How Chlamydia Can Affect Your Life
The most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in Singapore is chlamydia. This is unsurprising, as chlamydia is also the most common STD in the world. The reason for this boom in chlamydia infections is the nature of the bacteria – many people who have chlamydia do not exhibit symptoms at all, and end up passing on the STD to their sexual partners. Some people who do have symptoms only exhibit them a long time after being infected with chlamydia. Very often, people who have chlamydia report that they “usually don’t feel anything”.
While chlamydia can be treated with a course of antibiotics, living with the STD while being infected can be painful. Chlamydia can cause your reproductive system to be damaged extensively if left untreated. Here’s a few key points to highlight how having chlamydia can affect your life:
Discharge and a burning sensation when urinating
This is a key symptom that you have an STD. If you see an abnormal vaginal discharge (for ladies) or experience a burning sensation while peeing (for men) could mean that you have chlamydia.
However, many women may not consider this serious enough to warrant an investigation. After all, these symptoms are similar to that of a simple yeast infection. They also do not severely handicap your everyday life, and the pain can be bearable. A lot of women think it is due to hormones or external weather conditions that they go through such pain, and these symptoms could go away after a while. If symptoms do arise, the most common manifestation is the infection of the cervix in women.
In men, symptoms usually only surface when they experience a burning discharge while peeing. However, like women, many men who have chlamydia do not exhibit any symptom that warrants medical attention. Those who do typically experience pain or swelling in their testicles.
Long-term complications of being untreated
If left untreated, chlamydia can lead to further complications that can be life-threatening and/or permanent. These include pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, chronic pelvic pain and cervical cancer. As such, it is highly recommended that anyone who experiences symptoms of chlamydia do get themselves tested at an STD clinic in Singapore to verify that they do have the infection.
It looks like gonorrhea
Because gonorrhea, another bacterial STD, causes similar symptoms, some people may assume that the symptoms they are exhibiting are because of one STD and not the other. As such, to ascertain which STD you may have, you should go for a STD testing in Singapore to find out exactly what your symptoms mean. In addition, the doctor at the STD clinic will be able to prescribe you the correct treatment for your condition.
Conclusion
Chlamydia can cause pain or discomfort, but mostly does not exhibit symptoms. As a result, you should regularly visit an STD clinic in Singapore, in order to ensure that you are sexually healthy, and to seek early treatment if you do have chlamydia or other STDs, such as gonorrhea, syphilis or HIV.
