Chlamydia in the Throat: Symptoms and Treatment

Chlamydia of the throat (or oral chlamydia) is an infection caused by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. It is passed through oral sex and can lead to symptoms like a sore throat and redness, sores, and spots in the mouth and throat. Those with oral chlamydia don’t always connect symptoms to the disease, and in the majority of cases, no symptoms are experienced.

How Do I Know if I Have Throat Chlamydia?

It is often difficult to know if you have chlamydia in your throat or mouth because it typically doesn’t cause symptoms. Symptoms, if they occur, may not appear until one to three weeks after sexual contact. By then, many people may not associate their symptoms with this sexually transmitted infection (STI).

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.

Symptoms of oral chlamydia may include:

How Bad Is Oral Chlamydia?

Oral chlamydia can occasionally lead to secondary oral infections. As the body fights chlamydia, it can become less effective in combating other infections, which may contribute to gum diseases like gingivitis and periodontal disease. These conditions can cause dental pain, bleeding gums, and tooth loss.

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:

• Conjunctivitis (pink eye), often at birth
• Epididymitis (inflammation of the spermatic cord)
• Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) (infection of the female reproductive organs)
• Ectopic pregnancy (implantation of a fertilized egg outside of the womb)
• Low birth weight, preterm, and other pregnancy problems
• Likely higher risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer
• Pneumonia
• Liver inflammation (perihepatitis)
• Reactive arthritis (joint pain and swelling triggered by an infection)
• Male or female infertility

Additionally, having chlamydia can increase the risk of acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Chlamydia triggers an inflammatory response that draws white blood cells, known as CD4 T-cells, to the infection site.

These are the very cells that HIV targets for infection. Because of this, chlamydia ends up “helping” HIV establish an infection.

Does It Go Away on Its Own?

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 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.

How Oral Chlamydia Is Passed From Person to Person

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. Research suggests that chlamydia is unlikely to be passed from the throat to the vagina or rectum.

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 STI clinic have genital chlamydia, but only around 1.5% have oral chlamydia.

Diagnosis

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 STI screening. This accounts for why oral STIs often go undiagnosed and untreated.

A Word From Verywell

Oral chlamydia is not as common of an infection, but it is fairly easy to test for and treat. I recommend regular STI screening for anyone who is sexually active, regardless of the presence of symptoms, because chlamydia infection can often be missed.

Prevention

Abstinence is the only way to avoid oral chlamydia completely. Barring that, you can lower your risk by reducing your number of sex partners.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends chlamydia 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.

Using condoms or dental dams consistently can also reduce the risk of either passing or getting an STI like chlamydia. This includes external (male) condoms as well as internal (female) condoms.