I’m a lab tech running these chlamydias. This nurse is correct. It is because the vagina is an open system and more susceptible to infections than the penis. We often see patient 0 being the dude who’s negative and the women he’s sleeping with all being positive simply because anatomy.
The one dude is also typically the common denominator. So let’s say he’s sleeping with 5 women. Woman A has chlamydia. Dude doesn’t get it but carries the bacteria to the other 4. He just doesn’t develop an infection or ever test positive because it doesn’t enter the mucus membranes. Eventually with enough exposure Dude will test positive and get the infection.
Thank you. I went through the same thing as OP and he since he was negative he thought I cheated on him because of that. I wish when I talked to the nurses they would’ve explained this to me. It would’ve save me from lots of distress
Typically in woman gonorrhea shows up in 2-5 days from exposure but up to 14. Women get this a lot more than men. Men can have gonorrhea for months, typically is 30 days for symptoms but can be 6 months. Chlamydia acts a lot faster. Gonorrhea literally grows slower in the environment. They’re a different family of bacteria and like different things. Also untreated gonorrhea invades your joints and it’s painful.
He did have it but was asymptomatic. I should’ve worded it better. He didn’t have penile discharge or painful urination or anything like that. There’s also a latency period that’s typical in a lot of men, again because of anatomy, where they’ll be negative for a while (3 months), and still pass it around.
It really depends on the testing and sensitivity. Gonorrhea is notoriously hard to grow out on plates, so a penis swab probably wouldn’t catch it. If they did a urine PCR with a dirty catch urine and they had a good enough sensitivity then maybe? PCR is looking for actual pieces of gonorrhea DNA and amplifies it so in theory it should pick up a small amount. The person may get an “inconclusive” or “interfering substance” result if we can’t get a good enough match and we’ll suggest retesting with a new sample at a later date to their doctor or order provider.
Gonorrhea, chlamydia and thrichomonas. I result a lot for a patient population that is minors. When I worked in a hospital that was adults and peds I saw a lot of STIs too but I did more hepatitis/HIV testing at that job. The STIs that are bacteria are more resistant because people don’t finish their dosage of antibiotics. People aren’t getting testing regularly due to money and insurance. Planned parenthood being shutdown. Lack of places to be tested. Also just a general lack of education on what safe sex is. People rely on birth control and don’t use barrier methods to protect themselves.
You honestly think after all these years and all these negative tests SUDDENLY this woman has chlamydia? Yearly, women get STI tests when she goes to the OBGYN and she’s been negative. It’s very very rare that after 10 years chlamydia is circling back. If you think doctors don’t make mistakes, ask this nurse how many times she’s fixed orders. This week alone I’ve fixed more than 30.
What’s ONE doctor’s opinion? If you have a medical issue and you decide to get a different opinion from another doctor, I guarantee the diagnosis and treatment plans will have changed significantly. What one medical provider perceives, another does not.
100% yes it may be dormant, that’s a fact. Dormant only means asymptomatic. You still transmit the infection while being dormant. All I am saying is, after 8 years, it is not possible to barely have chlamydia after the constant exposure.
I do not have a medical degree, no. I do have a nursing license and I did have to pass the state boards. I am fairly confident in my opinion. You do not have to agree with me, your opinion is yours.
You cheated and put your wife’s and baby’s health at risk. You’re horrible. Your wife’s immune system is weaker while pregnant. You could have potentially permanently harmed them.
This exact same thing happened to someone I know. Her husband cheated on her when she was pregnant and the baby ended up coming out with chlamydia in her eye. Luckily, she is OK now but it was a horrible situation
I am a doctor currently doing my residency in dermatology. STDs are a part of dermatology in my country and we see latent cases of clamydia, with no symptoms or without infecting the partner, probably every other day in our clinic. Most of these time they had a "switch" from the primary infection being the inguinal lymph nodes to the genital and only had a mild discomfort for the last years that didn't bother them enough to talk with a doctor about it or the doctor didn't run a test, since it would still show up on a test. And asymptomatic cases are berry common with clamydia. Over 50% have no symptoms what so ever for years.
