Chlamydia in men: symptoms and treatment
Chlamydia in men is a series of infectious diseases that are provoked by pathogenic microorganisms - chlamydia. It is impossible to attribute them to viruses or bacteria, they are independent parasitic agents that multiply directly inside the cell of the body. This makes it difficult to diagnose the disease. In addition, in 50% of cases, the infection in men proceeds without any symptoms that he might notice.
With the normal functioning of the immune system, chlamydia is quite problematic to penetrate into the male body. However, frequent stress, poor nutrition, overwork affects the natural defense and the immune response becomes not strong enough to prevent the entry of the microorganism into the cell. Most often, chlamydia affects the genitourinary system of men, however, they can parasitize in the respiratory system, can cause chlamydial arthritis, conjunctivitis, etc.
It is possible to determine urogenital chlamydia only in laboratory conditions, after the patient has passed the necessary tests. But the infection is not always completely asymptomatic, sometimes it manifests itself with signs of cystitis, urethritis, prostatitis. Therefore, if any pathological symptoms occur, you must contact a specialist. It can be a urologist, venereologist or infectious disease specialist.
As statistics show, every year in the world up to 90 million people fall ill with chlamydia. Moreover, the disease is most common among the young population. This is due to the fact that a person is often a carrier of infection, but he does not know about it. As a result, he infects his sexual partners, who change quite often at a young age. There is evidence that almost half of the male population in active sexual age from 16 to 40 years old are infected with this microorganism.
Content:
- Chlamydia symptoms in men
- Causes of chlamydia in men
- Consequences of chlamydia in men
- Diagnosis of chlamydia in men
- Treatment methods
Chlamydia symptoms in men
In 46% of cases, the disease does not manifest itself in any way and the symptoms of chlamydia in men are completely absent. But this does not mean that he cannot infect other people, and that he poses a particular danger to his sexual partner. Once in the body of a man, chlamydia takes a certain time, which is called the incubation period, in order to begin to parasitize. On average, this period is two weeks, although in some cases it can increase to 28-30 days.
After this time, the first signs of infection may appear, including:
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An increase in body temperature to subfebrile levels. Most often, the values on the thermometer do not exceed 37.5 ° C. This occurs against the background of general weakness and fatigue.
- Uncharacteristic vitreous discharge appears from the man's urethra. Sometimes they come with inclusions of pus and mucus. You can notice them in the morning, after a night's rest. Sometimes discharge leads to adhesion of the urethral sponges.
- During the process of emptying the bladder, there is a burning sensation, itching. The first portion of urine often has a cloudy sediment.
- The entrance to the urethra is swollen, red.
- As the disease progresses, symptoms may disappear completely. Most often this happens after 10 days. Therefore, if a man did not attach importance to the symptoms from the very beginning, he will soon forget about them and will not go to the doctor. As a result, the acute stage of the disease will turn into a chronic one, and in the future will cause various complications, including: prostatitis, urethritis, cystitis, etc.
The symptoms of chlamydia do not differ in specificity and are similar to the symptoms of other genital infections. A nonspecific symptom of chlamydmiosis is pain during the process of urination and during intercourse.
Causes of chlamydia in men
The causes of chlamydia in men are reduced to its infection with chlamydia. At the same time, it was established that this particular infection occupies a leading position among all sexually transmitted diseases. In recent years, there has been a clear trend towards an increase in the incidence of chlamydia infection among adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. A sick person may not experience absolutely any sensations, but it will be contagious.
Infection occurs through sexual contact. Out-of-sex transmission of the pathogen has no epidemiological significance, but it is wrong to exclude this possibility. You can get infected through inseminated personal items, through toiletries, through bed linen. But this happens very rarely.
In addition, it is possible for newborns to become infected from a sick mother during childbirth. This happens 50% of the time. This does not apply to men, but this fact should be taken into account, especially if the family is at the stage of planning pregnancy.
Consequences of chlamydia in men
The consequences of chlamydia in men are quite serious.
They arise in the case when the necessary therapy was not carried out, or if it was insufficient and ineffective, these are:
- Prostatitis. Chlamydia, when penetrating into the prostate gland, can cause inflammation. As a result, the patient develops pains in the groin area, in the lower back, dysuric disorders are observed, potency suffers (read more: signs, symptoms and an example of treatment of prostatitis).
- Urethritis followed by urethral strictures. The man will experience a frequent urge to urinate, uncharacteristic discharge with pus and mucus will begin to appear from the urethra.
- Epididymitis. If the epididymis is involved in the pathological process, this will lead to an increase in body temperature to high values, the epididymis itself will increase in size. In the end, this pathological process can result in infertility, or a pronounced violation of spermatogenesis.
- Reiter's disease is expressed in a triad of symptoms, including: urethritis, arthritis and conjunctivitis.
