- Chlamydia
- Gonorrhea
- Syphilis
Chlamydia
For more information about Chlamydia, please click here
Click here to see the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’s pamphlet on Preventing STDs.
What are the symptoms of Chlamydia infection?
- Abdominal pain
- Burning on urination
- Painful intercourse
- Vaginal discharge or bleeding after intercourse
Note: Some women with Chlamydia have no symptoms at all. Only some women will have symptoms. Therefore, screening sexually active women for Chlamydia is necessary to diagnose and treat the condition in women who do not have symptoms.
How is Chlamydia treated?
There are two goals in treating a sexually transmitted disease, especially one as easily spread as chlamydia. The first is to cure the infection in the patient. The second is to locate and test all of the other people the person had sexual contact with and treat them to prevent further spread of the disease. Never treat yourself without being seen by your doctor first.
Chlamydia can be treated with a variety of antibiotics, including azithromycin, tetracyclines, quinolones, and erythromycin. Erythromycin and azithromycin are safe in pregnant women.
Both sexual partners must be treated to prevent passing the infection back and forth between them, even though both may not have symptoms.
Since gonorrhea often occurs along with chlamydia, treatment for gonorrhea is often given at the same time.
What causes Chlamydia?
Chlamydia is caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis.
Different strains of Chlamydia cause genital, eye, lymph node, and respiratory infections.
A baby born to a woman with a chlamydia infection of the cervix may develop eye or lung infections.
Chlamydia is transmitted through sexual activity. Sexually active individuals and individuals with multiple partners are at highest risk for chlamydia infections.
How is Chlamydia diagnosed?
Diagnosing a chlamydia infection in a woman involves taking a sample of cervical secretions and sending it to a lab for an endocervical culture or a similar test called PCR. PCR can be done on a PAP sample.
Chlamydia infection can be diagnosed with a urine test.
Endocervical culture for gonorrhea may also be done.
All sexual contacts of the person with gonorrhea should be contacted and tested. This helps prevent further spread of the disease.
How successful is treatment?
Antibiotic treatment is usually successful. Reinfection may occur if you do not take your medicine as directed, or if your sexual partner is not treated. Chlamydia should be immediately treated to decrease the risk of permanent damage to the tubes, and adhesions and scarring in the pelvis. Delays in treatment increase your risk of permanent damage, infertility, chronic pelvic pain, and ectopic pregnancy.
How can Chlamydia be prevented?
All sexually active women up to age 25 should be screened yearly for Chlamydia. All women with new sexual partners or multiple partners should also be screened.
A mutually monogamous sexual relationship with an uninfected partner is one way to avoid this infection. The proper use of condoms during intercourse usually prevents infection.
If you have chlamydia, you should be tested for reinfection 3-6 months after treatment. It is not uncommon for partners to pass it back and forth. Both should abstain until the treatment is complete.
What are the complications of Chlamydia infections?
Chlamydia infections in women may lead to cervicitis (inflammation of the cervix).
An untreated chlamydia infection may spread to the uterus or the fallopian tubes, causing tubal damage or pelvic inflammatory disease. These conditions can lead to infertility and increase the risk of ectopic pregnancy. If you have gonorrhea, you should be tested for other sexually transmitted diseases, including chlamydia, syphilis, and HIV. You should also receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
Gonorrhea
For more information about Gonorrhea, please click here
Click here to see the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’s pamphlet on Preventing STDs.
What are the symptoms of gonorrhea infection?
Symptoms of gonorrhea usually appear 2 - 5 days after infection, however, in men, symptoms may take up to a month to appear. Some people do not have symptoms. They may be completely unaware that they have caught the disease, and therefore do not seek treatment. This increases the risk of complications and the chances of passing the infection on to another person.
Symptoms in women can be very mild or nonspecific, and may be mistaken for another type of infection. They include:
- Vaginal discharge
- Burning and pain while urinating
- Increased urination
- Sore throat
- Painful sexual intercourse
- Severe pain in lower abdomen (if the infection spreads to the fallopian tubes and stomach area)
- Fever (if the infection spreads to the fallopian tubes and stomach area)
If the infection spreads to the bloodstream, fever, rash, and arthritis-like symptoms may occur.
How is gonorrhea infection?
There are two goals in treating a sexually transmitted disease, especially one as easily spread as gonorrhea. The first is to cure the infection in the patient. The second is to locate and test all of the other people the person had sexual contact with and treat them to prevent further spread of the disease.
Never treat yourself without being seen by your doctor first. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the following treatments for uncomplicated gonorrhea.
