It's my own fault, is there anything I can do?

October 7, 2010 2:38 PM

I just found out that the woman I hooked up with last night has chlamydia...what now?

Obviously, I know I need to get tested. I am a woman and had unprotected oral sex with another woman. I had oral contact with her genital area, she did not have any oral contact with mine, and that was the extent of our encounter. Before we hooked up, she assured me she was clean. She got a phone call early this morning from her doctor (it woke us up, actually) and she went in and was told she has chlamydia.
Is there any way I can get preventative antibiotics? I really don't want to wait and worry for the 1-3 weeks (according to wikipedia) it takes for the infection to show up on a test. Is there anything I can do at this point? Or am I doomed to a week or so of beating myself up and worrying myself sick?

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Oral sex is not a common cause of infection with this bacteria. Chlamydia is less likely to be transmitted during oral sex because the bacteria that cause chlamydia prefer to target the genital area rather than the throat. This is why it is unlikely for chlamydia to be transmitted from mouth-to-penis and penis-to-mouth contact, although it is still possible. It is even less likely for transmission to take place from vagina-to-mouth or anus-to-mouth contact. Transmission is not known to occur from mouth-to-vagina and mouth to anus contact. Source
posted by benzenedream at 2:42 PM on October 7, 2010

Of all the STDs you could contract, chlamydia is really not a big deal. It's easy to treat. Don't sweat this. See your doctor and deal with it as it comes, if it comes. And it's true that it's rarely spread through oral contact.
posted by FlamingBore at 2:48 PM on October 7, 2010

At the clinic where I work, we do something called partner treatment, where you don't even get tested for chlamydia but rather come in, see a nurse, and get antibiotics on the spot because it's so easy to spread and to treat. In my (nonprofessional opinion,) chlamydia caught early is really not a big deal at all. Chlamydia caught late is much less fun, so I vote you call your doctor (or local reproductive health clinic) and see what they have to say.

It is, as benzenedream noted, pretty difficult (I never say never) to spread through vaginal-oral contact.
posted by verbyournouns at 3:05 PM on October 7, 2010

A bit of a derail, but on the honesty front, it sounds like when she assured she was clean, the truth was actually "I assure you I've gone to the doctor but I don't have my results back yet".
Something to keep in mind if the relationship moves forward.
posted by blueberry at 3:36 PM on October 7, 2010

its usually pretty easy to get antibiotics for a situation like this without even getting screened. just get yourself over to PP or the local clinic.
posted by supermedusa at 4:13 PM on October 7, 2010

Yeah, you NEED (not should) to get over to the health clinic and get on the antibiotics.
posted by mittenbex at 7:03 PM on October 7, 2010

There are sometimes issues with getting appropriate oral swabs for chlamydia, which is what it sounds like you'll need, so be sure to explain that you engaged in oral sex with your partner.
posted by OmieWise at 6:31 AM on October 8, 2010

Oral sex is not a common cause of infection with this bacteria.

Just for the record, benzenedream, that may be true for cunnilinguis, but chlamydia can be transmitted through fellatio (in the woman, it exhibits as thrush, a throat infection), so as written your statement is a bit misleading. It may still not be common, but certainly it can be a vector.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:04 PM on October 8, 2010

IAmBroom - thrush is a very different thing from a chlamydia throat infection. Thrush is a fungal infection typically caused by yeast. Chlamydia is a bacterial infection caused by chlamydia trachomatis. Thrush is not typically transmitted via oral sex unless a person is immune -compromised, but you are right about Chlamydia transmission via fellatio.
posted by casconed at 12:01 PM on October 11, 2010

casconed - my bad; I got my terms confused.
posted by IAmBroom at 12:24 AM on October 12, 2010