ABC of Chlamydia Testing

If you think that you have Chlamydia, or, if you don’t know what Chlamydia is and you have symptoms that are worrying you—for women they include pain during sex, for men a burning feeling while urinating (we’ll discuss more symptoms later on)—you should go and get tested.

Chlamydia testing is simple. There are two ways of getting tested if you are a man: the first is a urine test. Most men will prefer this, because the second test involves the doctor taking a cotton bud to “swab” the urethra at the tip of the penis to test for the presence of Chlamydia. You’ll be happy to hear that, nowadays, most doctors prefer the urine sample test. However, it isn’t as reliable as the swab. There is also a quick urine test, which can take less than an hour to get your results.

The test is the same for women. The difference is that a swab can be taken from the vagina by the patient herself (or by a health care professional). For both sexes, results of Chlamydia testing that are sent to the lab can take up to a week. This is a reason why patients prefer the fast urine test: if you’re concerned, it’s good to know your status quickly. The quicker you know your status, the quicker you can start treatment: if you’re positive, that is.

So, let’s talk about treatment. It’s easy to treat Chlamydia with antibiotics. Primary care doctor recommend azithromycin, which comes in a single dose. Single dose antibiotics can be a little bit hard on the stomach, so if you prefer, take doxycycline twice a day for a week instead. Remember, though: to avoid spreading it, the main thing is to abstain from sex until you are negative for Chlamydia.

Although you might consider Chlamydia to be a minor league STD, remember that it can have worrying complications. In women, it affects the cervix, the neck of the womb, and if it is left untreated it can cause infertility in 10% to 15% of cases. The official name for this is Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). Chlamydia comes from the Greek word for “cloak”: which is appropriate, because often this STD infection has no symptoms. You have no way of knowing if you have it, unless you get tested.

Some of the symptoms are, for men, a discharge from the rectum or the penis; a tenderness or pain in the testicles and, as we mentioned earlier, a burning feeling while urinating. Apparently, men have more symptoms than women. Only about 30% of women have symptoms. These can include a discharge from the vagina, pain during intercourse, or a burning sensation while urinating. You will notice that the burning sensation is a symptom that Chlamydia has in common with a Urinary Tract Infection, so it is important to get tested in order to rule the latter out. You can’t treat Chlamydia with Cranberry juice!

More seriously, women who let the infection go for some time without being treated are at risk of PID, which is a bacterial infection of the fallopian tubes, the uterus or the ovaries. This complication occurs when the bacteria from a Chlamydia infection moves from the cervix further into the female reproductive organs. How is Chlamydia caused? Well, as with most STDs, it is caused by having unprotected sex with a partner who is positive for Chlamydia. A simple urine test can tell you if you have the infection. If you do, a simple antibiotic can clear it up. If you don’t, it can lead to infertility in women, and reduced fertility in men.

And, so, you see the importance of why you need to get chlamydia test. If you live in NYC and would like to get STD testing by a board certified STD clinic, log onto STD Clinic for more information. STD Clinic of New York is located just blocks from Grand Central Station and is therefore easily accessible by all means of public transportation. To ask any questions, or to book a convenient appointment, simply call 1-212-696-5900 to speak to a staff member.

NYC and the STD Clinic Clean, Discreet and Affordable

What do you think of when you hear the words STD clinic? Do you think about some dark, cobwebbed NYC den of inequity staffed by lazy-eyed staff mumbling to themselves quietly? Do you picture it like an old NYC Time Square peepshow but with a crazy doctor holding rusty pliers and a blood-smeared smock instead of a unattractive “dancer.” We hope not. Things have changed a bit (a lot!) in the last hundred and fifty years. These days an STD center is clean, spacious, professional and discreet. Some are even run by board-certified medical doctors. You know, doctors. Real live went-to-medical-school doctors. Go figure.

Hopefully anyone engaging in sexual activity realizes that your average STD center in the city is an above-board run medical facility just like all the other respected medical facilities in NYC. If you have a negative view of these places erase it from your mind and understand how important it is to get to one of these clinics in order to finally find out where you stand in regard to infectious diseases.

There are over twenty five separate diseases, sicknesses and illnesses that can be classified as a STD. With numbers this high, one must realize that they are not above becoming infected with one. Many of us—especially at the beginning of our sexual history—do things that perhaps we shouldn’t have. We take ridiculous chances that can result in disease and pregnancy. The statistics for NYC when it comes to disease and pregnancy are higher than in the rest of the country.

In fact, it is approximated that one in four people in NYC have the herpes virus. This is an incredibly high number. It only through the administering of tests at a certified STD clinic that these numbers will eventually go down as opposed to seemingly climb year after year.

