What to do if you have chlamydia

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK. Even if you’ve never had it, you’ll probably know someone who has had it at some point in their lives. Catching an STD of any kind can cause all sorts of emotions, from embarrassment to annoyance to worry. It’s nothing to worry about; most people have experienced the same thing. With this in mind, what do you do if you have chlamydia?

If you believe that you have chlamydia, or you are exhibiting symptoms such as burning when you pee or discharge, you should proceed with getting tested. If it is confirmed to be chlamydia, you then need to proceed with treatment with antibiotics and abstain from sex until 7 days after your treatment. After treatment is completed, we recommend retesting to ensure that the STD has left your system.

Read on to find out more about what you should do if you have chlamydia with Your Sexual Health.

How To Check If I Have Chlamydia?

The best, and most effective way to check if you have chlamydia is to get tested at a sexual health clinic. Our clinics at Your Sexual Health are discreet, meaning nobody will know you are there for a sexual health check-up. If you’d prefer to test for chlamydia within the comfort of your own home, you can also order a postal test.

Simply book a chlamydia and head to one of our centres. Our friendly staff will take you through the test, and you will leave a sample with us. Once you have deposited your sample, it will be submitted to our laboratory for analysis. Turnaround times will vary depending on your test, but you will be notified via your preferred contact method as soon as we receive your results. We aim to get them to you as soon as we can.

Why Is It Important To Get Tested For Chlamydia?

The best way to know if you have chlamydia is to get tested. Even if you have symptoms or one of your previous sexual partners has told you that they’ve caught chlamydia it’s still better to know what STD you may have by getting tested. This is important for a number of reasons:

• You’ll want to know for definite which STD you have and the only way to know that is by getting tested.
• Symptoms of STDs can be similar, and without getting tested you don’t know for certain which ones you have. You might even have multiple STDs.
• One antibiotic doesn’t treat all STDs, treatment is tailored to the infection that you have.
• You may have no symptoms at all but still have an STD.

If you don’t have an STD then taking antibiotics can have an adverse effect on your long-term ability to fight off infection.

What To Do If I Definitely Have Chlamydia?

If you’ve tested positive for chlamydia, there are some steps you should take to treat the infection effectively. These steps are:

Proceed With Treatment

If you’ve been tested and it’s confirmed that you have chlamydia, the first thing you’ll want to do is visit a GP to get medication. Chlamydia is treated with antibiotics, the two most common being Azithromycin and Doxycycline. Azithromycin will usually consist of 2 or 4 tablets taken in one dose, whilst Doxycycline is a week-long course of two tablets taken daily. Azithromycin is usually the first line of treatment in many cases.

Abstain From Sex Until Two Weeks Post-Treatment

This is really important and as difficult as it might be, you’ll want to abstain from sex until at least two weeks after your medication has finished and you have been retested, with confirmation all is clear. Even if you don’t have symptoms the bacteria doesn’t completely leave your system until two weeks have passed. You’ll likely be cured following your medication, but you can still pass it on during sex. You should suggest to your partner to get tested and treated if it is comfortable and safe for them to do so.

Retest

We recommend taking another chlamydia test once you or both you and your partner have been treated. This is the only way to know that the STD has left your system and won’t be rearing its ugly head again soon or cause further medical issues such as infertility.

Inform Your Sexual Partner (If You Can)

That leads nicely to our last point… if you find out you have chlamydia, then it’s important that you tell any past or current sexual partners that you’re likely to have passed the STD on to. This will minimise the spread where possible. This is important as it not only protects their health, but it will protect the health of others too.

Chlamydia can cause a number of long-term health complications for both men and women and telling them in a timely fashion will help them avoid health issues in the future. Although it can be awkward to discuss it, we often find it’s more awkward if the person finds out they’ve caught chlamydia from you of their own accord. It is your responsibility to inform partners. Speak with one of our medical team during your appointment for help with contacting any previous sexual partners.

If you’re unsure about telling your partner in person, you may want to use a third-party service to do it for you. Some sexual health providers offer a text message service, which can inform someone about contact with an infection whilst keeping you anonymous.

Can Chlamydia Go Away On Its Own?

No, Chlamydia infections will not go away on their own. In some rarer cases, people’s immune systems have fought off a chlamydia infection, but this shouldn’t influence your decision to get tested and treated.

Sometimes, the symptoms may come and go, which causes people to believe that they are infected and that the infection has gone away or they had a less severe infection. The only way to cure a chlamydia infection effectively is to get tested and treated.

Discreet Chlamydia Testing With Your Sexual Health

You can be infected with chlamydia and not know that you are, which is why it’s important to get tested regularly. 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 get a positive test result, you might find our advice on chlamydia useful. For any other questions or queries, get in touch.