How long can you have Chlamydia before it causes damage?

Chlamydia is a bacterial STD, that spreads in men and women through sexual contact. Although there are many symptoms of Chlamydia the vast majority of the people infecting with it don’t know they have it. This is because Chlamydia is asymptomatic in the majority of its patient.

This makes it a dangerous disease as the person may carry and spread Chlamydia and still may not know it until it causes serious damage. That takes us to our very question ‘How long can you have Chlamydia before it causes damage? The answer to this question is “less than a year” [1]

As mentioned previously Chlamydia in around 70% of women and 50% of men are completely asymptomatic. During this period the patient doesn’t know if they have chlamydia and so it may be left untreated. 

The time period before chlamydia causes severe damage varies as per the symptom or other diseases it causes in men and women. So let’s take a deeper look at exactly how long it takes before these symptoms or diseases cause damage.

How long can you have chlamydia before it causes damage?

As mentioned previously, chlamydia in women is more asymptomatic compared to men, thus women are affected more than men, as it remains untreated in more number of women. Let’s take a look at how this unknown untreated Chlamydia affects women.

 

Chlamydia causing damage in women 

Following are the other diseases/symptoms caused in women due to untreated Chlamydia

Risk of PID (Pelvic Inflammatory disease) due to Chlamydia

Untreated chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). In fact, around 10 to 15% of women with chlamydia may develop PID.

Among the few mathematical modeling studies with explicit descriptions of the progression from chlamydia infection to PID, it has been proposed that PID develops in the first half, the second half, or at any time during a chlamydia infection. So PID can occur anytime from 1 month to 12 months of contracting Chlamydia.

 

Risk of HIV due to Chlamydia

If chlamydia remains untreated for a long it increases the chances of spreading or transmitting HIV. 

In fact, 10% of new HIV infections among MSM (men having sex with other men) are due to Chlamydia.

While immunosuppression due to HIV may lead to more aggressive Chlamydia disease conditions like PID in HIV seropositive women.

Certain STDs caused sores or inflammation, such as chlamydia. It may allow HIV acquisition that would otherwise be prevented by intact skin, and infections can bring more HIV target cells to the area.

Untreated sexually transmitted infections such as Chlamydia can increase the viral load of HIV in genital fluids.

 

Risk of ectopic pregnancy due to chlamydia

Chlamydia has also been linked to long-term reproductive issues like ectopic pregnancy and infertility. This can happen within the span of 2 years of contracting Chlamydia. This causes when Chlamydia infects the fallopian tubes. Resulting in the fertilized egg getting stuck on its way to the uterus. So the fertilized egg can’t survive, and the growing tissue may cause life-threatening bleeding.

Also during pregnancy, the infection due to Chlamydia can spread to babies, causing eye infections and pneumonia in newborns.

 

Risk of infertility in women due to chlamydia.

There is no particular time span in which untreated Chlamydia can cause infertility among women. However, almost every case of Chlamydia causing infertility has been observed in the time period between 2 months to 2 years.

Chlamydia can also infect the fallopian tubes without causing symptoms. PID and “silent” infection in the upper genital tract can permanently damage the fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues, resulting in infertility.

Other symptoms usually appear within one to three weeks after being infected with Chlamydia and may be very mild.

 

Chlamydia causing damage in men 

Epididymitis in men

In men, it can lead to a condition known as epididymitis or epididymo-orchitis. 

Chlamydia can spread to the testicles and epididymis (tubes that carry sperm from the testicles) in men in rare cases, causing them to become painful and swollen.

Epididymitis can happen nearly 6 weeks after contracting chlamydia (3)

 

Chlamydial urethritis

The infection can also spread to the prostate gland, resulting in a fever, painful intercourse, and lower back discomfort. Male chlamydial urethritis is another possible complication.

Symptomatic chlamydial urethritis has a longer incubation period, lasting 7 to 14 days.

So, it takes 7 to 14 days for chlamydial urethritis to affect the patient.

 

When can I expect to observe the first signs of chlamydia in men and women?

The first sign of Chlamydia among men and women in the majority of the cases is painful urination. This happens within 1-2 weeks of transmission. Symptoms followed after the first signs of Chlamydia are as follows.

Following are the damages caused by Chlamydia at different stages(timeline) of having it.

 

Initial Sypmptoms of Chlamydia in Women

• Pain while passing urine
• Unusual Vaginal Discharge
• Pain during Sex
• Bleeding between periods or After Sex
• Abdominal or Pelvic pain

Initial Sypmptoms of Chlamydia in Men

• Pain while passing Urine
• Unusual discharge from the tip of the penis
• Testicular pain
• Urethral itching or burning sensation

That is why it is important to get tested for STD near you and begin the treatment for chlamydia before it causes severe damage. 

 

How long chlamydia will be detected in the test?

The incubation period of Chlamydia is between 5 to 14 days. That means you may not be able to detect Chlamydia for at least 14 days after exposure.

 

How Chlamydia is treated?

For Chlamydia treatment, doctors may prescribe doxycycline twice a day for 7 days

It is advised to avoid sex for a week from the start of your treatment and until one week after your sexual contacts have been treated.

 

References

Proof of ectopic pregnancy: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/69/9/1621/5335756

Chlamydia HIV research: https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/staying-in-hiv-care/other-related-health-issues/sexually-transmitted-diseases

Statistics HIV chlamydia: https://www.thebodypro.com/article/chlamydia-gonorrhea-responsible-new-hiv-infections