Chlamydia is a bacterial infection of your genital tract that spreads easily through sexual contact. You may not know you have chlamydia at first because the symptoms of pain and fluid discharge don't show up right away. Most of the time, there are no symptoms whatsoever. The disease isn't difficult to treat. However, left untreated, chlamydia can lead to a number of more serious health problems.
The condition is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States. Each year, an estimated 3 million chlamydia cases occur.
You can get the
Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium, which causes chlamydia, whether you're a man or a woman. The disease affects all age groups, but is most prevalent among U.S. teenagers.
Chlamydia is difficult to detect because early-stage infections often cause few or no symptoms that might alert you to see your doctor. About 75 percent of women and 50 percent of men don't have symptoms. Symptoms may occur 1 to 3 weeks after exposure to chlamydia. If symptoms do occur, they're often mild and transient. As a result, you may overlook them.
Signs and symptoms of chlamydia infection may include:
- Painful urination
- Lower abdominal pain
- Vaginal discharge in women
- Discharge from the penis in men
The bacterium
Chlamydia trachomatis causes chlamydia. The condition spreads most commonly through sexual intercourse and other intimate contact between genitals, rectal area and mouth. It's also possible for a mother to spread chlamydia from her vaginal canal to her child during delivery, causing pneumonia or an eye infection, which may lead to blindness.
|
When to Seek Medical Advice |
See your doctor if you have a discharge from your vagina or penis, have pain during urination or encounter other signs and symptoms of chlamydia. It's important to treat chlamydia before it leads to other health problems. Also, see your doctor if your sexual partner reveals that he or she has chlamydia, even if you have no symptoms. Symptoms may not occur until several weeks after infection, or may not occur at all.
Because of the chance of other health problems if you contract chlamydia, ask your doctor about how often you should have chlamydia screening tests if you're at risk. You're in a high-risk group if you have:
- Multiple sexual partners and don't use a condom during sex
- Other STDs
- A sexual partner who has had STDs
Screening and diagnosis of chlamydia is relatively easy. Tests include:
- Culture swab. For women, your doctor may take a culture swab of the discharge from your
cervix. This can be done at the same time your doctor does a routine Pap test. For men, your doctor
may insert a slim swab into the end of your penis to get a sample from the urethra. In some cases,
your doctor may swab the anus to test for the presence of chlamydia.
- Urine test. A sample of your urine analyzed in the laboratory may indicate the presence of
an infection.
Left untreated, chlamydia can lead to other health problems.
- Human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Women infected with chlamydia are at three to five times greater
risk of acquiring HIV than women not infected with chlamydia.
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID is an infection of your uterus and fallopian tubes.
Although it may cause no symptoms, PID can damage the fallopian tubes, ovaries and uterus, including
the cervix. Untreated PID can lead to abscesses in the fallopian tubes or ovaries. The infection can
cause scarring that may lead to infertility. Other possible long-term consequences include chronic
pelvic pain and lingering infection. Each year, about 1 million U.S. women develop PID. Chlamydia and
gonorrhea are among the common causes. Up to 40 percent of women who have untreated chlamydia develop
PID. About 20 percent of women with PID become infertile, and almost 20 percent experience chronic
pelvic pain.
- Epididymitis. A chlamydia infection can inflame the epididymis, a coiled tube located
beside each testicle and involved in transporting sperm. Epididymitis may result in fever, scrotal
pain and swelling.
-
Prostatitis. The chlamydia organism can spread to your prostate gland. Prostatitis may result
in pain during or after sex, fever and chills, painful urination, and lower back pain.
- Rectal inflammation. If you engage in anal sex, the chlamydia organism can cause rectal
inflammation. This can result in rectal pain and mucous discharge.
- Eye infections. Touching your eye with a hand moistened with infectious secretions can
cause an eye infection. Left untreated, the eye infection can result in blindness. Chlamydia
trachomatis is a major cause of preventable blindness worldwide.
- Infections in newborns. The chlamydia infection can pass from your vaginal canal to your
child during delivery, causing pneumonia or an eye infection, which may lead to blindness.
Doctors treat chlamydia by prescribing antibiotics such as azithromycin (Zithromax), erythromycin, tetracycline or doxycycline. The infection should disappear within 1 to 2 weeks. Your sexual partner or partners also must receive treatment even though they may not have symptoms. Otherwise, the infection will be passed back and forth. Failure to treat chlamydia can result in complications in women and men.
The surest way to prevent a chlamydia infection is to abstain from sexual intercourse. Short of that, you can:
- Limit your sex partners. Having multiple sex partners puts you at a high risk of contracting
chlamydia or other STDs.
- Ask your partner or potential partner about his or her sexual history, and have intercourse with
only one infection-free partner.
- Use a latex condom during each sexual contact. Condoms, used properly during every sexual
encounter, reduce but don't eliminate the risk of infection.
—
July 24, 2001 —
