Chlamydia Symptoms And Causes

Chlamydia often goes unnoticed due to the lack of noticeable symptoms. Because of this, many cases of chlamydia remain undiagnosed.

Women

In women, genital chlamydia does not always cause symptoms. Signs and symptoms can appear 1-3 weeks after coming in contact with chlamydia, many months later or not until the infection has spread to other parts of your body. Some women may notice:

• Cystitis (pain when passing urine),
• a change in their vaginal discharge,
• lower abdominal pain,
• pain and/or bleeding during sexual intercourse,
• bleeding after sex, or
• bleeding between periods or heavier periods.

If left untreated the chlamydial infection can spread to the womb, and cause Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). PID is a major cause of infertility, ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage.

Men

Symptoms of genital chlamydia are more common in men than in women. Signs and symptoms can appear 1-3 weeks after coming in contact with chlamydia, many months later or not until the infection has spread to other parts of your body. Some men may notice:

• a white, cloudy or watery discharge from the tip of the penis,
• pain when passing urine, or
• pain in the tesiticles.

Some men experience mild symptoms that disappear after two or three days. However, after the discomfort disappears, you may still have the chlamydia infection. This means that you can pass it on to a sexual partner and you are at risk of complications such as inflamed and swollen testicles, reactive arthritis and infertility.

Men and women

Very rarely the chlamydia infection may affect areas other than the genitals in both men and women, such as the rectum, eyes or throat. If the infection is in the rectum it can cause some discomfort and discharge. In the eyes it can cause pain, swelling, irritation and discharge, conjunctivitis. Infection in the throat is very rare and does not usually cause any symptoms.

Causes of chlamydia

As chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection (STI), it is transmitted (passed on) from one person to another during intimate sexual contact. You can catch chlamydia through having:

• unprotected vaginal sex,
• unprotected anal sex,
• unprotected oral sex,
• genital contact with an infected partner, or
• sharing sex toys if they are not washed or covered with a condom each time they are used.

If infected semen or vaginal fluid comes into contact with the eye, it can cause conjunctivitis. It is not clear whether chlamydia infection can be spread by transferring infected semen or vaginal fluid on the fingers or by rubbing female genitals (vulvas) together. As it is common for someone with the chlamydia infection not to have symptoms, it is possible for him or her to infect a partner without knowing.
Chlamydia can be passed from a mother to her baby during childbirth. Although no obvious symptoms are immediately apparent, the infection will often develop after birth, and can result in complications such as inflammation and discharge in the baby’s eyes (conjunctivitis) and pneumonia.