Chlamydia

The most common sexually transmitted infection in Australia is chlamydia. On the plus side, chlamydia is also the easiest of the sexually transmitted infections to treat. But on the minus side, often people don’t know that they have it. Dr Joe Kosterich talks about chlamydia, including how common it is, how you know you’ve got it, and what to do about it.
What are the symptoms of chlamydia? First and foremost, there may be none, and this is for both men and women who may be carrying it but don’t know about it. This is one of the reasons why a screening-type test is recommended for chlamydia.
If you do have symptoms, they’re likely to be stinging or burning with passing urine – at its worst it’s described as passing razorblades, and that doesn’t really sound terribly pleasant at all. Some people may have a discharge from the genitals. In women, they may get some aching around the pelvis, but it may be fairly mild or not at all.
Often the way that people suspect that they’ve got chlamydia is somebody’s rung them up or contacted them and said, “I’ve been to the doctor and I’ve been diagnosed, and I’ve been advised to tell you.” It’s not a call that people like to get, of course, but it’s better to get it than to not get it.
Chlamydia is very easily treated with antibiotics. Success rates and cure nudge on to 100% – it’s very fixable. If it isn’t fixed, though, there are problems. Especially for women, if left untreated for an extended period of time, it can lead to infertility; people can get scarring on the tubes. It’s less likely to lead to long-term problems in males. Part of the reason for that is that men are more likely to have symptoms than women. But it can also lead to scarring in the urethra for men.
The process would be, if there are any suspicions, or even if you just feel you should be checked for sexually transmitted infections – it’s a very common thing to do and it’s not a big deal, though people can get nervous or embarrassed about it – go along and see your doctor; they’ve seen it all before, believe me. So you can go along and have a test done. A urine test will be done for men, and a urine test and what’s called a self-administered swab for women. Following on from that, there are a couple of different antibiotics that can be used.
In instances where chlamydia is shown to be positive (I should point out that sometimes there are suspicions it’s there but it doesn’t always grow in the lab, but it’s important to treat it just on spec and on the assumption that it might be there), if it’s shown up positive, you will be asked to do a follow-up test, usually after 3 weeks, and that’s to make sure that it has cleared up. The other thing is, if you have been found to have chlamydia, you will be advised to notify any partners or contacts that you’ve been with because you may have passed it on or, indeed, you may have caught it from somebody who doesn’t even know that they have it. So you’ll be doing yourself and them a favour.
Where we are these days compared to 20–30 years ago is sexually transmitted infections are not such a big deal. I don’t think anybody likes to get them – most people don’t like to get any sort of infection – but it’s not a big deal. You’re not alone; it’s very common and out there. Screening is done on a regular basis. Every day in this country someone will be treated for chlamydia, so it won’t be just you as some people fear. It’s not a stigma; it’s just an infection in a different part of the body. So get on top of it: any concerns or queries, go along and see your GP. Treatment is simple, testing is simple, and it’s much better than finding out a long time later on that you should have done something.

More information

For more information on different types of sexually transmitted infections, prevention of STIs, treatments and effects on fertility, see Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).