STD’s Can Cause Female Infertility
Although there are various causes of infertility in women, the two most preventable causes happen to be STD’s. In particular, Chlamydia and Gonorrhea.
The CDC estimates that 8 million cases of the chlamydia infection and 718,000 cases of gonorrhea occur every year in the United States. Unfortunately, these infections are often symptomless in women. Up to 40% of women will develop pelvic inflammatory disease, leading to infertility, when not properly treating an STD.
Let’s discuss each of these conditions in greater detail.
Chlamydia
The chlamydia infection is an infection caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. Often, symptoms are quite mild or absent, however, serious effect can occur to a woman’s reproductive system.
The chlamydia infection is spread through vaginal, oral or anal sex.An infected mother can also pass it to her baby during birth.
This is often a “silent” condition, as I stated earlier.Ther can be no symptoms at all. Symptoms of this infection include painful urination, vaginal burning or discharge, abdominal pain or nausea or pain with sex. Symptoms typically do not occur for 1-3 weeks following infection. Having this infection puts a woman at increased risk of obtaining the HIV infection.
Gonorrhea
The gonorrhea infection is caused by the Neisseria gonorrhoeao bacterium.It is also a very common sexually transmitted disease. Significant health problems, including infertility, can occur if no treatment occurs.
Like chlamydia, gonorrhea can be spread by sexual contact and can be spread from mother to baby during childbirth.
Symptomotology in women can be mild and often produce no symptoms whatsoever. Symptoms often start as pain and burining with urination or vaginal bleeding or discharge, however, other symptoms may exist.
It is uderstandable, for those who are sexually active, the greater importance of STD testing. A urine test can be used to screen for these infections. These STD tests can be extremely important in the health of women and their future fertility.
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Tags: chlamydia test, gonorrhea test, infertility, std test