Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. Studies have shown that 1 in 12 young people are infected with the disease. This is because in some cases, it shows no symptoms at in. In women, it first infects the urethra and it spreads to the cervix. If the infection is not treated quickly, it can spread to the reproductive organs. If left untreated, there are a few other serious complications of chlamydia.

• It can spread pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID is a very serious infection in women. Women who have this infection can have trouble getting pregnant if they can get pregnant at all.
• If a woman has chlamydia and she is pregnant, she can pass the disease onto her baby. If the infection gets into the baby’s eyes, it can cause blindness at birth. The baby can also be born with pneumonia. This infection in newborns can result in death.
• If a woman has chlamydia, she is at higher risk of getting HIV from an infected person.

If a man has chlamydia, it affects his urethra. In many cases, men experience no symptoms. They often won’t know they have it until a sexual partner comes forward with their diagnosis. If he allows the disease to go untreated, it can cause painful swelling in the testicles.

Symptoms of Chlamydia

As mentioned above, chlamydia often shows no symptoms. Patients who do have symptoms often complain of pain while they urinate, cloudy urine, or discharge from the penis or the vagina.

Diagnosing Chlamydia Before Testing

If you have been told that you had unprotected sex with a person who has chlamydia, you would need to be tested right away. There is no guarantee that you have the disease, however, it is important that you find out. If you don’t get tested and treated, you can spread the disease to anyone you have unprotected sex with. If you are a woman and you avoid getting tested and treated, you could do irreparable damage to your body and also to your baby if you are pregnant.

One of the reasons that people don’t get tested for chlamydia is that they are embarrassed. Most people don’t want to walk into their doctor’s office and admit that they had unprotected sex with an infected partner. Many people think that having a sexually transmitted infection is very embarrassing, therefore, they avoid getting tested. Just a few years ago, a trip to the doctor would be the only way to find out if you have the disease. Fortunately, there are chlamydia home testing kits available today making a trip to the doctor to get diagnosed, unnecessary.

How Does An At Home Chlamydia Test Kit Work?

Home chlamydia test kits are very simple to use. First, you would go online and find a site that sells the tests. There are some companies who offer free tests to people of certain ages and in certain areas. On the site, you would include your age and your zip code. You would find out immediately if there are free chlamydia tests available in your area.

After you order the test, it should arrive at your door within a few days. When you receive the test, you would be required to take a sample. Tests for men and many for women require a urine sample. There are some tests for women that would require you to take a swab from the inside of your vagina. After you have collected your sample, you would put it in the box provided by the company. The address is already printed on the box and the postage is paid so you won’t need to put a stamp on your package. Before packing up the box, you would need to remove the top portion of the form. This is the best way for you to track your sample online so that you can be sure that the company received your sample and that they are testing it.

When your sample is received by the lab, they would use state-of-the-art techniques to test the sample. Also, the lab is ISO accredited, which should give you confidence that the sample would be tested correctly. The lab uses a DNA amplification technique to detect a small trace of chlamydia bacteria from your sample.

After your sample has been processed and tested in the lab, you would receive either a text message or an email with your results. If your results are negative, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You should also make a promise to yourself to abstain from having unprotected sex so that you don’t need to go through this again. If your results are positive, you would need to make an appointment with your doctor or at a clinic to get the antibiotics that you need to treat the disease. You should also talk to your sexual partner. If they don’t get tested and treated as well, you will just keep getting the disease each time you have unprotected sex. It is your duty and your responsibility to inform anyone you have had sex with since you believe you contracted the disease.

Other STI’s & STD’s That Have Test Kits Available

It is important to understand that if you did test positive for chlamydia, there is a chance that you could have contracted another STI at the same time. Gonorrhea is a very common one. To be sure that you are free and clear of all STI’s, you would need to be tested for each one individually. The chlamydia test will test for chlamydia only. Fortunately, the sites that sell the home chlamydia tests also sell tests for other STI’s. The gonorrhea test is similar to the chlamydia test. You can also purchase a GUM Kit that tests for syphilis and HIV using a simple finger prick blood sample. After the sample is received and tested, the lab would let you know the results in the same way that they do with the chlamydia test.

Chlamydia is a very contagious and potentially dangerous disease. If you are experiencing symptoms of chlamydia or if you have found out that a previous sexual partner has the disease, you should be tested immediately. If you want to avoid the wait and embarrassment of visiting your own doctor, you can purchase a home test kit.