aka “the clam”
Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases and many who have it are not even aware because it largely goes undiagnosed. It is usually presents asymptomatically so you could have it for years and never even know it. This is particularly dangerous because chlamydia can cause serious complications involving fertility later on if left untreated. As medlineplus.org discusses, transmission can occur if you have oral, vaginal, or anal sex with someone who has the infection. Young women (25 and younger) are more susceptible to the infection and have more serious consequences from it than males. In women an untreated infection can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which can cause long term pelvic pain, infertility, and ectopic and preterm pregnancies. While on the other hand, men don’t often have health complications from chlamydia, sometimes it can cause epididymitis which has a rare possibility of affecting fertility.
Because chlamydia is a bacterial infection there are antibiotic treatments to treat it. Yay! But, just because you’ve been treated for it once does not mean that you are now superman/woman and can’t get it again. Having it once actually makes you more susceptible for recurring infections. It’s suggested that young people get checked for it once a year if they’re sexually active. And by young people we mean people around the age of their 20s, which means college students. So if you’re sexually active and reading this you should probably be getting checked for it once a year. The more ya know, how bout that? Don’t get crushed by the clam, get tested.
Currently the only sure way to prevent infection with chlamydia is to abstain from vaginal, anal, or oral sex. Using a condom properly reduces your risk but does not eliminate the risk of getting “the clam”. Although, some exciting news is that scientists are currently working on a potential vaccine for the bacterial infection. There are many attempts being developed because chlamydia is a big problem worldwide. An article from The Journal of Infectious Diseases discusses one attempt in which a they got a recombinant major outer membrane protein (rMOMP) vaccine to elicit cross-serogroup protection in mice. The results of this study prove it to the first subunit vaccine to protect mice against infection, pathology, and infertility caused C. trachomatis serovars. This research is super awesome because we are that much closer to cultivating a vaccine effective in humans! Its gonna take a while but there’s hope! Think of all the preterm infant deaths we could prevent with a vaccine for chlamydia! How many women would not have to be crushed with the news that they are infertile?
microBIOLOGY 