Chlamydia Urethritis, Treated (Male)

Home care

Follow these guidelines when caring for yourself at home:

• Your sexual partner needs to be treated even if they have no symptoms. Your partner should reach out to their own healthcare provider, or go to an urgent care clinic or your local health department to be examined and treated. Sometimes your own healthcare provider may prescribe antibiotics for your partner. This is called expedited partner therapy.

• Don't have sexual activity until both you and your partner have taken all the antibiotics. You should wait until your provider tells you that you are no longer contagious.

• Take all medicine as directed until it is gone. If you stop the medicine before you have taken it all, the infection may not clear and symptoms may come back.

• Learn about safe sex practices and use these in the future. The safest sex is with a partner who has tested negative and has sex only with you. Condoms may help stop the spread of some STIs. These include gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV. But condoms are not a guarantee.

Follow-up care

STI testing

• Follow up with your healthcare provider on any test results, or as advised. Talk with your provider or your local health department to be sure you are having complete STI (including HIV) screening. Also make sure you are lowering your risk for STIs, including HIV, as much as possible. This includes HIV testing. Call the CDC National STI Hotline at 800-232-4636 or go to the CDC online for more information about STIs.

• Get tested for HIV now. If negative, get tested again in 3 months. Also talk with your healthcare provider about whether taking a medicine to prevent HIV would be a good idea. Your provider may advise you take such medicine now for 28 days (postexposure prophylaxis; PEP) or on an ongoing basis to prevent you from getting HIV (pre-exposure prophylaxis; PrEP).

Tell your partner

Make sure you talk with your partner about STIs and testing. If you don't feel safe talking face-to-face with your partner about testing, send a text or an email. Or make a phone call instead. Ask for help if you’re not safe. Encourage your partner(s) to get treatment. Otherwise, they can pass the disease back to you or others.

If you have an STI, talk with your provider about expedited partner therapy (EPT). With EPT, you may be given a prescription or medicines to give to your partner without your partner needing to be seen by a healthcare provider. EPT is available in many states for some STIs (mainly chlamydia and gonorrhea). So check with your provider.

When to seek medical care

Call your healthcare provider or seek medical care right away if any of these occur:

• Symptoms not better after 3 days of treatment

• Unable to urinate because of the pain

• Rash or joint pain

• Painful sores on the penis

• Enlarged painful lumps (lymph nodes) in the groin

• Testicle pain or swelling of the scrotum

• Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or above, lasting for 24 to 48 hours

• Blood in urine