If you are diagnosed with chlamydia, your doctor will prescribe oral antibiotics. A single dose of azithromycin or taking doxycycline twice daily for 7 to 14 days are the most common treatments and are the same for those with or without HIV. With treatment, the infection should clear up in about a week.

Chlamydia is a really common sexually transmitted infection. Many people that have chlamydia don’t know that they have it. It may have no symptoms. If symptoms do develop, in women it may present with bleeding after sex or pelvic pain. If left untreated, it will cause severe reproductive organ damage.

In men, again, it may have, it’s common to have no symptoms, but it may present with burning with urination and, on occasion, discharge from the penis.

So chlamydia can be transmitted through sexual activity, most commonly through genital sex, but it has the possibility of being transmitted through anal sex or oral sex.

The best way to prevent chlamydia is to minimize the contacts with sexual partners, the number of sexual partners, and condoms are also useful at reducing the risk of transmission. So you should be tested with all new sexual partners so that you can have treatment before it causes severe problems.

If you do get diagnosed with chlamydia, it is a curable infection. The treatment is an antibiotic. Your doctor can prescribe it to you, and it’s a short course of an antibiotic. During the time, your partner should also be treated, and you should abstain from sex until you’ve completed the course of therapy.  Often seeing a local family physician or a physiotherapist in conjunction with a registered dietitian and athletic therapist is a great option to take control of this condition. 

If you’re concerned that you might have Chlamydia or have any other questions, please contact your family physician.Presenter: Dr. Linda Jando, Family Doctor, Vancouver, BC

Now Health Network Local Practitioners: Family Doctor