Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment of the STD Called Chlamydia

Chlamydia is one of, if not the, most common sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacteria named Chlamydia trachomatis. This bacterium affects both men and women’s genitalias. This disease is more common among young adults, people living in urban places, African Americans, and people in the lower economic and social status. Since it is an STD, the main mode of transmission is through sexual intercourse. This implies that the more sex partners you have or the more often you have sex, the higher your risks of getting infected.

Symptoms of Chlamydia are rather mild or silent, but avoiding the treatment will surely lead to serious complications. For women, symptoms are really hard to assess, but it could include the following: unusual bleeding after intercourse; abdominal twinge; burning pain upon urination; and unnecessary discharge from vagina. Men, on the other hand, may also not observe symptoms but infection may be accompanied by the same symptoms in women. Additional symptoms could be testicle inflammation accompanied with pain and tenderness. These symptoms might be simple or not alarming; however, if you feel observe such symptoms; it would be best to have your physician check upon you.

In assessing possible Chlamydia infection, they usually take samples from the genitals. This could be the pus from vagina or penis or it could be urine. These samples are analyzed under a microscope to view the existence of the Chlamydia bacteria. After that, physical examinations are also done. It involves the checking of tenderness of the vaginal or penis areas. This examination could also be the perfect time to test you for other sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea. This is because many patients diagnosed with Chlamydia infection have the chances of having other STD’s. As medication, health care practitioners prescribes antibiotics that are taken on a regular basis. And fortunately, most patients with Chlamydia are cured after a religious intake of these drugs.

Serious complications could happen if this infection is not treated. The consequence for uncured Chlamydia is long term. Women may develop a pelvic inflammatory disease. This would be accompanied by constant pelvic pain, which may result to perihepatitis, a liver disease. And worse, women may become infertile due to this. Infected women who give birth through normal delivery can transmit the Chlamydia disease to the child. This new born child can suffer from Chlamydial eye and respiratory infections. As for men, Chlamydia may lead to Reiter syndrome, an inflammatory arthritis, and may also suffer from agonizing enlargement of testicles.

To prevent Chlamydia infection, you should observe a clean sexual practice. Also, regular check-ups at STD clinics will also be of big help. Since it is hard to clearly know when you have the disease and when you are infectious basing on the physical symptoms alone, getting regular blood tests to prevent the possible spread of the disease is a good option. This is especially important if you are sexually active and have more than one sexual partner.