Chlamydia Symptoms – Men
But Here’s the Danger with Chlamydia…
For Men: If left untreated, chlamydia can increase the risk of contracting HIV, urethritis and/or infertility. (And blindness.)
Unfortunately, chlamydia can be asymptomatic for both women and men which means many your partner may be infected but showing no signs and symptoms.
If you have symptoms, they may be mild and may not appear immediately after being infected which means they seem less likely to be connected to unprotected sex. During that time — and while it remains undetected — the disease can be growing and spreading through your body.
Because so many people seem free of symptoms, they think they’re fine and continue to have unprotected sex which can spread the disease to others. If fact, if you’re infected with chlamydia, you may have acquired the disease from someone who doesn’t know they’re infected. (If that’s the case, be sure to let them know they should get tested.)
How Soon Can You Test for Chlamydia after Being Infected?
The incubation period for chlamydia is 1-5 days but varies according to the individual. So, after having unprotected sex, some people wait a full week before testing for chlamydia. Visible symptoms may not show up for 1 to 3 weeks (if at all.) And, symptoms may disappear quickly — although that does not mean you’re cured.
Get tested. If necessary, get treated. Then, after treatment, you will want to be tested again to make sure the treatment was successful and there is no chlamydia bacteria in your body. Then you will know you are “clean.”
Where to Get Tested (secretly) for Chlamydia
(and Other STDs)?
While your primary care doctor (if you have one) can examine you and order testing for STDs, many people prefer confidential testing. Also, going to your doctor may be less convenient (waiting for an appointment) and more expensive (since you will have to pay for the doctor’s visit in addition to any additional lab results.
Fortunately, you don’t need to go through the inconvenience and expense of seeing your doctor to be tested.
Many local medical laboratories offer no-appointment “walk in” testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea and other common STDs. (Check to find certified STD-testing labs in your Zip Code HERE.)
Over 4000+ Test Centers Nationwide.
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What’s Required for the Test?
At the certified STD-Testing Lab or testing center, testing for chlamydia is simple, easy, and fast. It requires collecting a urine sample which will then be analyzed using a highly-accurate, FDA-approved and CDC-recommended technique called Nucleic Acid Amplification (NAA) to detect if there is any chlamydia bacteria. The urine test can be taken 1-5 days after possible exposure to chlamydia.
If you are in a rural area and there is not a convenient lab nearby, you can order an At-Home STD Test Kit. Follow the simple directions for taking samples and then mail it in. In just a few days, you can find out your results (by phone or on the Internet.)
NOTE: If you test positive it usually means you have chlamydia — this test delivers very few “false positives”(which would mean you actually do not have chlamydia.) Negative results are usually good news and probably mean you are “clean” for the STD(s) you tested for.
However, keep in mind that after being infected, if you test too soon and the chlamydia has not gone through its incubation stage, it may not show up on your test results. So be sure to get tested — but not too soon.
Is Chlamydia Treatable?
Can It Be Cured?
Yes. Chlamydia is a bacterial infection which can be treated and cured with antibiotics. Even if the visible symptoms disappear along the way, be sure to take all of the prescribed medication. Just because the symptoms have gone away doesn’t mean you’re cured. Take the full-dose prescribed for you and you should be able to stop the infection and decrease your chance of complications.
Can you get chlamydia more than once? Yes. Even if you successfully treated chlamydia in the past, you can get infected again if you have unprotected sex with someone who has chlamydia.
Find Out If You Have Chlamydia…