Are you a chlamydia carrier?

If you think that Chlamydia is a Greek island, you could be putting yourself - and your partners - at risk of the UK's fastest-growing sexually transmitted infection (STI) this summer. Rates of chlamydia infection have doubled in five years and a new study suggests that as many as one in ten young man are now infected. Rates of other STIs are increasing too. How can you protect yourself?

Chlamydia is a sexually-transmitted disease that is virtually symptomless in men but very dangerous. It can make women infertile by damaging their fallopian tubes. As the figures below from the Men's Health Forum's men's health week report Private Parts, Public Policy, show, chlamydia has increased by 108%. It is so serious that the many MP's are now urging the government to introduce a screening programme to check out just how many people now have the infection. Could you be one? If you don't use a condom you could be.

Other STIs are also on the increase. Syphilis, the STI which many believe killed Henry VIII, was down to fewer than a 100 cases a year in 1996. By 2001, it was back — the result of a 605% increase. case of Gonorrhoea have also virtually doubled since 1996. 

It is very difficult to know if you have chlamydia which results from infection with the bacteria chalmydia trachomatis. The majority of men with the disease will have no symptoms; the others will have a mild irritation. If the disease is untreated you could get infections and swollen, tender testicles.

The big risk, however, is to women. If you pass the disease on to your girlfriend or wife you could be destroying her future — and maybe your own. In women, chlamydia can cause diseases which block the fallopian tubes, cause infertility, produce chronic pain in the pelvis and lead to irregular periods and can be life-threatening during pregnancy. Think about it.

The explosion in chlaydia has led to waiting lists for appointments at special clinics - a problem in itself because prompt treatment with antibiotics is obviously vital to reduce the risk of passing the STI on to someone else. Screening for women is being trialled in some parts of the country but is not likely to be offered to men yet. Fortunately, it is easy to avoid chlamydia (and HIV and other STIs).

Use a condom.