Follow these guidelines for chlamydia screening
What’s the current consensus when it comes to chlamydia screening for adolescents? Take a look at national public health guidelines to help direct you in your practice.
The 2002 Guidelines for the Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, issued by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), calls for sexually active adolescent women to be screened for chlamydial infection at least annually, even if symptoms are not present. Annual screening of all sexually active women ages 20-25 years also is recommended, as is screening of older women with risk factors (e.g., those who have a new sex partner and those with multiple sex partners). An appropriate sexual risk assessment always should be conducted and may indicate more frequent screening for some women, states the CDC.
The third U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a 2000 recommendation that primary care clinicians screen all sexually active women ages 25 and younger, as well as older women at risk, as part of regular health care visits. The Task Force recommendation calls for primary care clinicians to routinely screen all women, whether or not they are pregnant, if they:
- are sexually active and age 25 or younger;
- have more than one sexual partner, regardless of age;
- have had a STD in the past, regardless of age;
- do not use condoms consistently and correctly, regardless of age.
Despite the recommendations, data indicate that many women are not being screened for the STD. According to a recent physician survey, only 32% said they would screen an asymptomatic sexually active teen-age girl for chlamydia as part of a routine gynecologic examination.1
Routine chlamydia screening of sexually active women 15-25 years of age has health and cost benefits, according to research supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.2 The review revealed that screening 100% of sexually active women ages 18-24 would prevent an estimated 140,113 cases of pelvic inflammatory disease each year and result in a savings of $45 for every woman screened.
References
1. Cook RL, Wiesenfeld HC, Ashton MR, et al. Barriers to screening sexually active adolescent women for chlamydia: A survey of primary care physicians. J Adolesc Health 2001; 28:204-210.
2. Mangione-Smith R, O’Leary J, McGlynn EA. Health and cost benefits of chlamydia screening in young women. Sex Transm Dis 1999; 26:309-316.
Whats the current consensus when it comes to chlamydia screening for adolescents? Take a look at national public health guidelines to help direct you in your practice.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content