or rash should be a sign to halt having sex and to see a doctor forthwith. If your doctor tells you have chlamydia or any other sexually communicated illness and receive treatment, you should inform all of your recent sex allies so that they can consult a doctor and be treated.
Since chlamydia often happens without symptoms, people who have been sickened may unwittingly infect their sex partners. Several doctors recommend that all people who have more than one sex partner should be tested for the disease frequently, even if there are no symptoms.
If you’re pregnant, how does chlamydia affect your baby?
If you are pregnant with chlamydia, you can transmit the infection to your baby during delivery. Your newborn may have an eye infection or pneumonia due to the disease. And if you have chlamydia, you are likely to deliver a premature baby.
When can you have sex again after you’ve been treated for chlamydia?
Until you are completely treated for chlamydia, you should avoid having sex again. If your clinician recommends a single dose of medicine, you should wait one week after taking the medication before indulging in a sexual activity.
Conclusion
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease that affects adult men and women. But it can be kept at bay if you engage in sexual activity with caution. Using condoms whenever you have sex, and practice sexual self-restraint can keep you being infected by the disease. And if you do get infected, following your doctor’s advice and taking proper medication can protect you from the complications of the disease.
Sex is a pleasurable activity and is every grown-up individual’s fundamental right. But if you use that birthright wrongly, you are liable to get affected by grave — and even fatal — diseases like chlamydia.