Chlamydia

Chlamydia can cause an infection in your genitals, throat, and/or rectum.

Untreated, chlamydia can cause permanent damage to a woman’s reproductive system, making it difficult or impossible to get pregnant later on.

Like many sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia often has no symptoms.

How It’s Transmitted

You can get chlamydia by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex without a condom with someone who has the infection. (Need condoms? Find free condoms.) 

If a pregnant woman has chlamydia, she can pass the infection to her baby during childbirth.

Symptoms

Chlamydia infections, including those of the throat, are often asymptomatic.

If symptoms are present, women with chlamydia often experience mild symptoms—including a painful or burning sensation when peeing, increased vaginal discharge, and vaginal bleeding between periods—which are often mistaken for a bladder or vaginal infection. 

Men with chlamydia may experience a burning sensation when peeing, painful or swollen testicles, or a white, yellow, or green discharge from the penis. 

If your rectum is infected, you may notice discharge, anal itching, soreness, bleeding, or painful bowel movements.

Treatment

With treatment from your healthcare provider, chlamydia is curable. Although medicine will stop the infection, it will not undo any permanent damage caused by the infection.

Repeat infection with chlamydia is common, so it’s recommended you get tested again about three months after treatment, even if your sexual partner(s) receives treatment.

For more information about chlamydia, visit the CDC website.