Who can get chlamydia?

Anyone who has vaginal, anal or oral sex without protection with another person who has chlamydia is at risk. But, statistically at least, the risks are greater among young women. An STD report made in 2015 revealed women are infected with chlamydia twice as often as men and almost two-thirds of all cases occurred in population between 15 and 24 years of age. But, once again, it's just recorded episodes. It is common for men to ignore the symptoms to avoid going to the doctor, so the numbers could be higher.

How can I detect chlamydia?

The most frequent genital alert points: stinging sensation when peeing or vaginal yellow discharge or milky white. Guys may experience pain or swelling of the testicles, but only happens in exceptional cases. Symptoms can arise at any time between one and three weeks after infection, although in many cases there are no symptoms.

If no symptoms, how can I know if I have it?

Doing annual check-ups, even if you have no symptoms, especially if you have multiple sexual partners and you are below 25 years old, says Peter Anthony Leone, medical director of the North Carolina HIV / STD Control and Prevention Branch.

What happens if I test positive?

You will need to take antibiotics, stop having sex more or less for seven days (let your doctor decide) and you can return to normal life. The only way you can cause problems in the future is if you do not detect it and you do not treat it.

Untreated chlamydia may pose a "major risk to women with potentially devastating consequences, such as pelvic inflammatory disease or infertility," said Gail Bolan, director of the CDC Division for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacteria that causes the disease, can damage or block the fallopian tubes and there is also evidence that it can lead to ovarian cancer.

That's horrible. How bad are the news for the boys?

In fact, until very recently, the medical consensus was that chlamydia was only a minor inconvenience for men. However, there is new evidence, such as this 2007 study carried out in Spain, that men do not survive unscathed. Men with chlamydia have triple the fragmentation of DNA, which means that the DNA strands of their sperm are broken and it is more difficult to get the DNA to reach the egg. Your sperm also have 80 percent more physical abnormalities and 10 percent less mobility. Which does not mean you're not going to be a dad someday if you've had chlamydia without trying, but they do raise the odds against your chances of conceiving.

Sterile men with chlamydia who participated in the study in Spain received antibiotics and, after only four months, DNA fragmentation of their sperm improved by 36 percent. And 13 percent of those previously sterile uncles managed to get their partner pregnant. Again, they are just numbers and there are no guarantees for or against any result. But undoubtedly it is an argument in favor of antibiotics.

If I have had chlamydia once, are you at least immune to contracting it again?

Of course, you can get chlamydia a second time, says Bolan. In fact, the recurrence of the infection is quite common. "Up to one in four young women treated for chlamydia become infected again within a year, which is usually because their partner is also infected, but does not get the proper treatment," she explains.

To sump up:

Yes, you read it right. People are contracting chlamydia repeatedly because they keep having sex with the person who infected them. There are several ways to make sure this does not happen. If you get it, make sure your partner gets tested. If he or she refuses this suggestion or insists that it is "perfectly fine" ... Well, it could be a good time to remember the old proverb: "If you cheat me once, it's your fault. It's my fault. "