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How dangerous is chlamydia?

If you’ve been diagnosed with or exposed to chlamydia, you may be wondering how dangerous it is.

Will it keep coming back, like herpes? Can it cause brain damage, like syphilis? Is there a chance that I will die, as with AIDS?

Most women, about 75% of those infected, have no symptoms and therefore do not even know that they have been infected with chlamydia. If symptoms do occur, they can be mistaken for a urinary tract infection or vaginal yeast infection. Burning when urinating or vaginal discharge are among the most common symptoms, but when the infection reaches higher into the cervix or fallopian tubes, abdominal pain may occur, along with fever, nausea, back pain, pain during sexual intercourse or abnormal menstrual bleeding. It is important to see your doctor if you experience these symptoms.

Because many women have no warning symptoms and because the infection is sometimes mistaken for something else, damage can occur even before the woman knows she is infected. Up to 40% of untreated women eventually develop pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause chronic pelvic pain, infertility, or blocked fallopian tubes.

The damage is usually not life threatening. However, if the fallopian tubes are sufficiently healed, an ectopic pregnancy (tubal pregnancy) can occur. If this is not detected in time, the tube can burst and cause internal bleeding, which can be fatal.

Another scary fact: If you already have chlamydia and are later exposed to HIV, you are 4-5 times more likely to become infected with HIV than if you do not have chlamydia. STDs come in pairs. A person infected with one sexually transmitted disease is at high risk of contracting a second one as well.

Preterm delivery is a possible complication for pregnant women infected with chlamydia. Infected mothers can pass the disease on to their babies, who can develop eye or lung infections, including pneumonia.

As for men, up to half of infected men have no symptoms and can therefore transmit the disease without even knowing it. Those who have symptoms often have burning when urinating, so they may mistake this STD for a urinary tract infection. Occasionally, the infection spreads through the urethra and bladder to the epididymis, causing pain behind the testicles, sometimes fever, and occasionally infertility.

If you have any of the above symptoms, see your doctor immediately before irreversible damage occurs. If you don’t have symptoms but are concerned you may have been exposed, see your doctor as well. Anyone who is sexually active (anyone who has sex) should get tested for chlamydia annually, especially those 25 and under (except those in a totally monogamous long-term relationship who have never been at risk for chlamydia). All pregnant women should also be tested.

Antibiotic treatment is effective, but it may not be able to reverse scars from a long-term infection, so do not put off seeing a doctor for this potentially serious infection.

Copyright 2010 Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

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