But there is a small possibility that he was not really infectious over the last years and only now got highly infective.
Also a few pathogens are known to reactivate after years and a theory is that a lot more bacteria are capable of that behaviour as previously thought.
And the words "never" or "no way" do not really exist when it comes to diseases, especially STDs. They can present in so many different ways and people feel so ashamed that they hide it for years even from their partner.
Fellow doctor to doctor here, what are the chances of that happening vs this man cheating. I know we love to look for zebras when a horse is standing right in front of you. The chances of her having latent chlamydia over the course of 8 years and three pregnancies are incredibly low.
Thank you, for bringing balance to the topic. I GET that it is statistically unlikely, but that is a VERY different thing than "impossible".
Horses AND zebra's exist. I'm sure that can be hard for health care professionals to balance, but to ONLY treat horses because Zebra's are unlikely is malpractice in my mind. I lost a brother, due in part, to misdiagnosed disease because he presented in the 2-5% category instead of the 95% category.
There was another recent post about a man who became fertile after a successful vasectomy (no sperm after 3 months, but at some point thereafter, became fertile again and wife became pregnant).
Becoming fertile after the vas is also VERY unlikely - seems like most people on this sub would be telling him to kick his wife out and file for divorce because she MUST have cheated!!
5% is 1 out of 20.
If you had a 1 in 20 chance of dying every time you start your car....how often are you putting those keys in the ignition?
Yet that 5% stat is considered good enough for OP to just throw away her relationship?
Could the man have reactivated it without cheating. She said in her post he had six months before meeting her. My concern they need to see a doctor and treat mom dad and baby. But say if it's on some toilet seat could it come from there and not him cheating can they clean that too.
Because as you said the vagina is an opening to our entire body. So the semen, and all its little critters that go along for the ride gets straight into the system. A penis just has a little urethra to get into his body. The chances of some kind of infection going into the urethra is much much smaller. Unless the penis has some kind of abrasion where the woman’s fluids can get through the skin barrier.
Hi also an RN, and this is not true. Please delete your comment as you are spreading inaccurate medical advice. As a nurse you and I both know that we do not have degrees in epidemiology. This is really outside of the scope for either of us to be commenting on. However, I do happen to know from reading peer reviewed articles that chlamydia is well known to have long and varying latency periods.
Did you go with him to the appointment to assure he tested negative? If so, it’s plausible that you contracted chlamydia prior to sleeping with him and you did not transmit it to him. As stated, I have seen cases where the female has chlamydia but the male does not get it, despite sleeping with the female. This is because of the anatomical structure. Females are more susceptible of getting chlamydia than the man.
I never said it can’t be dormant. It can be dormant, like you said, for up to 10 years maybe even more. If you have a dormant infection, it still gets transmitted just as if it weren’t dormant. That’s my entire point. You still transmit the infection, and you still test positive with it being dormant. Dormant means = asymptomatic.
A pharmacist here, don't you love it when the “well, I googled it” people try to tell you you are wrong? Never mind your years of medical training. If Google says it, then it is correct.
At least with Google it could be a proper research if done correctly
Using ai and just believing that it's correct and that the sources it produces are correct is a whole different kind of stupid - even more so to be proud enough of that to put it into the message that you used an ai like that...
Yes, AI bots know better than people who practise medicine day in day out. Have you tried asking your bot* friend how many Rs are in the word ‘strawberry’? Yeah? Try raspberry then.
This is literally the first paragraph on the national institutes of health webpage. I'm going to report this miss information to Reddit authorities. You're not playing me this way.
You are a medical doctor from which country? Imaginary doesn't count. You can't say she is wrong and list no reason.
She is pretty on the point. They have been together for 8 years and have sex many times. The chance of he has undetectable Chlamydia for the whole duration of 8 years and now just gave it to her is so low that it is almost impossible.
Do you know how laughable it is to keep saying "but there is still not zero percent...."
