You can get genital chlamydial infection during oral, vaginal, or anal sexual contact with an infected partner. It can cause serious problems in men and women as well as in newborn babies of infected mothers. Chlamydial infection is one of the most widespread bacterial STDs in the United States. Because chlamydial infection does not make most people sick, you can have it and not know it. These early symptoms may be very mild.
Symptoms usually appear within one to three weeks after being infected.
Because the symptoms may be mild or not exist at all, you might not seek care and get treated. The infection may move inside the body if it is not treated. The bacteria also can infect the throat from oral sexual contact with an infected partner. Chlamydial infection is easily confused with gonorrhea because the symptoms of both diseases are similar and the diseases can occur together, though rarely. The most reliable ways to find out whether the infection is chlamydial are through laboratory tests.