Page 53 - The Marriage Covenant

sexes, though is more common in men.
[Source: Wikipedia Article on Chlamydia]

An article titled Venereal Arthritis shares the following information:

Venereal Arthritis

When a young person has chronic, unexplained pain in a joint, this might be the
last thing a doctor would suspect. But there are sexually transmitted diseases that,
left untreated, can cause arthritis.

By Laurie Udesky
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE

Joshua Heller wasn't worried when he noticed a painless knot below his right ankle
in February 1994. A couple of months later, he felt a dull ache in his right foot, but
the 26-year-old chef continued working his usual long hours at his family's seaside
restaurant. In his spare time, he played racquetball and coached two local sports
teams.
By summer, periodic shooting pains in his instep forced him to restrict his activity
and stay off his feet. In September, an odd array of symptoms -- pins and needles,
shooting pain, and constant aching -- left him with a constant limp.
That's when Heller (not his real name) first reported the problem to a doctor, who
diagnosed it as tendinitis and put a cast on his right foot and ankle. Two weeks
later his left foot began to hurt. The doctor shrugged it off, saying the new
symptom resulted from favoring that leg. But the left foot swelled and the pain
grew. After that, Heller saw three orthopedists -- experts in bones, muscles, and
tendons. They tried surgery to remove fluid in his right foot and more casting.
Nothing worked.
Nearly two years after he first noticed the lump below his ankle, Heller was in
unbearable pain, and no doctor could tell him precisely what was wrong. "Both
feet were so bad that I almost couldn't walk anymore," recalls Heller, who is now
34.
Finally, he saw a rheumatologist who discovered that he had an uncommon form
of arthritis caused by a sexually transmitted disease (STD), typically gonorrhea or,
as in Heller's case, chlamydia. This condition, often called venereal arthritis, is
practically unknown to the general public, and its diagnosis eludes many doctors.
But the sexually transmitted diseases that can lead to venereal arthritis are on the
rise in the United States. After decades of declining rates, the number of reported
cases of gonorrhea began increasing, but now appears to have reached a plateau
at an estimated 355,991 cases in 2007. What's more, reported cases of chlamydia
have doubled since 1997, and in 2007 more than 1.1 million chlamydial infections
were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease is alarmingly common among teens and young adults. In a study of
more than 3,000 inner-city teenage girls published by the Journal of the American
Medical Association, 29.1 percent tested positive for chlamydia.
Chlamydia: An often silent disease