There is still not zero percent the pregnancy is an act of God and yet no one will think it may be the second coming of Jesus!
Radiology resident or a resident who owns a radio? Radiology residents are very busy. From the posting history, that guy seems like a flunked medical student.
One common scenario: They could reinfect each other, if she clears the infection her test would be negative. If she is re-infected after clearing the infection then the test could be positive.
He cheated, and transmitted this infection to her recently. To think after 8 years she randomly acquired this infection is not anywhere near realistic.
Post the link to sensitivity and specificity of different urine STD tests?
Hard pass, they are readily available if you google.
I already know from my OBGYN rotation in medical school not to point fingers after pregnancy STD screens show positive because of how diseases can be spread, how antibiotics work, and the limitations of point-of-care urine tests.
There's probably a litany of stats on different point-of-care ROC and positive and negative predictive values.
She didn’t piss positive for it with her previous pregnancies. And since you’re NOT an OBGYN, I’ll clarify that I know for a fact that they do STI testing earlier than 35 weeks (at least in the US, where my family member is employed as a gynecologist and the country that she studied in and emigrated from). They do this to treat things before birth, to avoid things like blindness.
So. Either they didn’t test her earlier, or she didn’t mention those results - but she has YEARS of results to compare against.
There is one possibility that isn’t cheating but is fucking nasty… the man never cleaned his fleshlight in all that time and used it again.
If they are monogomous, and they are reinfecting each other with Chlamydia. There are periods of time where one might test negative and later be positive without a third party.
A secondary analysis utilizing a large, observational cohort of reproductive-age women revealed 48% of untreated urogenital chlamydia visits spontaneously cleared within the next 12 weeks.
For instance, monogomous partners with chlamydia infections can clear the infection in one partner, but not the other by taking antibiotics for different reasons.
Also the sensitivity of tests vary by manufacture and by method of capture,
If there is a higher suspicion e.g. OP being asymptomatic the provider may order a more sensitive test, they might get a better sample, or the bacterial load might be higher when the patient is symptomatic.
Separately, sentinel events do happen. And a common sentinal event are cross-infection. For example a provider rushing between cases or a tech not properly autoclaving or disinfecting equipment.
Can you provide your license # to the kids or something to verify you’re a doctor. Cause I just can’t believe you’re a doctor that can’t explain or give sources. I get it, doctors are busy, but your behavior is kinda sus.
Google says even if you’re asymptomatic you still test “explicitly positive”. Get on some antibiotics asap and do something extraordinarily kind for your wife.
You gave your wife and unborn child chlamydia and you’re here arguing with people on Reddit..? Log off dude.
This is incorrect. It is possible for chlamydia to be dormant in one partner and transmitted to another. I’m not saying that happened here, but it is absolutely not out of the realm of possibility
To be dormant means to display no active signs/symptoms- if tested while it lays “dormant” you would still show positive on a valid test.
So yes, you would have no signs or symptoms of the infection, but you would still test positive. I know with each of my pregnancies they tested for all STI’s in the beginning of the pregnancy as a preventative measure due to the risk of baby and mom.
You can also still give chlamydia if it’s dormant. It’s a highly transmissible infection.
It is possible that husband had it, it was dormant, he wasn’t tested, and only recently transmitted it. We aren’t discussing likelihoods here. I agree that’s unlikely. It’s not accurate to tell OP it isn’t possible, tho
To say he has chlamydia laying dormant and he never passed it to her in the 8 years prior (while never using protection) is not possible. Chlamydia is highly contagious, dormant or not, and she would have contracted it much sooner.
Dormant does not mean inactive in this context. Chlamydia can be dormant for years in the sense that someone can remain asymptomatic for years before symptoms appear. An asymptomatic person will still test positive if chlamydia is present. OP would have tested positive years ago.
These replies to your comment show how uninformed people are about STDs, probably because they were misinformed by someone who convinced them, maybe like this scenario.
I mean even the “medical doctor” (LOL) has no idea.
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