Urogenital chlamydia
Urogenital chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection. It is widespread and the number of sick people is increasing every year. Only registered cases of the disease can be counted about 90 million per year, while it is not known how many people are hidden carriers of the infection.
This prevalence is explained by many factors, including: blurring of the symptoms of the disease, certain difficulties in the diagnosis of chlamydia, the frequency of extramarital sex, population migration, etc. Moreover, chlamydia is a dangerous disease that can lead to many complications.
Content:
- Symptoms of urogenital chlamydia
- Causes of urogenital chlamydia
- Diagnostics of the urogenital chlamydia
- Treatment of urogenital chlamydia
Symptoms of urogenital chlamydia
During the incubation period, which lasts from 10 to 30 days, there will be no symptoms of urogenital chlamydia. In general, the clinical manifestations of the disease are non-specific and similar to the symptoms of other genital infections. Possibly low-symptom development of the pathological process.
Among the most common signs of the disease in men are:
- The disease often occurs in the form of urethritis. At this time, dysuric disorders are observed, but they are most often weakly expressed. The appearance of discharge from the urethra, its hyperemia and edema is possible, which is especially pronounced in the morning hours. Sometimes the external opening of the urethra is completely stuck together. In some cases, the patient does not notice the signs of infection at all and is discovered by chance, as a result of laboratory diagnostics. Chlamydial urethritis is often combined with other genital infections.
- In parallel, chlamydial prostatitis may occur, which is expressed in pain in the perineum, rectum, sacrum. They tend to increase during prolonged sitting, during bowel movements, while riding in public transport. Painful and frequent urge to urinate, sexual dysfunctions, etc.
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Development of chronic vesiculitis, both unilateral and bilateral, is possible. Patients complain of pain in the pelvic region, a feeling of fullness in the perineal region.
- Epididymitis caused by chlamydia leads to sharp pain in the testicle, the body temperature rises, the scrotum swells. A distinctive feature of chlamydial epididymitis is that its symptoms subside even without any treatment after 2-3 days.
Urogenital chlamydia in women proceeds somewhat differently.
Its symptoms will be as follows:
- Pain and burning sensation occurs during urination - this condition is called chlamydial urethrocystitis.
- The sponges of the urethra become swollen, and its walls have a dough-like consistency. If you massage the urethra, a drop of pus will come out. Sometimes scanty mucopurulent discharge from the urethra appears on its own.
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The disease is often accompanied by vaginitis (the vaginal walls are involved in the process of inflammation), bartholinitis (the large glands of the vestibule become inflamed), endocervicitis, endometritis, salpingitis. If the disease remains undetected for a long time, then it is possible that the infection may rise and develop pelvioperitonitis - inflammation of the pelvic peritoneum and perihepatitis - inflammation of the peritoneum covering the liver.
Causes of urogenital chlamydia
The causes of urogenital chlamydia are the infection of the body with microorganisms - chlamydia. The infection is caused by a variety of chlamydia, C. trachomatis. She needs a human cell for reproduction.
Infection occurs mainly during intercourse with a person infected with chlamydia. The household route of transmission is possible, but this happens extremely rarely, since in the external environment microorganisms are rather unstable and die when processing inseminated surfaces with antiseptics, ultraviolet light. Boiling and drying also helps. In the household way, infection occurs through the use of toilet items, common bedding, underwear.
Urogenital chlamydia is so contagious that it occurs 4 times more often than gonorrhea and 7 times more often than syphilis. Once in the body, with blood flow, chlamydia can spread to other organs and organ systems. As a result, they settle in the joints, can affect the intestines, heart, blood vessels, liver, conjunctiva of the eye.
Diagnostics of the urogenital chlamydia
Diagnosis of urogenital chlamydia is carried out in the laboratory. To begin with, a woman needs to visit a gynecologist, and a man needs a urologist. If an infection is suspected, the doctor will send the patient for tests.
In laboratory conditions, they can identify both the pathogen itself and its antigens. This will require scraping from the cervical canal and from the urethra. Microscopy of a smear according to Romanovsky-Giemsa method is not very accurate and allows you to determine the infection in no more than 30% of cases. Modern medicine has more accurate methods for diagnosing the disease, such as: ELISA, PCR. Moreover, the reliability of the polymer chain reaction is equal to 99%.
Another new method for detecting chlamydia is transcriptional amplification. To detect mycobacterium RNA, patient's endocervical materials are required. Although the reliability of this method is at least 99%, it has not yet found widespread use.
Treatment of urogenital chlamydia
Treatment of urogenital chlamydia is a very urgent problem. Only etiotropic drugs, which are antibiotics, can be limited only if the patient's infection has occurred quite recently and the process is in an acute or subacute stage. Also important is the absence of complications.
The following antibacterial drugs can be used:
- Tetracycline group - Doxycycline (Vibramycin), Chlortetracycline.
- Macrolides - Azithromycin (Sumamed), Erythromycin, Roxithromycin (Rulid), Spiramycin (Rovamycin), Clarithromycin (Klabaks, Klacid).
- Fluoroquinolones - Ofloxacin (Zanocin), Lomefloxacin (Maxaquin).
Read more: Treatment regimen for chlamydia in women and men
The duration of taking antibiotics is from one week to 10 days. If the treatment does not help, then the therapy is extended for up to 3 weeks. Starting from the 10th day, immunostimulants are prescribed, such as: Taktivin, Timalin, Neovir, Pyrogenal, Viferon, Polyoxidonium, etc. The complex scheme also includes enzymes - Chymotrypsin, Wobenzym, Ribonuclease, etc. Local treatment in women is reduced to the adoption of sitz baths with Chlorhexidine, to perform deep washings and installations with Protargol or Collargol solution. It is possible to undergo physiotherapy treatment.
Men are shown washing the urethra with a solution of potassium permanganate, Chlorhexidine. Installation of the urethra with Protargol or Collargol solution is possible.
The first control of the treatment is carried out immediately after its completion. Women will need to return for examination during the first or second menstrual cycle following the end of therapy. The man has been under the control of a urologist for 2 months. The fact that they managed to cope with the infection is evidenced by the absence of symptoms and negative results, confirmed by the laboratory method.
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.
