Is Chlamydia And Gonorrhea Curable

What Will My Test Results Tell Me

Your results will tell you if you are positive for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea.

Please keep in mind that this test only checks for chlamydia and gonorrhea infection in the genital area. It does not check for chlamydia and gonorrhea in the rectum or throat, or for other STIs. If you think you have been exposed or engage in risky sexual behavior, you should seek testing to check for infection in these areas as well.

If your test results detect chlamydia or gonorrhea, you will have the opportunity to speak to a board-certified licensed PWNHealth physician in your state at no additional cost. The physician can prescribe medication, if appropriate.

How Do I Know If I Have Chlamydia

Most people who have chlamydia have no symptoms. If you do have symptoms, they may not appear until several weeks after you have sex with an infected partner. Even when chlamydia causes no symptoms, it can damage your reproductive system.

Women with symptoms may notice

• An abnormal vaginal discharge
• A burning sensation when urinating.

Symptoms in men can include

• A discharge from their penis
• A burning sensation when urinating
• Pain and swelling in one or both testicles .

Men and women can also get infected with chlamydia in their rectum. This happens either by having receptive anal sex, or by spread from another infected site . While these infections often cause no symptoms, they can cause

• Rectal pain
• Discharge
• Bleeding.

You should be examined by your doctor if you notice any of these symptoms or if your partner has an STD or symptoms of an STD. STD symptoms can include an unusual sore, a smelly discharge, burning when urinating, or bleeding between periods.

Whats The Treatment For Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is usually super easy to get rid of. Your nurse or doctor will prescribe antibiotics to treat the infection. Some strains of gonorrhea resist the antibiotics and are hard to treat, so your doctor may give you two antibiotics, in shot and pill form. Sometimes you only have to take one pill. Other gonorrhea pill treatments are taken for 7 days. Your doctor will help you figure out which treatment is best for you.

If youre treated for gonorrhea, its really important for your sexual partners to get treated also. Otherwise, you may pass the infection back and forth, or to other people. Sometimes your doctor will give you medicine for both you and your partner.

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Can Chlamydia Be Mistaken For Gonorrhea

One of the most distinct similarities between both chlamydia and gonorrhea are the symptoms. Both infections can easily go unnoticed as its common to experience little to no signs or symptoms. Although, when symptoms do appear, they tend to be quite similar, these include:

• Painful urination
• Bleeding between periods
• Burning sensation in genitals

The most reliable way to find out more about your sexual health and whether or not you have contracted chlamydia or gonorrhea is through a reliable lab test.

See also:What are the Most Common STDs?

Side Effects Of Gonorrhea

Because Gonorrhea can have no symptoms, some people go untreated. Even with those who have symptoms stigma, access, or other reasons get in the way of getting medical attention. Not receiving prompt and proper treatment can create serious health problems.

For women, Gonorrhea that goes untreated can spread through your uterus to your fallopian tubes. Fallopian tubes connect the ovaries to the uterus and transport fertilized eggs during pregnancy. If untreated Gonorrhea spreads to this area, the result is pelvic inflammatory disease , affecting around 5% of women in the US.

Pelvic inflammatory disease, similar to gonorrhea, can have no symptoms or just some pelvic or abdominal pain initially. Unfortunately, PID can do permanent damage to a womens reproductive system, including:

For men, Gonorrhea can also lead to serious health problems. Gonorrhea can cause infertility in men, and sometimes the infection can spread past the penis to other areas of the body causing a more serious infection and fever or pain. In addition, it is possible for Gonorrhea to cause:

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How Do You Get Tested

There are several different reliable tests for chlamydia. Newer tests, called NAATs , are very accurate and easy to take. Your healthcare provider can explain what testing options are available . If you dont have a regular healthcare provider, you can search here for a clinic near you.

People infected with chlamydia are often also infected with gonorrhea, so patients with chlamydia are often treated for gonorrhea at the same time, since the cost of treatment is generally less than the cost of testing.

If you live in Alaska, Maryland, or Washington, D.C., you can have a free at-home chlamydia test. Visit iwantthekit.org for more information.

Can Gonorrhea Be Cured

Yes, gonorrhea can be cured with the right treatment. It is important that you take all of the medication your doctor prescribes to cure your infection. Medication for gonorrhea should not be shared with anyone. Although medication will stop the infection, it will not undo any permanent damage caused by the disease.

It is becoming harder to treat some gonorrhea, as drug-resistant strains of gonorrhea are increasing. If your symptoms continue for more than a few days after receiving treatment, you should return to a health care provider to be checked again.

Read Also: How You Get Rid Of Chlamydia

Syphilis: Symptoms & Treatment Options

Symptoms: The symptoms of syphilis will vary depending on the stage the disease is in: Primary, secondary, latent, or tertiary.

During its primary stage, you may get painless sores in the affected area: genitals, anus, or mouth. They usually will go away within a couple of weeks. However, the person will still be infected with the virus unless they receive treatment.

