The first symptoms of chlamydia and the features of its diagnosis
Unlike gonorrhea or, for example, mycoplasma , recognizing this disease is not so simple. The thing is that during the incubation period (and it is about 2 weeks) the symptoms of developing chlamydia, as a rule, are very weakly expressed.
So, chlamydia can occur as a general without symptoms, and give in the first 1-3 weeks after infection a general weakness, a low temperature (however, quite rarely), more often - pain in the lower abdomen, with urination, etc. Another symptom is the discharge , which will be discussed below.
It is impossible to accurately diagnose chlamydia from a vagina smear (in men - from the urethra), there are often both false-positive and false-negative answers. The reason for this is that, firstly, the causative agent of chlamydial infection parasitizes inside the cells, and secondly, the reliability of the result depends on the stage of the disease. Therefore, as a method of research, it is advisable to select a scraping and PCR blood test , or even better, to carry out both of these analyzes together.
Signs and symptoms of chlamydia in men and women
Symptoms of chlamydia infection, oddly enough, are stronger for the stronger sex. So, given that a healthy man has no discharge from the urethra, in this disease they are just observed. The substance to be separated is usually vitreous. Sometimes it is accompanied by urethritis (inflammation of the urethra), but if a person has strong immunity, even such symptoms can not be observed.
When asked which symptoms of chlamydia exist in women, the answer is even more difficult. It can be itching and burning, weak pain in the internal genital organs and strengthening them before menstruation. With regard to discharge, often they are mucous or even muco-purulent, have an unpleasant smell and a yellowish hue. And thus there are no special symptoms inherent in this particular infection, because both pain and unusual discharge can indicate any other infection or inflammatory process, such as endocervicitis, cystitis or bacterial vaginosis. That's why chlamydia is also referred to as the so-called hidden infections.
The symptoms of urogenital chlamydiosis described above usually appear 3-4 weeks after infection and then, as soon as the infection has firmly established in the cells of the body, it can disappear altogether. But this does not mean that the disease has come to naught, on the contrary, the spontaneous disappearance of symptoms in the absence of treatment indicates the progression of the infection to other internal organs - the intestines, joints, lymphatic system.
It should also be noted that chlamydia can manifest itself not only in the urogenital area. There are cases of chlamydial conjunctivitis (eye disease caused by this infection), pharyngitis, sinusitis, otitis, etc. In newborns infected with passing through the genital tracts of an infected mother, insidious chlamydia can cause even pneumonia! That is why it is so important to start treatment if there are symptoms of chlamydia in pregnant women.