Can You Be A Carrier Of Chlamydia & Test Negative?

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK and is quickly passed from one person to another during sex or sexual contact. It’s one of the most common symptomless STDs, so many people will be unaware that they are infectious. Some people will even test negative while being infected.

Our experts at Your Sexual Health have curated this article to explain when to test for chlamydia and how to know if you are infected. But first things first, can you be a carrier of chlamydia and test negative? 

Yes, you can be a carrier of chlamydia, but test negative. This is commonly known as a false negative test and can happen if you test before the incubation period, take the wrong test or have sex whilst you are on medication. It’s essential to regularly test for STDs if you are sexually active or having sex with a new partner to reduce the complications that a prolonged infection can cause. 

Read on to find out more about testing negative for chlamydia whilst being a carrier. 

Can You Test Negative For Chlamydia and Still Be a Carrier?

A false negative is where a person has an infection despite the medical test saying they are all clear. As well as these small amounts of false negatives, several scenarios can cause a person to have chlamydia and still test negative.

Modern medical testing is incredibly accurate, and this includes STD tests. However, no medical testing method has 100% accuracy, and there can be a minimal number of false negative test results. 

Testing Before The Incubation Period 

Every STD test has an advised date from which a test becomes accurate. This is because the bacteria need enough time to multiply within your body for it to reach a detectable level when taking a chlamydia test. 

For chlamydia, this is often 14 days. If you test before that 14 days is over, you may test negative, but you could still pass the bacteria on following your test.

Testing Following Medication

If you receive treatment for chlamydia, you will still be able to pass the bacteria on for up to two weeks following the completion of treatment. If you have sex whilst you’re on treatment and retrospectively have a test, the test could be negative but you could still have passed on the infection. Just because you no longer have the STD, doesn’t mean you didn’t have it in the days before your test.

Incorrect Testing Procedure

It’s important that any chlamydia test follows the instructions set out by the laboratory to complete your test. Incorrect collection of a sample could lead to false negative results, whereby the sample collected isn’t sufficient or is collected in the wrong way. Many tests will still be accurate in these circumstances, but the accuracy rates would be lowered.

Incorrect Test Type 

Another way you can test negative whilst being a carrier is if you only take a test sample from an area of the body that isn’t infected, but has an infection in another area. This could happen if you have had anal or oral sex, but fail to take a sample from either of these parts of the body and only collect a urine sample. If you have had separate sexual encounters that involved anal or oral sex, then you should test these separately.

If you have anal, oral and vaginal sex with the same person then you will likely only need to test one area, unless there was a long time between these encounters and there’s a chance that chlamydia may have entered the relationship in between. If you have a sexual encounter involving just anal or oral sex, then you should test a rectal and throat swab for chlamydia infection.

What Is A Chlamydia Carrier? 

Whenever we talk about a “carrier” in medical terms, we effectively talk about someone who can infect others with an infectious condition. Anyone with chlamydia is carrying the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria in their body. This bacteria is quickly passed on through unprotected sex, whether the person has physical symptoms or not.

How Do You Know If You Have Chlamydia? 

Chlamydia is incredibly difficult to diagnose due to its symptomless nature for 70% of women and 50% of men. The only sure way to know that you have chlamydia is to get tested. If you do have symptoms, then you will still need to be tested to diagnose that the symptoms are caused by chlamydia effectively. If you’re sexually active, you should get tested regularly whether you have symptoms or not.

When Should You Test For Chlamydia? 

To get an accurate result from your test, you should wait at least two weeks (14 days) after sexual contact before you get tested. This allows the incubation time to pass as chlamydia cannot be detected in its early stages. If you’ve begun to notice the symptoms of chlamydia, book a test, as this will give you a sure diagnosis. 

Find out more about how long to wait in this blog: How Long After Sex Should You Test For STDs?

Do I Need To Get Tested Even Without Symptoms?

If you are sexually active you should still get tested for chlamydia regularly, even if you don’t have symptoms. Chlamydia can lay dormant for a number of years, so you may not know that you even have it. Find out more in our recent article: How long can chlamydia lay dormant?

Passing on chlamydia can make any relationship or sexual encounter extremely awkward and can also have serious repercussions for the other person’s health.

Even without symptoms chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women which can seriously hurt reproductive health. It can also cause fertility problems for men. Testing regularly is the most straightforward way to protect both your health and the health of your future sexual partners. If you’ve been diagnosed with chlamydia, you might find our recent article helpful: What to do if you have chlamydia

Discreet Chlamydia Testing With Your Sexual Health 

If you are sexually active, you should still get tested for chlamydia regularly, even if you don’t have symptoms. Chlamydia can lay dormant for a number of years, so you may not know that you even have it.

If you’re looking for discreet testing at a clinic near you, book a test with Your Sexual Health. Visit our clinics page to get started, or order a postal test straight to your door. If you have any questions or queries, get in touch.