Diagnosis

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Part of what makes chlamydia so difficult to diagnose is that it is largely asymptomatic, in other words, someone can be infected for months and never know they have the infection. When symptoms do occur, they often are mild-a burning sensation when urinating and/or a discharge of the vagina or penis are typical symptoms. Women may also experience pain in the pelvic area or discomfort during sex. Health care professionals may not address these symptoms, possibly leading to the chlamydia infection remaining untreated. If left untreated in women, it may result in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

PID can occur within days or several months after being infected with chlamydia bacteria. At this point, symptoms still may go unnoticed in some women, yet they do have an active PID infection. Other women, however, may experience bleeding between menstrual periods, lower back pain, pain during sexual penetration, increased vaginal discharge and severe pelvic pain. Treatment for these women may require hospitalization and antibiotics given intravenously.

Testing is the only way to know whether you have chlamydia. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed recommendations for the prevention and management of chlamydia for all providers of health care. These recommendations call for annual screening of all sexually active females 25 years of age or younger and for older females with risk factors (e.g., those who have a new sex partner and those with multiple sex partners). All women with signs of infection of the cervix and all pregnant women should be tested. The most common test requires a pelvic exam during which a swab is used to take a specimen from the cervix. Some new tests can detect chlamydia from a urine specimen. It usually takes several days before you can get a test result.