What happens in chlamydia?
Chlamydia is an infection caused by bacteria called Chlamydia trachomatis. You can get chlamydia when you have sex. • If you’re a man it can affect the tube that carries urine down from your bladder to the outside (the urethra). • If you’re a woman it can affect the neck of your womb (cervix) or your urethra, or both. • The infection can be passed on by oral sex and anal sex as well as by vaginal sex. So it can also affect your throat and your back passage (rectum). • If you touch your eyes after touching infected fluid from your genitals you can get eye infection. Newborn babies also can be affected by chlamydia. This is because women who have the infection can pass it on during childbirth. If you’re pregnant and you have chlamydia your baby may be born with eye infection or pneumonia. Both of these problems can be treated with antibiotics. What are the symptoms? Chlamydia is sometimes called the ‘silent disease’ because you can have it without knowing it. Up to 8 in 10 women with chl
