INTERNET DATING AT ITS BEST/WORST
I'm sure many of you don't see the relavance of this series of educational postings about disease and dating. You better wake up if you want to reduce your risk!
Chlamydia is the most commonly reported bacterial STD in the United States and a leading cause of infertility among women.
Incubation period is one to three weeks.
I know you don't like this subject matter, but if you are planning on iDating or any kind of dating, you have to know what's going on out there. Be smart and learn.
Fifty percent of infected males and eighty percent of infected females have no symptoms. This is why it is known as a silent disease. Then the infection can spread and cause other problems.
If symptoms do occur, they usually appear in 1 to 3 weeks after exposure.
In women, the bacteria initially infect the cervix and the urethra. If you do have symptoms, you might have an abnormal vaginal discharge or a burning sensation when urinating. When the infection spreads from the cervix to the fallopian tubes, some women still have no signs or symptoms, while others may have lower abdominal pain, low back pain, nausea, fever, pain during intercourse, or bleeding between menstrual periods. Chlamydial infection of the cervix can spread to the rectum by itself and even more so if you help it along by engaging in anal sex.
Men with symptoms might have a discharge from their penis or a burning sensation when urinating. Men might also have burning and itching around the opening of the penis. Pain and swelling in the testicles could occur but are uncommon.
Rectal chlamydia (and we know how you likely got that) can cause rectal pain, discharge, or bleeding.
Chlamydia can also be found in the throats of women and men having oral sex with an infected partner.
Untreated Chlamydia can cause complications leading to chronic pelvic pain, and infertility. If you are dating and having sex with a lot of partners, you need to be tested for chlamydia yearly.
Complications for men are rare, but if they should occur it is usually related to spread to the testicles causing pain, but rarely causing sterility. Yeah, us guys always have it easy.
Twenty percent of men and forty percent of women with Chlamydia are co-infected with gonorrhea. Nice company your keeping!
As you can see you must be hanging around with some sleazy characters to get this stuff. Actually, that used to be the case, but with the explosion of casual sex, liberated females, drug use, and prostitution, there are many more chances for “nice” people to contract these diseases. As noted in an earlier post, this is all related to The Beatles and Sargent Pepper!
Prevention involves making sure you are in a monogomous relationship with one who has been tested. You can use condoms to help reduce the risk of infection, but as you can see, with all the many ways we can have sex today, you could still get infected in one place or another.
Chlamydia is easily treated and cured with antibiotics.