Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection that is passed on from an infected person to another through a variety of sexual activities. It is an infection that affects men as well as women and there are a number of ways that you can protect yourself from catching Chlamydia. The most important of these is to practice protected sex and to use a condom. You can also get yourself tested using a Chlamydia Testing kits Bexley company like checkurself.org.uk/plus/home_sti_kits/ where you can complete the kit in the comfort of your own home, send the kit off to the lab who will then email or call you with your results, depending on what preferences you have given.
As with a number of sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia doesn’t carry many symptoms and so people can pass on the infection unknowingly. It is for this reason that safe sex is so important, as is thinking about getting yourself and your partner tested for a number of STIs before you begin a new intimate relationship.
Some of the symptoms that people experience can include pain in urinating, unusual discharge from the penis, vagina and anus, pain and swelling that occurs in the testicles and for women pain during intercourse, bleeding after sex and in between periods. Not all of these symptoms will be present and most people don’t experience any issues whilst being infected.
If left untreated not only can you pass Chlamydia onto others during sexual activities it can also cause issues in the future with pelvic inflammatory disease in women, issues with fertility, chronic pelvic pain and an increased risk of ectopic pregnancies. In men, the long term effects can include inflammation of the testicles known as epididymitis and also reactive arthritis. This form of arthritis can occur in the joints and urethra and can affect men and women alike, although it appears to occur more often in men.
Treatments usually include a course of antibiotics and anyone who could potentially have been infected will also be tested and treated where appropriate. If any of the long term effects mentioned above are experienced a further course of antibiotics may be prescribed or in the case of reactive arthritis, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be prescribed to help with the inflammatory symptoms.
Chlamydia is the most common STI in the UK and it is most common in young adults and sexually active teenagers. In order to help remove some of the barriers to getting tested for people in this age range, in particular embarrassment, the home testing kits, like the ones mentioned above, give them the option to have these tests completed by themselves and the results reported to them privately.
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