Can You Get Chlamydia From Sharing Drinks?

Sharing a drink with someone who has chlamydia can sound worrying, particularly since chlamydia can sometimes infect the mouth or throat. However, the way chlamydia spreads is different from infections that are easily transmitted through saliva. So, can you get chlamydia from sharing drinks?

No, you can’t get chlamydia from sharing drinks. Chlamydia isn’t spread through saliva, cups, bottles, straws, or other casual contact. It is mainly passed through vaginal, anal or oral sex and contact with infected sexual fluids. Sharing a drink with someone who has chlamydia is not considered an exposure.

Read on to learn why sharing drinks doesn’t transmit chlamydia, whether throat chlamydia changes the risk, and which types of contact can pass the infection between people.

Why Can’t You Get Chlamydia From Sharing Drinks?

Chlamydia is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. It is primarily transmitted through sexual contact with someone who has the infection.

According to NHS sexual health guidance, chlamydia isn’t spread by sharing food or drinks. Sharing a cup, glass, bottle, or straw doesn’t provide the type of contact required for chlamydia to spread.

Even if another person has just taken a sip from the same bottle and some of their saliva remains on it, this is not considered a route of chlamydia transmission.

The important distinction is that chlamydia can sometimes affect the throat, but this infection is usually acquired through sexual contact rather than everyday contact involving saliva.

Can You Get Chlamydia From Sharing a Cup, Bottle or Straw?

No. Drinking from the same cup, bottle or straw as somebody with chlamydia isn’t a recognised way of catching the infection.

This remains the case if:

• Someone drinks directly from your bottle before you.
• You take a sip immediately after another person.
• You accidentally drink from someone else’s glass.
• You share the same straw.
• A small amount of “backwash” enters the drink.
• Saliva is left around the rim of a cup or bottle.

These situations involve saliva rather than the sexual contact through which chlamydia is normally transmitted.

Therefore, if the only contact you’ve had with a person who has chlamydia was sharing a drink, that contact would not be considered a chlamydia exposure.

What if Someone Has Chlamydia in Their Mouth or Throat?

It’s possible to develop chlamydia in the throat. This is called oral or pharyngeal chlamydia and occurs following oral sex with someone who has the infection.

Having chlamydia in the throat doesn’t mean that somebody will spread chlamydia by getting saliva onto a cup, straw, or bottle.

The distinction can seem confusing – chlamydia can infect tissues in the throat, but ordinary saliva sharing isn’t recognised as a normal transmission route.

If you want more information about where oral infections occur, read our guide to whether you can get chlamydia in your mouth.

Can Chlamydia Live on a Cup or Bottle?

Chlamydia is adapted to infect human cells and isn’t transmitted from everyday objects like drinking glasses, bottles, or straws.

For somebody that’s worried because they used the same cup as someone with chlamydia, the important point is that chlamydia isn’t considered a surface or saliva-transmitted infection in everyday situations.

Therefore, you don’t need to assume that a bottle, straw, or cup is infectious simply because somebody with chlamydia used it.

Can You Get Chlamydia From Kissing After Sharing a Drink?

No. Neither sharing a drink nor ordinary kissing is considered a normal route of chlamydia transmission.

Someone having oral chlamydia doesn’t change the established advice that everyday kissing is not how the infection is usually passed between people. This is because kissing primarily involves contact with saliva. Chlamydia transmission only occurs through relevant sexual contact.

You can find a more detailed explanation in our guide to whether you can get chlamydia from kissing.

How Is Chlamydia Actually Passed From Person to Person?

Chlamydia is mainly transmitted through sexual contact with somebody who already has the infection.

According to the NHS guide to chlamydia, it can be passed through:

• Vaginal sex without a condom.
• Anal sex without a condom.
• Oral sex.
• Sharing sex toys without washing them or covering them with a new condom between users.
• Genital contact, even if penetration does not occur.

Chlamydia can also be passed from a pregnant person to their baby during childbirth.

This means that sharing a drink is very different from giving or receiving oral sex. Both activities involve the mouth, but oral sex involves direct sexual contact through which chlamydia can be transmitted.

For more information about the infection itself, see our complete guide to chlamydia.

Can You Get Chlamydia From Oral Sex?

Yes. Chlamydia can be transmitted through oral sex, despite not being transmitted through sharing drinks.