One should understand that STD testing these days is quick, mostly painless, and more importantly for some, easily affordable by each and every citizen of NYC. Even you are down on your luck, chances are you haven’t stopped engaging in sexual activity—and that’s another reason why getting yourself to a medical center still makes sense.

Let’s take a look at a few STDs and their testing methods in order to prove to you that getting yourself to a clinic will be a painless and quick experience:

HIV/AIDS

HIV is determined through a simple blood test. This can be done at any NYC STD clinic.

CHLAMYDIA

The urine test is commonly used to determine if you currently have a chlamydia infection. This chlamydia testing can be done at any NYC STD clinic.

GENITAL WARTS

These can be diagnosed by the doctor’s naked eye. This test can be done at any NYC STD clinic.

HEPATITIS B

Once again a simple blood test is used to determine if you are infected. This can be done at any NYC STD clinic.

HERPES

Again, simple blood test, very affordable. This can be done at any NYC STD clinic.

SYPHILIS

Blood syphilis testing once again is used.

GONORRHEA

The urine test. It doesn’t get any less painful than this.

Since you are in NYC already, log onto Herpes testing NYC. They are a great, clean, spacious, discreet certified STD clinic run by a board-certified doctor and are located just blocks from Grand Central Station. Call 1-212-696-5900 to make an appointment today. NYC STD testing doesn’t come any cleaner and more discreet than STD Center of NYC.

Catch Chlamydia before it spreads – visit a STD Clinic in NYC

Chlamydia is the most common STD in this country. In 2009 the Center for Disease Control received 1,244,180 reports of cases of it from all across the country. Yet the CDC nearly doubles this number in its estimates of yearly cases by considering the amount of people who do not receive treatment for an infection that many people do not know they have. This is due to the fact that Chlamydia can be asymptomatic, meaning that a large portion of people with it do not suffer from any symptoms. This is why, if you are sexually active, you need to visit an STD Clinic at least once a year to get tested for it, and every 6 months if you change partners often. 

Chlamydia trachomatis is a small bacterium that penetrates your cells within six to eight hours after being injected with it, which could happen during annual, oral and vaginal sex. Acting as a parasite, the bacterium replicates itself within the cell into small elementary bodies, which in about 2-3 days overwhelms the cell causing it to burst and release these new bodies. These in turn infect more cells, which replicate and repeat the process. Thus the bacterium grows exponentially in the body, sending a small herd of itself into another body provided a sexual encounter opens its doors for it. 

All of this could be happening in your body without you even knowing it. Tragic for you, it is also terribly embarrassing if you manage to spread it to someone else. You don’t want that text message telling you to gave Chlamydia testing.

But aside from being embarrassing, left untreated chlamydia can have some devastating repercussions on your body, especially for women:

Cervicitis: This infection is the most common manifestation of chlamydia. And worse yet, of the women that get it more than 50 percent of them suffer no symptoms, which is why it is again important that you invest in STD Testing Center often to get checked for this. When there are symptoms, they include vaginal bleeding in between menstrual cycles, vaginal discharge, and sometimes bleeding directly following sex. Cervictis, untreated, can increase your risk of getting cervical cancer.

Urethra Infection: Cervicitis often leads into chlamydia infection of their urethra.  Usual symptoms are similar to a urinary tract infection.

Perihepatitis: This condition, also known as Fitzhugh-Curtis syndrome, causes an inflammation of the liver capsule and surrounding surfaces. 

Pelvic inflammatory disease: Nearly 30 percent of women who do not treat their chlamydia will develop this disease. This infection inflames the female reproductive organs, and can damage the Fallopian tubes that eggs travel through when leaving the ovary to get to the uterus. These damages pathways can lead to infertility, intense pelvis pain, or what is known as an ectopic pregnancy – when the egg cannot travel all the way through the damaged tube and is thus forced to fertilize where it stands, usually somewhere against the walls of the tubes. These types of pregnancies do not normally survive.  

In already pregnant women, contracting chlamydia can cause premature ruptures of the membrane and dangerously lower the birth weight in delivered babies. Offspring can also inherit their mother’s problems, with 20 to 50 percent of newborns developing conjunctivitis when chlamydia is left untreated in the mother.

Remember, nearly 50 percent of women suffer no symptoms after contracting chlamydia. You must get tested at least once a year if you are sexually active and more often if you have multiple partners or have changed partners recently.

If you live near New York, protect yourself by visiting this STD testing in NYC and get tested. Its doctors will take care to ensure your results are 100 percent accurate, and will cure you if you have a positive  Chlamydia testing in NYC. Your privacy is important, and its staff respects yours. Just log onto STDcenterny.com or call 1-212-696-5900 to protect yourself and others from STDs.