Chlamydia

What is chlamydia?
Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the UK. but, is easy to cure and prevent.

Chlamydia is a bacterial infection of your genital tract that spreads during sexual contact, and it is highly infectious. It can be transmitted through vaginal, anal, or oral sex. You may not know you have chlamydia at first because the symptoms of pain and fluid discharge don't show up right away. The disease isn't difficult to treat. However, left untreated, chlamydia can lead to a number of more serious health problems.

What causes chlamydia?

• Chlamydia is passed through sexual intercourse.
• Newborn babies can get infected if their mothers have chlamydia.
• Changing partners often or having may sexual partners.
• Unprotected sex.

What are the symptoms?
Many people who contract chlamydia don`t show any symptoms at all especially women.

In women they can include:
A yellowish vaginal discharge which might have a foul odour
Painful burning during urination
The need to urinate often
Bleeding between periods and after intercourse
Pain during intercourse

In men they can include:
Painful burning on urination
Redness, swelling, burning, itching around the opening of the penis
Discharge from the penis, usually milky-white, grey or yellow in colour

If you do have any of the symptoms listed above then you should contact your doctor immediately.

Chlamydia can cause a number of complications in both men and women if not treated.

Women:

A type of arthritis
A gallbladder infection
An infection of the fallopian tubes, which can block them (causing infertility) or scar them; this can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease
A higher chance of ectopic pregnancies (pregnancies outside the womb)
Miscarriages

Men :

May become sterile if the infection spreads from the urethra to the testicles; this is called epididymitis
Develop prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate
Develop Reiter's syndrome, an arthritis-like condition that can damage the joints and eyes

Diagnosis
For women, a cervical swab will be taken from the neck of the womb during an internal examination this is the most common way of doing the tests or a urine example may be taken. These specimens can be taken either by a GP or at specialist NHS genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics or family planning clinics.

Treatment
The treatment for chlamydia is antibiotics. The current best treatments are:

Doxycycline 100mg twice a day for seven days
Or Erythromycin 500 mg four times a day for seven days
Another option is a single dose of the antibiotic Azithromycin.
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.

While undergoing treatment, and for at least one week after, you should avoid having sex, even if a single-dose treatment is used

Prevention and self-care
The only sure way of not contracting chlamydia or any other STD is by not having sex, or you could:

Limit your sex partners. Have intercourse with only one person who is infection free. Having multiple sex partners puts you at a high risk of contracting chlamydia or other STDs.
Use a condom at all times when having sexual intercourse.