Oral Chlamydia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment - Verywell Health
Oral chlamydia is an infection in the mouth or throat caused by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. It is passed through oral sex. This is the same bacteria that causes genital or anal chlamydia, which are more common.
People often suspect they have chlamydia when they get genital and urinary tract symptoms like painful urination or vaginal discharge. But those who get it through oral sex don't always connect the symptoms to the disease because they can be easily attributed to other conditions.
This article takes a closer look at the symptoms and causes of oral chlamydia. It also explains how this STD is diagnosed, treated, and prevented.
Verywell / Sydney Saporito
How Do You Get Oral Chlamydia?
A person can get oral chlamydia by performing oral sex on someone who is infected. This includes oral-penile sex, oral-vaginal sex, and oral-anal sex.
Chlamydia trachomatis can also be transmitted from the throat of someone with chlamydia to the penis of someone without the infection. Interestingly, research suggests that chlamydia is unlikely to be passed from the throat to the vagina or rectum.
All current evidence indicates that chlamydia cannot be passed through kissing.
Certain risk factors can increase a person's risk of getting chlamydia, most notably:
Oral chlamydia is far less common than genital chlamydia. Research shows that around 10% of people who visit an STD clinic have genital chlamydia, but only around 1.5% have oral chlamydia.
There are many misconceptions about the different ways you can get chlamydia. Here are a few of the ways you cannot get infected with chlamydia:
- Using a public toilet seat
- Sharing a towel
- Hugging or kissing
Oral Chlamydia Symptoms
It can be hard to tell if you have chlamydia in the mouth, since it doesn't usually cause symptoms. If there are symptoms, the primary one tends to be a sore throat. This symptom can be confused with any number of other conditions from allergies and colds to strep throat and acid reflux.
Oral chlamydia can take anywhere from one to three weeks to show up after sexual contact. This is another reason why many don't make the connection between their symptoms and this infection.
When symptoms of oral chlamydia do develop, they often include:
How Bad Is Oral Chlamydia?
Oral chlamydia can sometimes lead to secondary oral infections. Because the body is so busy fighting chlamydia, it is less able to fight other infections that contribute to gum diseases like gingivitis and periodontal disease. Dental pain, bleeding gums, and tooth loss are among the complications of these diseases.
Arguably, the bigger concern is that people with oral chlamydia are able to pass the infection to others. Depending on which part of the body is affected, chlamydia can lead to complications such as:
In addition, having chlamydia increases the risk of HIV. This is because chlamydia triggers an inflammatory response that draws white blood cells, called CD4 T-cells, to the site of the infection.
These are the very cells that HIV targets for infection. Because of this, chlamydia ends up "helping" HIV establish an infection.
Diagnosing Oral Chlamydia
Getting a swab test done is the most accurate way to know whether you have oral chlamydia. After swabbing the mouth and throat, the healthcare provider will send the sample to a lab for evaluation using a technology known as a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).
NAAT tests multiply the genetic material of bacteria (or in other cases, viruses) to positively identify the cause of an infection. The test is sensitive to even a small number of bacteria and can usually return results within one to two days.
NAAT swabs can also be used on the vagina, cervix, or rectum. In addition, NAAT technology is used to detect Chlamydia trachomatis in a urine sample.
Testing for chlamydia outside of the genitals or rectum is not a routine part of STD screening. This accounts for why oral STDs often go undiagnosed and untreated.
Even though oral chlamydia is not very common, it could be an indication that you also have chlamydia of the vagina, penis, or anus. If you suspect you have been exposed to chlamydia or any other STD, get tested—even if the symptoms are mild or absent.
How Is Oral Chlamydia Treated?
Oral chlamydia will go away after a course of antibiotics, just like genital or anal chlamydia. There are several treatments recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
- Preferred treatment: 100 milligrams (mg) of doxycycline taken by mouth two times daily for seven days
- Alternative treatments: 1 gram (g) of Zithromax (azithromycin) taken by mouth in a single dose, or 500 mg of Levaquin (levofloxacin) taken by mouth once daily for seven days
Avoid having sexual intercourse during your treatment and for at least seven days after you've finished treatment. This includes all types of sexual contact such as oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex.
If you have been diagnosed with chlamydia, all sexual partners need to be informed and treated. Repeated infections are common when this does not occur. Chlamydia reinfection increases the risk of complications such as PID and ectopic pregnancy.
What Happens if Chlamydia Goes Untreated?
Untreated chlamydia can lead to several potentially serious complications, including:
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
- Epididymitis (inflammation of a tube near the testicle)
- Reactive arthritis (joint pain and swelling caused by an infection)
- Ectopic pregnancy (the implantation of a fertilized egg outside of the uterus)
Prevention
Abstinence is the only way to completely avoid oral chlamydia. Barring that, you can lower your risk by reducing your number of sex partners.
Using condoms or dental dams consistently can also reduce the risk of either passing or getting an STD like chlamydia. This not only include external (male) condoms but also internal (female) condoms.
If you don't have a dental dam, you can simply cut a condom lengthwise and open it flat.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for all sexually active females 24 years or younger, as well as females 25 years or older who are at an increased risk of infection.
Summary
Oral chlamydia occurs when the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria infects the mouth. You can get oral chlamydia through oral sex. It is the same bacteria that causes chlamydia in the genitals or anus.
Symptoms include sore throat, fever, fatigue, mouth sores, and swollen tonsil or lymph nodes, but many cases show no symptoms at all. The bacteria can be detected by testing a sample of fluid collected during an oral swab.
Antibiotics are needed to treat the infection. Without them, oral chlamydia can lead to secondary mouth infections, dental pain, and gum disease. More importantly, people with undiagnosed oral chlamydia can pass the infection to others.
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