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When Should You Retest After Treatment for Chlamydia

Published on June 19, 2018 by
How Long After Chlamydia Treatment Should I Retest?
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Asking “how long after chlamydia treatment should i retest?” is just as important as testing and treatment in the first place. After all, chlamydia is the second most common infection in the United States. In fact, an estimated 2.86 million infections occur every year. Of these, an estimated two-thirds of those new infections affect youth aged 15-24.

Symptoms

Unfortunately, an untreated case of chlamydia can cause life-long health complications.[1] However, a surprising number of people who have chlamydia don’t even know they have it: 70-80% of the people who carry chlamydia do not experience any sign of the infection at all.[2] This often means that they don’t get tested, diagnosed and treated. This is why it is important to test regularly. This is true regardless of your symptoms. When symptoms are present, they can include:

  • discharge from the penis or vagina
  • burning feeling during urination
  • frequent urination
  • in women, abdominal and/or pelvic pain, pain during sexual intercourse
  • in men, testicular pain, tenderness and swelling[3]
  • rectal pain, discharge and/or bleeding[4]
How Long After Treatment Should I Retest?

Should you test positive for chlamydia, the infection is curable with treatment. However, once you complete treatment, you’re still not finished. Re-testing is highly recommended.[5]

Each sexually transmitted infection requires different timing when it comes to your follow-up test. Chlamydia can be detected less than five days after sexual activity occurs. Once treated, we recommend that you retest two weeks after you’ve completed your antibiotics to be sure that this bacterial infection is no longer in your system.

If you’re asking “How long after chlamydia treatment should I retest,” then chances are that you will find myLAB Box’s “STD Incubation and Testing Timelines Guide” for other infections helpful as well.

Testing for Chlamydia

Luckily, there are many ways to test for chlamydia at home. Not only that, when you test for chlamydia with a myLAB Box test, you are also screening for gonorrhea. This is great news since gonorrhea is the fourth most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States.

Whether you choose to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea with a single test, or screen for multiple infections at once, myLAB Box has a test that’s available with you in mind. Several combination tests allow you to test for chlamydia along with other common sexually transmitted infections. These tests include the 5-panel Safe Box, the 8-panel Uber Box and the 14-panel Total Box.

An at-home three-site Extragenital test, the only one on the market, even allows you to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea in the mouth and rectum as well as the standard genital test. In addition, myLAB Box’s Love Box allows partners to test together, and its V-Box screens for causes of abnormal vaginal discharge.

When it comes to sexually transmitted infections, you must be vigilant about detecting these nuisances and eradicating them from your body.

Reviewed by Luis Ferdinand M. Papa, MD, MHA

References

  1. [1] After testing 1,631 random people for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, this study estimated that 77% of all Chlamydial infections are asymptomatic.

    Thomas A. Farley M.D., M.P.H. Deborah A. Cohen M.D., M.P.H. Whitney Elkins M.P.H. Asymptomatic sexually transmitted diseases: the case for screening. Preventive Medicine 2003.

  2. [2] Study analyzed over 40,000 women and discovered that those with severe Chlamydial infections were about 40% more likely to have PID (pelvic inflammatory disease), ectopic pregnancy and infertility.

    Low N, Egger M, Sterne JAC, et al. Incidence of severe reproductive tract complications associated with diagnosed genital chlamydial infection: the Uppsala Women’s Cohort Study. Sexually Transmitted Infections 2006.

  3. [3] Study results suggest that Chlamydia is the major cause of idiopathic epididymitis (inflammation of the tube at the back of the testicle that stores and carries sperm).

    Richard E. Berger, E. Russell Alexander, George D. Monda, et al. Chlamydia trachomatis as a Cause of Acute Idiopathic Epididymitis. The New England Journal of Medicine 1978.

  4. [4] Study results significantly linked the infection of Chlamydia in the rectum with rectal bleeding and proctitis (an inflammation of the lining of the rectum that causes local pain).

    Thompson CI, MacAulay AJ, Smith IW. Chlamydia trachomatis infections in the female rectums. Sexually Transmitted Infections 1989.

  5. [5] Study found that without active follow-up, over 17% of men with Chlamydia infections experienced reinfection.

    Fung M, Scott KC, Kent CK, et al. Chlamydial and gonococcal reinfection among men: a systematic review of data to evaluate the need for retesting. Sexually Transmitted Infections 2007.

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