Chlamydia Screenings Should Be Routine

TUESDAY, April 17 (HealthScout) -- Any woman at risk for catching chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, should be routinely screened to prevent serious complications such as infertility, a federal task force has found.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends all sexually active women under 25, as well as anyone at risk regardless of their age, be regularly screened for the infection. Those considered at high risk for the disease include women who have had more than one sexual partner, women who don't have their partners use condoms consistently and women who have had a previous STD.

Routine screening for chlamydia is important because as many as 3 million new cases occur each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC).

"Most women and men don't know they have it," says Dr. Alfred Berg, chairman of the task force. Left untreated, chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, infertility and an increased risk of contracting HIV. If a pregnant woman has chlamydia, her baby is at risk for pneumonia and eye infections. Men who have untreated chlamydia can have urethral infections and swollen, tender testicles.

"It's very hard using symptoms alone to know to come and see the doctor for chlamydia," says Dr. Boris Petrikovsky, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y. "It's easy for women to ignore the discharge from chlamydia, which is slightly yellowish or greenish. Since it's a chronic infection, the discharge can come and go and there is usually no pain."

Testing for the disease is easy and effective, says Berg. When properly tested, one of every 10 teen-aged girls will have chlamydia, reports the CDC. Almost 80 percent of all chlamydia infections occur in women under 25.

Treatment for the disease is a simple course of antibiotics, yet chlamydia and its complications cost more than $2 billion every year. According to CDC estimates, for every dollar spent on screening and treatment, $12 can be saved from treating the complications of undetected chlamydia.

Berg says the task force hopes the new recommendations will get health plans and HMOs to take chlamydia more seriously.

While he agrees with most of the recommendations, Petrikovsky was disappointed the task force made no recommendations for screening men. "It makes sense to screen both partners," he says.

Berg says the task force can't yet make recommendations about screening men because there is no clear evidence that screening men would result in less transmission of the disease.

Petrikovsky also takes issue with the recommendation to screen people who don't use condoms consistently. He says many married couples and others who only have one partner use other methods of birth control, but don't necessarily need to be screened. Also, those who have had sexually transmitted diseases in the distant past aren't necessarily at greater risk, he adds.

What To Do

If you're a sexually active woman under 25, ask your doctor about getting tested for the disease....