Chlamydia

Chlamydia is a very common STD, especially under (young) women. The Chlamydia bacteria hides in the mucus membranes of the sexual organ and this makes that it can manifest itself in the urethra, the anus and the uterus. The infected area will depend on the way that the sexual acts was performed

Symptoms that women may experience

When a woman gets Chlamydia, a lot of times she won't have symptoms or the symptoms will not be very clear.This makes that the woman might walk around for a long time, sometimes even years, with the infection without knowing it. Unfortunately, the woman will still be contagious and can pass the disease along without knowing it.

A woman might have symptoms consisting of fluid separation of the vagina, pain when urinating, abnormal bleeding (in between two periods if she is using the "pil"), bleeding after sexual contact, pain during sexual acts or pain in the under belly.
These symptoms can indicate Chlamydia and you can feel more than 1 symptom at a time.

Symptoms that men may experience

When a man gets infected with Chlamydia, he will notice some fluid separation from his penis a few days or a few weeks after having had performed the sexual act.
The fluid coming out of the penis does not have to be a lot. Often, only in the morning will the man experience some clear fluid coming out of his penis. Another symptom is that the man will have pain when he's urinating.

Sometimes men won't feel any symptoms but this does not mean that they won't infect anyone else. If someone has Chlamydia but does not experience any symptoms, they will still be contagious and they can also get complications later on if the infection is not treated.

Treatment

The doctor will usually do one or more tests on a person to see if he's got the illness. Most of the time, the doctor will also do a blood test to see if the person is also infected with Syphilis.

There are good treatments for Chlamydia and you have to make sure that you finish the treatment that the doctor prescribed for you, even if the symptoms go away during the treatment. If someone is infected, and is getting treatment, the doctor will also have to examen his or her partner to see if that person also got infected.

Possible consequences for women

Chlamydia can spread from the uterus and go to the ovaries and this can lead to an infection of the ovaries that sometimes can spread into the belly. This is then known as an infection of the pelvic region.

Infection of the ovaries can give fever, give you pain in your under belly and make you feel sick. A quick and effective cure of Antibiotics and bed rest will completely cure the infection of the ovaries. If this infection does not get proper treatment, it can lead to scarring on the ovaries. This in turn can make the ovaries get constipated, which can make the woman infertile or get ectopic pregnancy (pregnant outside of the uterus).

A pregnant woman that's infected with Chlamydia can also pass this along to the child during birth, which can give the baby eye or lung infections. Luckily, Chlamydia can be treated perfectly, so that the baby does not run any risk of infection.

Possible consequences for men

Men can also get Chlamydia but this happens less frequently than with women. The bacteria can spread to the prostate and the testicles through the sperm tubes. An infection of the testicles is a complication that happens more often than the other complications. This can give an extreme amount of pain in the scrotum and sometimes also in the groin.

You can feel some swelling in the scrotum and the testicles and in some cases infection may lead to infertility. A prostate infection goes along with fever, difficulty to urinate, a burning sensation during urination and some pain around the penis. The infection gets treated with antibiotics and sometimes wearing loose underwear gets recommended to help with the pain.