Someone can acquire chlamydia in their throat after performing oral sex on a person with a genital chlamydia infection. The risk comes from the sexual contact rather than from saliva being exchanged.

This explains why somebody could acquire chlamydia after oral sex but wouldn’t be expected to catch it by drinking from that same person’s cup afterwards.

Does Saliva Kill Chlamydia?

It’s more useful to think about whether saliva is a recognised transmission route than whether it “kills” chlamydia.

Chlamydia is not considered an infection that normally spreads from one person to another through saliva. This is why activities such as sharing drinks and ordinary kissing aren’t treated in the same way as oral, vaginal, or anal sexual contact.

Should I Get Tested for Chlamydia After Sharing a Drink?

If sharing a drink was your only contact with somebody who has chlamydia, that wouldn’t be a reason to suspect chlamydia transmission.

Testing becomes relevant if there has also been sexual exposure, such as vaginal, anal or oral sex, genital contact, or sharing sex toys. Chlamydia frequently causes no noticeable symptoms, so symptoms alone cannot reliably tell you whether you have the infection.

If you’ve had a relevant sexual exposure, testing is the only reliable way to establish whether you have chlamydia. The part of the body that needs testing can also depend on the type of sexual contact you’ve had. For example, throat swabs may sometimes be appropriate following oral sexual exposure.

You can view Your Sexual Health’s range of private chlamydia tests if you think you’ve had a genuine sexual exposure.

What Symptoms Should I Look Out For?

Many people with chlamydia have no symptoms at all. This means the absence of symptoms cannot confirm that somebody is infection-free following a genuine sexual exposure.

When symptoms do occur, they can include:

• Unusual discharge from the vagina or penis.
• Pain or burning when urinating.
• Pain in the lower abdomen or pelvis.
• Pain during sex.
• Bleeding between periods or after sex.
• Pain or swelling in the testicles.
• Rectal discomfort, discharge or bleeding.

Throat chlamydia also frequently causes no symptoms.

If your only concern is sharing a drink, developing a sore throat afterwards would not suggest that you acquired chlamydia from the drink.

Get Tested for Chlamydia With Your Sexual Health

If you’ve had sexual contact with an infected person, Your Sexual Health offers private chlamydia testing through clinics across the UK as well as home-testing options. Different tests are available depending on the areas that need screening, including urine and swab-based options.

Your Sexual Health’s chlamydia tests are accurate from 14 days after exposure. Samples requiring laboratory analysis are processed by a UKAS-accredited laboratory, with results provided confidentially through a secure online portal.

If your result is positive, Your Sexual Health can also arrange a free private GP consultation to discuss your result and the appropriate next steps.

You can read the Your Sexual Health chlamydia advice guide for more information about symptoms, transmission, testing and treatment.

Can You Get Chlamydia From Sharing Drinks? FAQs

Can You Catch Chlamydia Non-Sexually?

Chlamydia is overwhelmingly transmitted through sexual contact. It can also be passed from a pregnant person to their baby during childbirth.

Everyday non-sexual contact such as sharing drinks, eating from the same plate, hugging, kissing or using the same toilet is not how chlamydia is normally spread.

Sex toys can transmit the infection if they are shared without being properly cleaned or covered with a new condom between users.

How Did I Get Chlamydia if I Did Not Cheat?

A positive chlamydia result does not establish exactly when the infection was acquired and cannot prove that somebody was unfaithful. Chlamydia often causes no symptoms, meaning somebody may carry an infection without knowing about it.

An infection detected during a relationship could have been acquired before that relationship began, depending on previous testing and sexual history.

Read our dedicated guide to how you could get chlamydia if you did not cheat for a more detailed explanation.

Can Chlamydia Be Passed Orally?

Yes, if by “orally” you mean through oral sex. Chlamydia can infect the throat following oral sexual contact and can also be transmitted through oral sex. However, this is different from transmission through saliva. Sharing drinks and kissing are not routes of chlamydia transmission.

Read more about getting chlamydia from oral sex and whether chlamydia can be passed through saliva.

Can You Catch Chlamydia by Sharing a Vape?

Sharing a vape isn’t a route of chlamydia transmission. Although another person’s saliva may be present on the mouthpiece, chlamydia isn’t transmitted through saliva or by casually sharing objects that touch the mouth.

If you shared a vape with somebody who has chlamydia but had no sexual contact with them, the shared vape would not be considered a chlamydia exposure.