Infections like chlamydia you don't know
are there until you look for them.
In Hull, when we started
the screening test
where you can come along
and pee in a pot,
we've discovered that one in eight
teenage girls in Hull that are tested
have chlamydia,
and about one in six boys.
I know it's
a sexually transmitted disease.
You get it
through having unprotected sex.
I know that the levels of it in Hull
are quite high.
You can have chlamydia
for up to five years and not know.
It's a bacteria so your body can
build
up its own immunity to it to a degree.
To begin with it's silent,
but if it stops being silent
and starts to show that it's there,
that's when
it may be causing some damage.
It can show a greeny discharge,
which anybody is then alerted to
there's something wrong.
Pain during sex, pain after sex,
bleeding in between your periods,
abdominal pain
and pain when you go for a wee.
If, however,
it gets into the pelvic organs,
and we call that
pelvic inflammatory disease,
that really worries us
because it's associated with infertility
and not being able to get pregnant.
Nowadays if you have an STI you go
and get it cleared up and you're fine.
Like getting a cold.
Chlamydia's a germ
which only survives in body fluids,
so it can only be transmitted by
very intimate contact, sexual contact.
You can also get it from oral sex
and you can get it in your eyes
and it can be passed on
to a baby at delivery.
People really aren't aware
of these facts
and if they were, I'm sure
more people would get tested.
The good news is that people
are coming along and being tested.
Treatment is really easy.
It's just four tablets taken all at
once
before any damage is done.
The good news is that it can be
tested
for, but you have to come for the test.
I'd rather go and get checked out
than give it to somebody else
and then it'd be more embarrassing
to get tested, for them as well.
I didn't like the sound of it
so I thought,
"I may as well get tested for
it
for safe measures and that."
I didn't want to give my girlfriend
it.
Most people don't know they have it.
The trouble is, you have chlamydia,
change partners,
pass it on to your next partner,
you don't realise you've got it,
they don't realise they've got it,
so chlamydia can travel around
quite quickly.
It does not spread if condoms are
used.
But a lot of sex now
is unprotected in terms of condoms,
so chlamydia can spread
and it spreads easily.
We give them a pack of condoms
and inside we have a leaflet
on how to use condoms,
which we put in every packet.
And we have a mixture
of different condoms,
flavoured and just normal ones as
well,
so we've got a bit of everything
for everybody.
We do try and prevent it.
We do a lot of workshops as well
in youth centres,
and particularly around screening
so young people aren't scared
about what the process is
so they know what it will be
before they go for it.
I went to the doctor's
and I had to pee in this bottle
and then they sent me a letter back
saying that I hadn't got it.
Testing is just a wee in a pot
and for girls it's a self-taken swab
as an option as well.
It's nothing to be embarrassed
about,
it's just something that happens,
so you just have to get tested
and have awareness about it.
I had unprotected sex and
I thought it was the best thing to do.
It was all OK, luckily.
There's many places
you can get tested for chlamydia
and it can be anything
from going to your GP...
You can go to any family planning
clinic, a sexual health clinic,
and in places like Conifer House
and some of the clubs around town
they have effectively dustbins
full of self-testing kits,
where all you do is you walk in,
pick up the kit, walk out.
The instructions are
on the bits of paper, what to do.
Post the urine sample back in
and we will contact you with the result.
And that chain has to be broken.
Think about it.
You don't appreciate having chlamydia,
so it's only fair that you prevent
other people from getting it.
Better to be sure that you haven't got it than run around without knowing.