More than half the men and women who have
chlamydia infection are unaware, some people walk around for years not knowing they are carrying the infection. This lack of awareness makes the infection all the more easy to spread, especially if you have a lot of sexual partners.
Chlamydia, like some other STDs, can quite easily block your fallopian tubes which prevents your egg passing down for fertilsation.
How does chlamydia affect fertility?
If left untreated, the infection can lie dormant for several months before travelling through the cervix to infect the fallopian tubes, leading to
pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This can cause symptoms such as low abdominal pain, fever and painful sex. However, many women have a less acute inflammation that produces few if any symptoms. If untreated, PID can lead to blockage of the fallopian tubes and subsequent infertility.
Chlamydia is now the commonest cause of PID, which is thought to affect more than 165,000 women a year. It is estimated that 25% of all cases of infertility are due to chlamydia infection.
Approximately 10% of all women who contract chlamydia will become infertile as a result of PID. This equates to 30,000 women a year becoming infertile.
The peak age for chlamydia infection in women is between 16 and 19 years.
Can one get pregnant with chlamydia?
Yes, before it affects the fallopian tubes or any part of the reproductive system. It is absolutely possible to conceive with chlamydia infection.
However, unfortunately, chlamydia infection spreads from mother to child. If a mother has it during pregnancy and labour, can cause eye or lung infections in the newborn baby. The risk of transmission during birth varies, but is about 20% to 50% for eye infections and about 10% to 20% for infection of the lungs.
