Chlamydia
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection, transmitted through unprotected oral, vaginal or anal sex and unwashed/unprotected sex toys but can also be transmitted during pregnancy or birth.
Symptoms
Chlamydia can cause heavier discharge in men and women and pain or discomfort when you wee. It can also cause pain or swelling in the testicles in men. In women it can cause pain in the lower part of the abdomen as well as abnormal vaginal bleeding. Often however there are no symptoms. It is a common infection but left untreated can be passed onto sexual partners and in females may lead to infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease.
Get tested
To get tested, you'll just need to provide a urine sample or swab.
It is important to test at the right time to be sure the result is accurate. If you test too early, chlamydia may not be detected as there is a 2 week ‘window period’ of time during which the infection needs to develop sufficiently to show up on a test.
Treatment and retesting
If you do have chlamydia it can be treated with antibiotics. You'll be encouraged to notify anyone you've had sex with in the last 3 months so they can also be tested. You'll also need to avoid sex with your current partner(s) until they've been tested and treated as well.
If you are under 25, we'll contact you again after 3 months to offer you another test to make sure the treatment has worked and that you haven't caught chlamydia again.
Pelvic inflammatory disease
The rate of pelvic inflammatory disease admissions to hospital was 309.4 per 100,000 women aged 15-44 years in 2019. This is higher than the England average for the same year, which was 257.6 per 100,000 women aged 15-44 years.
Webchat
You can use webchat to contact a sexual health professional in confidence (available Monday to Friday, 2pm to 4pm, excluding public holidays).