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Will previously cured chlamydia show up during fertility testing?
Hello all.
My wife and I have been together for over a decade and we are now both in our late 30s and thinking about making a last-ditch effort to conceive.
Before I met my wife, I had chlamydia which was diagnosed and cured. I never had any symptoms and the maximum I might have had it for was 6-12 months.
For my own personal reasons, I'm not ready to reveal to my wife this part of my history. It is linked to a traumatic event and I don't want it to be part of the story of my life now.
I am worried that during testing for sperm count / health, it may become obvious that I had a short bout of chlamydia. Is this possible? Or, even if there is scarring, could this be attributed to some other cause?
My wife and I have been together for over a decade and we are now both in our late 30s and thinking about making a last-ditch effort to conceive.
Before I met my wife, I had chlamydia which was diagnosed and cured. I never had any symptoms and the maximum I might have had it for was 6-12 months.
For my own personal reasons, I'm not ready to reveal to my wife this part of my history. It is linked to a traumatic event and I don't want it to be part of the story of my life now.
I am worried that during testing for sperm count / health, it may become obvious that I had a short bout of chlamydia. Is this possible? Or, even if there is scarring, could this be attributed to some other cause?
Hi, I'm sorry you're facing these concerns. Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease among women and often causes no symptoms. This bacterial infection can lead to a whole host of problems. Including pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility.Apparently doctors have known that chlamydia can reappear in cured patients for about 80 years, but they’ve been stumped as to how exactly it happens..This is all I know, and doesn't sound inspiring, I'm sorry. Hope your doc and you'll find the solution. and you'll get more answers here soon.
The chlamydia probably shouldn't be revealed, but it depends on what kind of testing they do.
This is a general idea of what happens with male fertility testing - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/male-infertility/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20374780 If you aren't in the US, but are in a developed country, it will likely be similar.
Typically, they'll just do a urine test to look for white blood cells to see if you have an infection, and then, depending on those results, may do further infection testing, like chlamydia and gonorrhea, but those are only for current infections. If your infection was cured, and it sounds like it was, then it won't be revealed.
If they have to do further testing after the urine and sperm analysis, then they might find scarring that would be from an infection, but they wouldn't be able to determine if it's from chlamydia. At that point, they may ask, or do some blood work to look for antibodies, at which point, they may find out.
Your reasons for keeping this from your wife are your own, and I won't argue them. I will say that as a trauma survivor myself, I fully understand how unfair and distasteful it feels that your trauma may touch this part of your life. The only reason I bring it up is because if it comes to it, your wife would rather hear it from you than from some doctor. It's entirely up to you how you handle this - if it's even needed, as you may be fine - but if needed, don't hesitate to contact your local sexual assault hotline. (Most of these around the world deal with sexual trauma of all types, whatever age it happened to you.) This is bound to bring up some feelings from it all.
I wish you and your wife the best. :)
This is a general idea of what happens with male fertility testing - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/male-infertility/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20374780 If you aren't in the US, but are in a developed country, it will likely be similar.
Typically, they'll just do a urine test to look for white blood cells to see if you have an infection, and then, depending on those results, may do further infection testing, like chlamydia and gonorrhea, but those are only for current infections. If your infection was cured, and it sounds like it was, then it won't be revealed.
If they have to do further testing after the urine and sperm analysis, then they might find scarring that would be from an infection, but they wouldn't be able to determine if it's from chlamydia. At that point, they may ask, or do some blood work to look for antibodies, at which point, they may find out.
Your reasons for keeping this from your wife are your own, and I won't argue them. I will say that as a trauma survivor myself, I fully understand how unfair and distasteful it feels that your trauma may touch this part of your life. The only reason I bring it up is because if it comes to it, your wife would rather hear it from you than from some doctor. It's entirely up to you how you handle this - if it's even needed, as you may be fine - but if needed, don't hesitate to contact your local sexual assault hotline. (Most of these around the world deal with sexual trauma of all types, whatever age it happened to you.) This is bound to bring up some feelings from it all.
I wish you and your wife the best. :)
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