Health Topics A-Z

What Are the Symptoms?

In men:

• No symptoms
• A clear or whitish yellow discharge from the tip of the penis.
• A frequent urge to urinate or a burning sensation while urinating.
• Redness at the tip of the penis.

In women:

• No symptoms
• Mild discomfort that you may mistake for menstrual cramps.
• Vaginal discharge that may have a bad smell.
• Bleeding between periods.
• Painful periods.
• Pain when having sex.
• Itching or Burning in or around the vagina.
• Pain when urinating.

Call Your Doctor If:

ou develop any of the symptoms listed in the description section; chlamydia requires immediate medical treatment to avoid serious complications that can lead to sterility in both men and women.

You are a woman and you experience high fever and other flu-like symptoms, such as chills, backache, weight loss and diarrhea, along with severe pelvic pain, bleeding after intercourse, severe nausea or recurring back pain; you may have developed pelvic inflammatory disease, a serious complication of chlamydia that can result in sterility.

Rarely, genital chlamydial infection can cause arthritis accompanied by skin lesions and inflammation of the eye and urethra (Reiter's syndrome).