During the secondary stage, you may get flu-like symptoms, such as a sore throat, fever, headaches, and being tired all the time.

During the latent stage, the person wont have any symptoms. If left untreated, the illness will reach its tertiary stage.

During the tertiary stage, the disease will start to affect internal organs, including your central nervous system and your brain.

Treatment: Syphilis can be treated with Penicillin. The dosage and length of treatment will depend on the stage of the disease. You should also follow up within 6 to 12 months after treatment has ended to make sure youre cured.

Can Chlamydia Turn Into Gonorrhea

No, chlamydia on its own cannot turn into gonorrhea as they are caused by two different bacteria.

It does happen that people contract and carry both chlamydia and gonorrhea bacteria, so you can have them at the same time. Also, having one increases your likelihood of contracting another thus, it is always important to be treated for both.

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Treatment If The Condition Does Not Get Better

Symptoms that do not go away after treatment may be caused by another gonorrhea infection or treatment failure.

Certain strains of the gonorrhea bacteria have become resistant to some antibiotics and sulfa drugs. When bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic, they no longer can be killed by that medicine.

If you have been treated for gonorrhea and don’t get better, you may be retested with a gonorrhea culture to see if there is bacterial resistance to the antibiotic you were taking. If there is bacterial resistance, you will need another antibiotic to cure the infection.

Who Needs To Get Tested For Chlamydia And Gonorrhea

The recommendations for getting tested for chlamydia and for gonorrhea are the same.

For women:

• If you’re age 24 or younger and having sex, get tested once every year
• If you’re age 25 or older, get tested if you have more than 1 sex partner, a new sex partner, or a sex partner with an STD

For men:

• Talk with a doctor to find out if you need to get tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea, or other STDs

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Treatment For Gonorrhea Is Quick And Easy Too

The CDC currently recommends a shot of the antibiotic Rocephin and an oral dose of the antibiotic azithromycin, given at the same time, to treat gonorrhea.

Treatment recommendations for gonorrhea have changed over the years as the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has become resistant to a growing number of antibiotics.

RELATED: For First Time, Standard Antibiotic Regimen Fails to Cure a Case of Gonorrhea

What Are The Symptoms Of Syphilis

Syphilis, like most STDs, may not show symptoms right away. If symptoms do show, they may go unnoticed or be dismissed as unimportant. Syphilis symptoms follow three basic stages. The primary symptom, called a chancre, is a raised, rubbery lesion that is usually painless. Even without medication, this symptom will usually go away on its own. Secondary syphilis can cause patchy rashes primarily on the hands or soles of the feet. These symptoms can go away without medication as well. Finally, third stage syphilis or tertiary syphilis can cause permanent damage, including vision loss, neurologic dysfunction, heart disease, and death. A blood test can diagnose syphilis even if there are no symptoms present. Syphilis can be cured at any stage however, if damage has already occurred, it cannot be reversed.

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How Do You Get Chlamydia And Gonorrhea

• Engaging with multiple sexual partners in one year The more partners who engage with, the more likely you will be exposed to an infected person and contract an STD.
• Having unprotected sex Condoms can reduce the likelihood of you contracting an STD however, condoms are never 100% effective. If you are concerned you may have an STD, you should get tested regardless of whether you used a condom in your last sexual encounter.
• Younger than 24 Individuals younger than 24 tend to practice unprotected sex more often than other age groups and are less likely to be tested.
• Previous diagnosis of an STD Having already contracted an STD increases your bodys susceptibility to contracting another STD. It can be common for those who have contracted chlamydia to be at risk for contracting gonorrhea or HIV. If you contract gonorrhea, you are at a greater risk of contracting HIV.

Your Partner Didn’t Get Treated

If you have a consistent sexual partner, it’s important to tell them about your infection so they can get treatment, too. Once you’ve both gotten treated, you have to wait until the treatment has had time to work before you start having sex again .

Without taking these important steps, it is possible for the two of you to end up passing the STD back and forth.

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How Can I Reduce My Risk Of Getting Chlamydia

The only way to avoid STDs is to not have vaginal, anal, or oral sex.

If you are sexually active, you can do the following things to lower your chances of getting chlamydia:

• Be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and has negative STD test results
• Use latex condoms the right way every time you have sex.

How Often Should I Get Screened For Stis

Because STIs are so widespread, its a good idea to get tested from time to time especially since STIs dont always cause obvious symptoms. All people between 13 and 64 years old should be checked for HIV at least once.

How often you need to be screened varies from person to person. You may need to be screened more often if you:

• Are pregnant

• Are under the age of 25

• Have a sexual partner with an STI

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Put Sex On Hold During And After Chlamydia Treatment

If you were given a single dose of antibiotics to treat your chlamydia, you should not have any kind of sex for a full seven days after the day you took the medicine. If youre taking antibiotics for a week, wait another seven days after the last day of your treatment. Be sure to take all of the medicine that is prescribed for you.

