Can chlamydia come back after antibiotics?
Noah Mitchell
Published Jan 23, 2026
You can get chlamydia even after treatment. You may get it again for several reasons, including: You did not complete your course of antibiotics as directed and the initial chlamydia did not go away. Your sexual partner has untreated chlamydia and gave it to you during sexual activity.
Can chlamydia come back on its own after being treated?
Nope! Chlamydia is easily cured with antibiotics. Chlamydia is a bacterial infection (like strep throat or an ear infection), which means that once you've been treated and tested negative for it (to make sure the antibiotics worked), it's gone.
How often does chlamydia come back after treatment?
Chlamydial reinfections are very common—as many as 1 in 5 people will have a repeat infection with chlamydia within the first few months after they are treated for their initial infection.
What can cause chlamydia to come back?
The good news is that you can check for chlamydia at home with a home chlamydia test, and the infection is easy to treat with a course of antibiotics. However, a chlamydia infection can come back if you engage in unprotected sex with an infected sexual partner.
Can chlamydia keep coming back?
Thankfully, it's also curable. But new research suggests that for some people, curing chlamydia doesn't prevent reinfection, even if they're not exposed to it again. Apparently the disease can live inside your gut, and reinfect you out of the blue.
38 related questions foundCan chlamydia stay dormant?
Chlamydia can lie dormant in the body for many years causing a low grade infection without symptoms. It could potentially flare up to cause a symptomatic infection, especially if there is an alteration in the persons immune system, such as a severe cold or flu, cancer or some other severe illness.
How do I know my chlamydia is gone?
If you take the treatment according to the instructions, you won't usually need a test to check the chlamydia has gone. If you're aged under 25, you should be offered a repeat test 3 months after finishing the treatment. This is because you're at a higher risk of getting chlamydia again.
Why do you have to wait 3 months to retest for chlamydia?
Retesting 3 months after diagnosis of chlamydia, gonorrhea, or trichomoniasis can detect repeat infection and potentially can be used to enhance population-based prevention (136,137).
Can you have chlamydia for 10 years?
How long can you have chlamydia for? An untreated chlamydia infection can persist for several years. Although this goes for both men and women, it is believed that men are less likely to carry the bacteria for several years. If you remain infected for a long time you have an increased risk of complications.
How long can a girl have chlamydia?
Most people who have chlamydia don't notice any symptoms.
If you do get symptoms, these usually appear between 1 and 3 weeks after having unprotected sex with an infected person. For some people they don't develop until many months later. Sometimes the symptoms can disappear after a few days.
Can chlamydia be dormant for 20 years?
Although some symptoms can appear within weeks of contact, there have been reports of chlamydia remaining dormant for over twenty years.
Can chlamydia be missed in a test?
A proportion of infections may be missed by older tests. The NAAT tests are very accurate, even if -- like any test -- false results can occasionally occur. If the test says that you do not have chlamydia, this result is accurate for around 99 in every 100 people.
How long is chlamydia asymptomatic?
The data does not distinguish between two- and three-class models. The expected duration of asymptomatic infection in women, based on this data alone, is 1.36 years (95% CI 1.13 to 1.63 years), based on the two-class model.
Can chlamydia last 5 years?
Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the UK. In 2018 alone, 49% of all new diagnoses of STDs were Chlamydia. A possible reason for this is that the Chlamydia can lay dormant for many years without the carrier knowing.
Can chlamydia be dormant and test negative?
This is because the bacteria needs enough time to multiply within your body in order for it to reach a detectable level when taking a chlamydia test. For chlamydia this is often 14 days. If you test before that 14 days is over, you may test negative, but you could still pass the bacteria on following your test.
Can you have chlamydia for 6 years and not know?
Anita Ravi, MD, MPH, MSHP, a practicing family physician in New York City, urges physicians to make STI screenings a routine part of patient care so as to help catch and treat chlamydia, which can have long term health repercussions if not treated. “You could have chlamydia for years and not know it,” Ravi says.
What can be mistaken for chlamydia?
Chlamydia can be mistaken for a vaginal yeast infection.
Can a UTI be mistaken for chlamydia?
The symptoms
Urinary tract infections and chlamydia can also cause pain in the lower abdomen or pelvic region. The main symptom that chlamydia does not share with UTIs is penile or vaginal discharge. A chlamydial infection can cause a yellowish, strong-smelling vaginal discharge or a watery, milky penile discharge.
Can I get a false positive for chlamydia?
First, it is possible to have a false positive on these test results, and the poor husband may be telling the truth about his fidelity. Another possibility is that the earlier test did not pick up the chlamydia, when, in fact, it was already present.
How long can a man carry chlamydia?
Chlamydia typically goes away within 1 to 2 weeks. You should avoid sex during this time to prevent transmitting the disease. Your doctor may prescribe a one-dose medication or a medication you'll take daily for about a week. If they prescribe a one-dose pill, you should wait 7 days before having sex again.
How did I get chlamydia if I didnt cheat?
Apart from being infected at birth you can not catch chlamydia without performing some form of sexual act. However, you don't have to have penetrative sex to get infected, it is enough if your genitals come in contact with an infected person's sexual fluids (for example if your genitals touch).
Does chlamydia have a smell?
Does chlamydia have a smell? Chlamydia doesn't always have a smell. But one of the symptoms of chlamydia is an unusual vaginal discharge that has an unpleasant odor.
Does a fishy smell mean chlamydia?
Does chlamydia create a fishy vaginal odor? No, not usually. Chlamydia is a very common STI that sometimes goes undetected. Though it can result in a case of vaginitis, it generally remains odorless.
What does chlamydia urine look like?
You can also get pus in the urine, which makes it look cloudy and usually makes it smell bad. (Unlike a urinary-tract infection, which quickly causes a very painful burning sensation during urination, a chlamydia infection progresses slowly.)
Does your pee smell when you have chlamydia?
Chlamydia is a known sexually transmitted disease that can cause your urine to smell funky. It can be easily cured, but often difficult to detect. This is because its symptoms can be disregarded or misdiagnosed as a side effect of other ailments.