The time I got chlamydia…

There has been a LOT of chat happening in my life lately around STIs - through Lydia’s poll on Instagram and in my Sex Education course - so I wanted to speak about my experience so that, hopefully, my oversharing can help you overcome your shame.

Chlamydia is the most common STI in the UK. Although gonorrhoea seems to be quickly catching up with that…

Chlamydia can come with a whole wealth of different symptoms but it often has no symptoms at all - meaning that it is really easy to pass on without even realising it!

I grew up with the assumption that STIs were ‘bad’ and ‘digusting’ and it made me feel dirty to even think about having one. I had made it the whole way through my 20s STI free - something I was gloatingly proud of… Then I got chlamydia.

I was someone who did get tested regularly.

The advice is that you should get tested with every new sexual partner or if you’re using a condom and it breaks or, apparently if you’re a sexually active gay or bisexual man or a sexually active woman under 25, they suggest getting tested at least every year for chlamydia and gonorrhoea.

I had been accused of giving someone chlamydia once upon a time but they were the first person I’d slept with since having received a clear STI test result so I knew it wasn’t me. I had naively thought that I was the only person they were sleeping with so I learned that the hard way…

When I got chlamydia myself, I still don’t know who I got it from. That might make me sound like I was having the time of my life sleeping around but I genuinely wasn’t. I had just entered a new relationship (not the one I’m in now so save your judgement) and I started getting a LOT of pain during sex. He even asked if I could have an STI and I was adamant that I didn’t. Even when I spoke to my GP about it, I was telling them that there’s no way I could have an STI - I’d been tested and my results were clear.

HOWEVER I had unprotected sex with a casual partner - who I’d slept with before so trusted them implicitly - not long before the start of the relationship. I didn’t think I needed to get tested again after that because they had never given me an STI in the past so I trusted that they were ‘clean’…

Unfortunately, my partner at the time was then also tested positive for chlamydia - so, naturally, I got the blame. But what we still don’t know is whether it was them who gave it to me or whether I had given it to them.

Either way, it created a lot of tension and animosity at the very beginning of a new relationship and I felt absolutely mortified.

Now I’ve realised that, as awkward as it might feel at the time, it really isn’t anything to be ashamed of.

If you’re sexually active, especially if you’re having unprotected sex, it is likely that - at some point in your life - you’re going to get an STI. Even if you use condoms for penetrative sex, chlamydia can still be transferred through oral sex - so especially for men who are having sex with men, it is quite common that they may not have chlamydia in their genitals but could test positive for it in their throat.

Oral sex is something that relatively few people use barrier protection against but is still a method of transmitting some STIs. Some - like herpes, syphillis and HPV - can even be transmitted through kissing.

The good news is that a lot of STIs are treatable. Chlamydia usually only requires a simple course of antibiotics - AND abstinence (sometimes the hardest part) - until your test is clear again.

Testing is also REALLY easy. You can get tested at your local sexual health clinic (who you can contact directly) and is where your GP would likely refer you to. But you can also order a home testing kit which you can do yourself in the comfort of your own home and just pop it in the post.

There’s really no excuse not to get tested.

If you’re in Scotland, order your home testing kit HERE!