Men test positive for chlamydia twice as much as women: survey

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 8 2010

A little over 3,000 British adults were tested for chlamydia infection between March 5^th and 7^th this year in a new survey.

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Britain and affected more than 120,000 people in 2008, with more than half of cases occurring in people aged 16 to 24. 50% men and 70-80% women show no symptoms of the infection but in the long run there may be several complications including infertility. Safe sexual practices, regular testing and a course of antibiotics may be all that is needed to prevent this infection.

From the survey 13% men and 6% women were found infected. These results show that men are twice more likely to test positive for this infection than women. Further findings show that 13% men had unprotected sex with more than one partner over the last 5 years making them more prone to this infection. Only 7% women displayed such risky sexual behavior.

72% of the surveyed men said that this was the first time they had been screened for a STI in spite of their high rate of infection. For 62% women this was the first test of its kind. This may mean that more men are postponing their screening tests until they have clinically noticeable symptoms of a STI and the real rates of this infection may be higher than this. This survey was conducted by Lloydspharmacy. Another notable finding from the sales of online sexual health test kits showed same number of men and women buying the tests. This shows that men prefer to remain anonymous than be tested at a GP's surgery or GUM clinic, where the proportion of women is much higher.

According to Clare Kerr, head of sexual health at Lloydspharmacy, "This is particularly worrying as many STIs don’t have any obvious symptoms, so men could be putting both themselves and their partners at risk by delaying tests…Embarrassment is a huge barrier to testing and so we hope that removing the need to see a GP or visit a GUM (genitourinary medicine) clinic will encourage men to test themselves regularly."