If you’ve just been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection, the most important step is also the simplest: follow your prescribed treatment exactly as directed and avoid sexual contact until you’re cleared. Everything else, from telling partners to getting retested, flows from there. Here’s a practical walkthrough of what comes next.
Start Treatment Right Away
Bacterial STIs like chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are curable with the right medication. Your provider may give you a single dose in the office or prescribe a course of pills to take at home. Either way, finish every dose on schedule, even if symptoms disappear before the medication runs out. Stopping early can leave the infection partially treated, which makes it harder to clear and increases the risk of complications.
Viral STIs like herpes and HIV can’t be cured, but treatment controls symptoms and dramatically reduces the chance of passing the infection to someone else. For herpes, antiviral medication shortens outbreaks and makes them less frequent. For HIV, daily antiretroviral therapy can bring the virus to undetectable levels, meaning it effectively can’t be transmitted sexually. The key with any viral STI is staying consistent with your medication long-term.
How Long to Wait Before Having Sex Again
For chlamydia, the CDC recommends abstaining from sex for seven days after a single-dose treatment, or until you’ve completed a full seven-day course and any symptoms have resolved. Gonorrhea follows a similar timeline. With syphilis, your provider will give you a specific window based on the stage of infection and the treatment used.
For herpes, the general guidance is to avoid sex during active outbreaks and for a short period afterward while the skin fully heals. Using condoms and taking daily suppressive medication lowers transmission risk between outbreaks, though it doesn’t eliminate it entirely. If you have HIV, treatment that brings your viral load to undetectable levels means the virus cannot be transmitted sexually, but reaching that point takes time after starting therapy.
Tell Your Sexual Partners
This is the part most people dread, but it’s one of the most important things you can do. Anyone you’ve had sex with recently needs to know so they can get tested and treated. Without a heads-up, they may unknowingly pass the infection to others or develop complications from an untreated STI.
You don’t have to do this face-to-face. A phone call, text, or even an anonymous notification service can work. Many health departments offer partner notification assistance where a public health worker contacts your partners without revealing your name. If talking to a partner directly feels manageable, being straightforward tends to go better than you’d expect. Most people appreciate the honesty.
In 48 states plus Washington, D.C., your doctor can also use something called expedited partner therapy. This means they can prescribe medication for your sexual partner without that person needing to come in for their own appointment first. It’s especially useful when a partner doesn’t have easy access to healthcare or is unlikely to seek treatment on their own. Ask your provider if this is an option where you live.
Get Retested After Treatment
Finishing your medication doesn’t mean you should assume the infection is gone. The CDC recommends retesting three months after treatment for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis. This isn’t just to confirm the original infection cleared. It’s also to catch reinfection, which is surprisingly common, especially if a partner wasn’t treated at the same time.
For syphilis, follow-up involves blood tests at specific intervals to confirm the infection is responding to treatment. Your provider will schedule these based on the stage of syphilis you were diagnosed with. For HIV, regular lab work becomes a routine part of ongoing care to monitor viral load and immune function.
If your symptoms don’t improve or they come back after treatment, go back to your provider. With gonorrhea in particular, drug-resistant strains exist, and a small number of cases don’t respond to the first round of treatment. Your doctor can order additional testing to figure out whether the bacteria needs a different approach.
Managing Symptoms While You Heal
Some STIs cause real physical discomfort while treatment takes effect. Painful urination from chlamydia or gonorrhea typically eases within a few days of starting antibiotics. Drinking plenty of water can dilute urine and reduce the sting. Over-the-counter pain relievers can help with general discomfort.
For genital sores from herpes or syphilis, keeping the area clean and dry speeds healing. Loose-fitting cotton underwear reduces irritation. Cool compresses or sitz baths (sitting in a few inches of warm water) can soothe herpes blisters. Avoid touching sores and wash your hands if you do, since herpes can spread to other parts of the body through direct contact.
What Gets Reported to Public Health
Syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, chancroid, and HIV are legally reportable in every U.S. state. This means your healthcare provider is required to notify the local health department when they diagnose one of these infections. This is not a criminal report. It’s a public health measure used to track outbreaks and allocate resources.
Your information is kept confidential. Health departments use this data in aggregate to monitor trends, and in some cases, a public health worker may reach out to help with partner notification. They won’t share your diagnosis with your employer, your family, or anyone outside the public health system.
Protecting Yourself Going Forward
Having one STI doesn’t make you immune to getting it again, or to catching a different one. Chlamydia and gonorrhea reinfection rates are high enough that the CDC built routine retesting into its guidelines specifically because people so often get reinfected within months.
Condoms remain the most effective barrier against most STIs when used consistently. For HIV prevention, PrEP (a daily pill or long-acting injection) reduces the risk of getting HIV by about 99% when taken as prescribed. If you weren’t already vaccinated against HPV or hepatitis B, ask your provider whether those vaccines make sense for you.
Regular screening is also worth building into your routine, especially if you have new or multiple partners. Many STIs cause no symptoms at all, so testing is often the only way to catch them early. How often you should screen depends on your age, sex, and sexual activity, but your provider can help you figure out a reasonable schedule.