- Orchitis and orchiepididymitis. Chlamydiae affects either the testicle or the testicle along with the appendages.
- Funiculitis and vesiculitis. The spermatic cord and seminal vesicles are involved in the process of inflammation.
In addition to these numerous inflammations of the genitourinary system, chlamydia can affect other organs. With an ascending infection, the kidneys, peritoneum, and liver may be involved in the pathological process. Therefore, high-quality diagnosis of the disease and its timely treatment are so important.
Diagnosis of chlamydia in men
The diagnosis of chlamydia in men should be especially careful, since the microbe has a unique biological cycle and is often combined with other diseases caused by either pathogenic or opportunistic flora.
Often, urologists diagnose chronic prostatitis or chronic urethritis, referring them to diseases with an unexplained etiology. This is due to the fact that it is not always possible to conduct a comprehensive study. As a result, a treatment is prescribed that does not relieve a man of chlamydia, but only makes it worse. Microorganisms develop resistance to therapy and continue to parasitize. There is evidence that 40% of male urethritis are of chlamydial origin, if they are not caused by gonococci.
It is possible to conduct the following studies to determine chlamydia:
- Cultural analysis of a smear from the urethra (a long and laborious method for detecting microorganisms);
- ELISA method, in which the pathogen is detected in the blood (false negative result is possible);
- PCR method (high sensitivity, and therefore high reliability of the method, the result will be obtained in the shortest possible time);
- Transcriptional amplification is a new method, characterized by high reliability, based on the detection of RNA of a microorganism in endocervical samples.
Treatment methods
Treatment of urogenital chlamydia in men is often very difficult. This is primarily due to the fact that patients seek medical help late. As a result, the disease is neglected, and complications often develop.
When choosing an antibacterial agent, one should take into account that the microorganism multiplies inside the cell, which means that an antibiotic is needed that can penetrate there. Macrolides, fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines have this ability. Therefore, the choice of the doctor should fall on one drug from the listed groups. Sulfonamides, cephalosporins and penicillins are not used for the treatment of chlamydial infection, since they are not able to destroy the microorganism.
Before starting therapy, the doctor asks the patient how long ago the first symptoms of the disease appeared, whether he tolerates all drugs, whether he has allergic reactions. It is important to find out the presence of chronic diseases.
In addition, it is necessary to conduct additional research methods that will clarify the following aspects:
- The state of the immune system;
- The condition of the liver, gallbladder and pancreas;
- The state of the urogenital organs.
It is also important to establish the presence of other sexually transmitted diseases.
So, for the treatment of chlamydia are used:
- Antibiotics. It can be Azithromycin (Azicide, Sumamed Zitrolide, Ecomed, Hemomycin), Doxycycline (Vibramycin, Unidox Solutab), Erythromycin, Lomefloxacin (Maxaquin), Ofloxacin, Spiramycin (Rovamycin), Ciprofloxacin, Siprobayfetl, Tsiprobayifran. In addition, the appointment of two antibacterial drugs in combination with antimycotics - Fluconazole and Pimafucin is not excluded. So, Doxycycline, Rifampicin, Azithromycin can be combined with Ciprofloxacin.
- Immunomodulators are mandatory included in the general treatment of chlamydia. It can be drugs such as Amiksin, Interferon, Neovir, Polyoxidonium, Derinat, Timalin, Takvitin. It is possible that the doctor will prescribe herbal immunomodulators. For example, Tincture of Aralia, Eleutherococcus, Saparal, Pantokrin.
- Systemic enzyme therapy. Perhaps the appointment of enzymes, such as Trypsin, Wobenzym, Lidaza, Phlogenzym.
- Hepatoprotectors. To maintain the functioning of the liver, hepatoprotective drugs are used (Phosphogliv, Karsil, Essenseale Forte, Legalon).
- Antioxidants The following antioxidants are: vitamin E, vitamin A, glutamic acid, sodium thiosulfate.
- Eubiotics. To normalize the intestinal microflora, it is recommended to take Bifikol, Bifidumbacterin, Lactobacterin, Enterol.
- Enzyme preparations. Enzyme preparations are Pancreatin, Festal, Mezim.
- Physiotherapy. Do not exclude physiotherapeutic techniques from the treatment regimen, for example, ultrasound therapy, magnetic laser therapy, electrophoresis, etc.
It is impossible to recommend a single scheme for getting rid of a man from chlamydia. The treatment is built on the basis of an individual approach and is determined by clinical signs, the presence of concomitant infections, the individual sensitivity of the patient and other aspects.
Author of the article: Lebedev Andrey Sergeevich | Urologist
Education: Diploma in the specialty "Andrology" received after completing residency at the Department of Endoscopic Urology of the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education in the urological center of the Central Clinical Hospital No. 1 of JSC Russian Railways (2007). Postgraduate studies were completed here by 2010.