- A single shot of ceftriaxone (Rocephin) 125 mg or a single dose of cefixime 400 mg taken by mouth are currently the recommended antibiotic treatment
- Azithromycin (Zithromax) 2g in a single dose may be used for people who have severe allergic reactions to ceftriaxone, cefixime, or penicillin.
Penicillin used to be the standard treatment, but it is not used any longer because it does not cure gonorrhea all the time. The CDC also recommendeds against using a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, or levofloxacin).
Persons with gonorrhea often also have a chlamydia infection. If a chlamydia culture was not done to rule out this infection, a single dose of azithromycin (1g by mouth) or doxycycline 100 mg twice a day, by mouth for 7 days should also be given.
A follow-up visit 7 days after treatment is important if joint pain, skin rash, or more severe pelvic or belly pain is present. Tests will be done to make sure the infection is gone.
All sexual contacts of the person with gonorrhea should be contacted and tested. This helps prevent further spread of the disease.
What causes Gonorrhea?
Gonorrhea is caused by the bacteria “Neisseria gonorrhea”. Anyone who has any type of sex can catch gonorrhea. The infection can be spread by contact with the mouth, vagina, penis, or anus.
The bacteria grow in warm, moist areas of the body, including the tube that carries urine out of the body (urethra). In women, the bacteria may be found in the reproductive tract (which includes the fallopian tubes, uterus, and cervix). The bacteria can even grow in the eyes.
Health care providers in every state in the U.S. are required by law to tell their State Board of Health about anyone diagnosed with gonorrhea. The goal of this law is make sure the patient gets proper follow-up care and that their sexual partners are found and tested.
More than 700,000 persons in the United States get gonorrhea every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Gonorrhea is more common in large cities, inner-city areas, populations with lower overall levels of education and people with lower socioeconomic status.
You are more likely to develop this infection if you:
- Have multiple sexual partners
- Have a partner with a past history of any sexually transmitted disease
- Do not use a condom during sex
- Are a man who has sexual contact with another man
- Have a drug addiction
How is Gonorrhea diagnosed?
- Cervical gram stain in women
- Gram stain of urethral discharge in men
- Joint fluid gram stain
Cultures (cells that grow in a lab dish) provide absolute proof of infection. Generally, samples for a culture are taken from the cervix, vagina, urethra, anus, or throat. Cultures can provide a preliminary diagnosis
Cultures used to diagnose gonorrhea include:
- Endocervical culture in women
- Urethral discharge culture in men
- Throat swab culture in both men and women
- Rectal culture in both men and women
- Culture of joint fluid
- Blood cultures
DNA tests are especially useful as a screening test. They included the ligase chain reaction (LCR) test. DNA tests are quicker than cultures. Such tests can be performed on urine samples, which are a lot easier to collect than samples from the genital area. They can also be run off a PAP collection from an annual exam.
How successful is treatment?
Immediately treating a gonorrhea infection helps prevent permanent scarring and infertility. When treatment is delayed there is a greater chance of complications and sterility.
About half of the women with gonorrhea are also infected with chlamydia, another very common sexually transmitted disease that can result in sterility. Chlamydia is treated at the same time as a gonorrhea infection.
If you have gonorrhea, you should be tested for other sexually transmitted diseases, including chlamydia, syphilis, and HIV. You should also receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
How can Gonorrhea be prevented?
Not having sexual intercourse (abstinence) is the only absolute method of preventing gonorrhea. A monogamous sexual relationship with an individual known to be free of any STD can reduce risk. Monogamous means you and your partner do not have sex with any other persons.
You can greatly lower your risk of catching an STD by using a condom every time you have sex. Condoms are available for both men and women, but are most commonly worn by the man. A condom must be used properly every time. (For instructions on how to use a condom, see safe sex.)
To further prevent the spread of infection, treatment of all sexual partners is important.
What are the complications of Gonorrhea?
Complications in women may include:
- Salpingitis (scarring of the fallopian tubes), which can lead to problems getting pregnant or ectopic pregnancy
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Sterility (inability to become pregnant)
- Painful intercourse (dyspareunia)
- Pregnant women with severe gonorrhea may pass the disease to their baby while in the womb or during delivery
Complications in both men and women may include:
- Disseminated infection, which can be very serious
- Long-term joint pain, if the infection is left untreated
- Heart valve infection
- Meningitis
Syphilis
Syphilis was common for several hundred years, became very rare, almost wiped out, with the advent of antibiotics, and is now making a strong comeback. It can be easily tested for with a bloodtest, and fairly easily treated with antibiotics. Not treating it has many adverse consequences. It can be mostly prevented with latex condoms, but not completely.
For more information about syphilis, please click here
Click here to see the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’s pamphlet on Preventing STDs.
