How serious is chlamydia?
David Mccullough
Published Jan 07, 2026
Is chlamydia serious? Although chlamydia does not usually cause any symptoms and can normally be treated with a short course of antibiotics, it can be serious if it's not treated early on. If left untreated, the infection can spread to other parts of your body and lead to long-term health problems, especially in women.
Is getting chlamydia a big deal?
It's not a big deal - it's the most common sexually transmitted infection you can pick up. 80 per cent of people who have chlamydia don't have any symptoms. The doctor will give you one dose of antibiotics and boom, you're cured.Should I be worried if I have chlamydia?
The initial damage that chlamydia causes often goes unnoticed. However, chlamydia can lead to serious health problems. If you are a woman, untreated chlamydia can spread to your uterus and fallopian tubes (tubes that carry fertilized eggs from the ovaries to the uterus), causing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).How long would chlamydia last?
How long does chlamydia last? With treatment, chlamydia should go away within a week or two. It's important to take all antibiotics to fight the infection. Don't have sex during treatment, or you could get reinfected.What happens if you have chlamydia for too long?
What happens if chlamydia goes untreated? If a person is not treated for chlamydia, complications may occur. Women frequently develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can cause infertility (not being able to get pregnant), chronic pelvic pain, tubal pregnancies, and the continued spread of the disease.What is #Chlamydia? The Signs and Symptoms of this Common #STD and How to Get #Tested
Can you have chlamydia for 5 years without knowing?
Chlamydia often has no symptoms, but it can cause serious health problems, even without symptoms. If symptoms occur, they may not appear until several weeks after having sex with a partner who has chlamydia.How can you tell if a man has chlamydia?
Symptoms in men
- pain when urinating.
- white, cloudy or watery discharge from the tip of the penis.
- burning or itching in the urethra (the tube that carries urine out of the body)
- pain in the testicles.
What does chlamydia look like?
Chlamydia symptoms can include pus-like yellow discharge; frequent or painful urination; spotting between periods or after sex; and/or rectal pain, bleeding, or discharge.Can chlamydia go away by itself?
It is highly unlikely for chlamydia to go away on its own. Although the symptoms may subside temporarily, the infection may persist in the body in the absence of treatment (subclinical infection). It is important to seek diagnosis and timely treatment to get rid of the infection.How long does it take for chlamydia to cause damage?
Symptoms usually appear within one to three weeks after being infected and may be very mild. If not treated, chlamydia can lead to damage to the reproductive system. In women, chlamydial infection can spread to the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), according to the CDC.Does chlamydia have a smell?
Chlamydia discharge usually has a strong, foul smell. The odour of chlamydia discharge in women is sometimes said to be fishy, or similar to the smell of pus.How long until chlamydia makes you infertile?
There is no clear timeline on how long it may take for this to occur - while one study suggests that after exposure to the bacteria, it can take a few weeks for PID to develop, the NHS estimates that 1 in 10 women with untreated chlamydia could go on to develop PID within a year.Is it embarrassing to have chlamydia?
Many people feel embarrassed about contracting an STI, feeling as if they've done something wrong in their intimate lives. Unfortunately, there are numbers attached to this unnecessary sense of shame: in the case of chlamydia alone, only 1.4 million infections out of 1.8 million total in the U.S. were reported in 2014.How can you tell if a girl has chlamydia?
Chlamydia symptoms in women can include: Abnormal, yellowish, or strong smelling vaginal discharge. Swelling inside your vagina/painful sex. Pain or burning when you pee.
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More questions from patients:
- Pus, or watery or milky discharge from the penis.
- Pain or burning when peeing.
- Pain and/or swelling in one or both testicles.