Chlamydia... My Story  I had been suffering with kidney/bladder infections since I can remember. However this time the Doctor didn’t seem to think it was just another kidney/bladder infection, so he decided to test me for Chlamydia, which at the time I knew nothing about!
So instead of him just handing out some antibiotics, it was yet another swab. He told me the test results would be back in by the end of the week, so nervously I awaited my results, he rung me on the Friday and told me I had been given the all clear. I was very pleased as you can imagine just the thought of having to go back over my sexual past was enough to make anyone cringe. So I arranged my weekend and got on with things. Only on the Monday morning the doctor had phoned again and said that the test results had come back positive after closer inspection.  So before I knew it I was at the Sexual Health Clinic at the Hospital having every junior Doctor and Nurse peering in to what I thought was private.
I think the most humiliating bit of the whole experience, was having to tell the doctor and my mum most of my sexual past and just how much of a sexually active 14 yr. old I really was. All though they both heard all of this they just looked concerned for my health rather than disgusted at what a slapper I felt I had been. We went over everyone and decided that I should go back and tell the last three people that I had slept with to get down the clinic. I could have let the ground swallow me up at the thought of having to tell blokes that they could be infected with something I may have  given them, but the way I looked at it was just to think of some other young girl they could pass it on to. I was given some antibiotics a follow up appointment and a lecture about using condoms when having sex, which at the time for me never really sunk in. They packed me off not suspecting that I would be back in a month's time with Chlamydia yet again. They soon cottoned on to the fact that I was not as clever as they first thought so they gave me several nasty leaflets this time explaining fully what Chlamydia could be responsible for such as eptopic pregnancy, infertility, more susceptible to HIV. They gave me bags of advice and condoms and some more antibiotics.  You would have thought that I would have learned after the first few times, but I carried on to catch it back a further two times, which was my biggest mistake, this was not anyone else's fault but mine. I shall now regret it forever, as the likely-hood of me having kids is very, very slim.
I did learn a few lessons though... always talk to someone. For me my mum was my biggest support even if it was only for taking me to the hospital she was still there when I was crying in pain though. I also learnt that Doctor's and Nurses are not usually judgmental, just very concerned and supportive and that everything is completely confidential, I didn’t have to have my mum there it was just that she was so supportive. I learnt a lot about Chlamydia, and one of the biggest things is that it has no symptoms and so many people have it and don't know. Links:
Brook Advisory Centres
Website: www.brook.org.uk
Tel: 0800 0185 023 Family Planning Association
Website: www.fpa.org.uk
Tel: 0171 837 4044 Remember!!! - Having sex under the age of 16 in the UK is illegal
-Laura
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