Not having sex for seven days after treatment is important so you dont spread the infection to your partner or partners.

Medication stops the infection and can keep you from spreading the disease, but it wont cure any permanent damage that the infection caused before you started treatment. In women, such damage can include blocking the fallopian tubes, causing infertility.

If you still have symptoms for more than a few days after you stop taking your medicine, go back to see your doctor or other healthcare provider so they can check you again.

What Increases Your Risk

Risk factors for getting chlamydia include:

• Having unprotected sex .
• Having more than one sex partner.
• Having a high-risk partner or partners. This includes people who have more than one sex partner or sex partners who have chlamydia.
• Starting sexual activity before age 18.

Any child with chlamydia needs to be seen by a doctor to determine the cause and to assess for possible sexual abuse. For more information, see the topic .

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What Is The Treatment For Chlamydia

There are antibiotic treatments that are effective in treating chlamydia. A healthcare provider will decide which antibiotic is prescribed, taking into consideration the particular needs of the patient.

Whatever treatment is prescribed, there are some important points about any treatment:

• The patient must take all medications as directed.
• All partners should be examined and treated.
• The infected person should not have sex until they and any partner or partners have been treated and cured.
• People who show symptoms after treatment should be tested again.
• Women should be retested three to four months after treatment because of a high rate of reinfection.
• Because the symptoms of chlamydia are similar to the symptom of gonorrhea, and because a person can be infected with both, doctors will sometimes go ahead and treat people with chlamydia for both infections . Remember, partners should be examined for infection and treated as well to avoid reinfection.

What Does Chlamydia Infection Mean For My Health

Chlamydia can be treated and cured easily, but that doesnt mean that chlamydia infection isnt potentially dangerous. If chlamydia isnt diagnosed and left untreated, it can cause serious complications.

Untreated chlamydia infections in women may lead to:

• Pelvic inflammatory disease , a serious infection of the reproductive organs . Left untreated, PID can cause infertility , chronic pelvic pain, or ectopic pregnancy.
• Cystitis
• A condition called mucopurulent cervicitis, characterized by a yellow discharge from the cervix

Untreated chlamydia in men may lead to:

• Prostatitis
• Scarring of the urethra
• Infertility
• Epididymitis

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How Is Chlamydia Infection Diagnosed

Doctors have several tests they can use to screen for chlamydia. Note that screening for chlamydia in the throat isnt a part of usual STI testing.

If youve had a sore throat that doesnt seem to go away or have a partner that youve had oral sex with who tested positive for chlamydia, you might want to ask your doctor about pharyngeal chlamydia screening.

Doctors can use urine samples to diagnose chlamydia, but that doesnt help them diagnose chlamydia in the throat.

As a result, a doctor may swab your throat to test for chlamydia there. They send this swab to a laboratory, which tests the specimen for the presence of DNA from the bacteria that cause chlamydia.

This test is a little tricky because the Food and Drug Administration hasnt approved a swab test for pharyngeal chlamydia. Your throat contains a lot of bacteria, and this can make it hard to pinpoint chlamydia bacteria.

When a doctor uses a swab to test for chlamydia in the throat, its possible theyre doing so in an off-label fashion. This means the FDA hasnt specifically given the OK to use the test for pharyngeal chlamydia, but some doctors think swabs can help in detection.

Taking The Incorrect Medication

Keep in mind that your treatment can fail if you’re taking the wrong medication. You might be prescribed the wrong drugs due to syndromatic treatment, an efficient, but sometimes inaccurate treatment method in which patients are prescribed STD treatment based on symptoms, rather than testing. This is sometimes done in STD clinics when there is a concern that the patient might not come back for their test results.

And you could be taking the wrong medication if you’ve acquired it on your own and chose the wrong onessuch as taking medication that was prescribed for a past STD you had, or for your partner, or for a friend.

Not all STDs are caused by the same pathogens . Different illnesses require different treatments.

That’s why it’s so important for your healthcare provider to correctly identify what’s causing your infection. That’s also why you can’t just take any random antibiotic and hope it’s going to work.

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It Is Important To Cure Chlamydia

Chlamydiais one of the easily transmitted STDs. Since theres no concrete way to pickout exactly who carries this disease without a test, you should choose yourpartner carefully. Luckily, this disease is easy to cure, and if you starttreatment early, you can also avoid any permanent damage.

References

Are All Stds Curable

by SaraPublished on August 24, 2021Updated on September 2, 2021

Contracting a sexually transmitted disease is certainly no ones idea of a good time. Though untreated STDs can linger and cause lasting side effects , most STDs can be cured fairly easily when identified and treated early on. In most cases, curable STDs can be knocked out in a few days or a couple of weeks at most. And even incurable STDs can be treated and managed thanks to breakthrough advances in medicine. Its always best to practice safe sex and be open and honest with your sexual partners in order to minimize your risk of infection. But if you do contract an STD, just know its not the end of the world.

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