What you should know about chlamydia

Chlamydia is the one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in New Zealand. If you’ve had sex, especially without a condom, you may have caught it.

Some people think that if you have a sexually transmitted infection (STI for short) you’ll get an itchy penis or a smelly discharge from your vagina.

Yeah, right.

It’s just as likely that you won’t have any symptoms at all. You’ll be thinking everything’s cool, while inside your body things are getting ugly.

Chlamydia can affect your genitals, your throat and inside your backside. If it's not treated, chlamydia can make you infertile. If you're female, it can damage your tubes and cause inflammations within your pelvis. Eventually, it could make sex painful and also lead to painful periods.

If you're male, chlamydia can damage your balls - even make them swell up. Not a good look. You might also get a burning, itchy feeling around the tip of your penis.

At worst, chlamydia can even make a man infertile.

What to do if you think you might have chlamydia

Talk to your school nurse (don’t worry fellas, if the nurse is a woman, she’s heard it all before). Otherwise, talk to your doctor.

If you can’t bring yourself to do that, you can always call Youthline and talk to one of their counsellors. You don’t have to say who you are, and they’ll help you figure out what to do.

What happens if you’ve got chlamydia?

Chlamydia is easily treated – you just pop a single dose of a drug called azithromycin. And that’s it. Next please!

No one else has to know, your health is a private matter between you and your doctor.

Not me, bro

Don’t be so sure. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of chlamydia in the world (did we already say that?). It’s most common in teenagers and young adults.

It’s easy to pretend that it couldn’t happen to you, or that it’s not such a big deal if it does. But if you think like that, you’re saying that your health is less important than taking a simple test. No offence, but that’s not very smart.

The other reason to get tested is for the sake of your partner. It’s OK to have an STI. It’s not OK to pass it on to someone else.

How to avoid getting it.

You can get any STI, including chlamydia, from unprotected sex.

The only 100% protection is not to have sex. Otherwise, your best protection is to use condoms, avoid ‘sleeping around’, and if you think you might be infected get yourself checked out (and don’t have sex until you do, in case you pass it on).

Your best protection against chlamydia is to use a condom during sex.