Testing accuracy and duration of infection

[needanswersfast]

I have been in a sexual relationship with the same guy for the last 4 years. Before him, I had only slept with one person, one time, and it was about 7 years ago.  Recently, i had my annual at the local health department that I've been going to for the last year.  I got the results back which indicated I tested positive for chlamydia.  The previous year,and every year befoer that, I had tested negative.

I have not slept with or done anything sexual with anyone but my current partner in the last 4 years.  A little over a year ago, we broke up for about 9 months.  We had sex every now and then and we didn't use condoms because he insisted that he wasn't sleeping with anyone else.  

My question is if he were infected with chlamydia from one of the two people that he slept with during our breakup and they transmitted chlamydia to him, would i have just now tested positive?  He claims that he hasn't cheated on me and that it was before the date of my last annual that had been with either one of those girls.  

For my own health and sanity, I need to know if its possible for me to have had chlamydia for the last year or so, without testing positive for it and without showing symptoms until about a week ago.  

Thank you so much for your time.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Since you had negative tests before, you can be pretty certain your infection was acquired since your previous negative tests.  Also, although can be carried by women for up to 4 years, it is rare; about 90% of cases clear up on their own within a year or so.  So I doubt you have been carrying chlamydia for 4 years.  It is possible but very unlikely.

And chlamydia is only acquired sexually.  So if you have it and you had sex with nobody else, you had to get it from your current partner.

There is only one other possibility, and that is that your positive test was a false positive.  That depends a lot on the type of test done.  If your provider did one of the older tests, such as a "non amplified probe test" (i.e., the Gen Probe company's Pace II test), it might have been in error.  For that reason, most labs don't do that test any more.  More likely you had a nucleic acid amplification test, such as Aptima (also produced by GenProbe), Amplicor (Roche), or Probe-Tec (Beckton-Dickinson).  If so, a false positive result is very unlikely.

I hope this helps. Good luck--  HHH, MD

[bigdaddy1992]

Hi, i have read a few of the docs responses from previous threads and until he can respond i will tell you what i have read. It is possible for chlamydia to be carried for a year without symptoms however, if you have been tested with a negative result and this year you tested positive then it seems that you have been infected between these dates. tests nowadays are generally very accurate as the doc will confirm so the chance of a false negative on your last negative test is highly unlikely. Only you will be able to determine the dates that you could have been infected and whether there could have been any "extra marital activity" hope everything goes ok for you - Bigdaddy1992

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Bigdaddy has it right.

HHH, MD

[inthatboat]

A related discussion, I Found Out My ex cheated on me by giving my new guy chlmydia was started.