Getting rid of an STI depends entirely on what type you have. Bacterial and parasitic infections like chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis are fully curable with the right medication, often in a single dose or a short course of antibiotics. Viral infections like herpes and HIV can’t be cured, but antiviral medications control symptoms and dramatically reduce transmission risk.
Curable STIs and How They’re Treated
Bacteria and parasites can be killed off completely, which means several of the most common STIs are straightforward to treat once diagnosed.
Chlamydia is typically cleared with a week-long course of an antibiotic taken twice daily. An alternative is a single-dose antibiotic, though the week-long regimen is now preferred. Most people feel no different during treatment because chlamydia often causes no symptoms in the first place, but the infection is gone once you finish the course.
Gonorrhea is treated with a single antibiotic injection. Dual therapy (an injection plus an oral antibiotic) used to be the standard approach, but current guidelines recommend the injection alone unless chlamydia hasn’t been ruled out, in which case you’ll get both. Drug-resistant gonorrhea has been a growing concern worldwide, which is why the injection-based antibiotic remains the go-to: it still works against most strains circulating in the U.S.
Syphilis in its early stages requires just one injection of penicillin. If syphilis has been present for a longer period without treatment (late latent syphilis), you’ll need three injections spaced a week apart. Syphilis progresses through stages, so catching it early makes treatment simpler.
Trichomoniasis, caused by a parasite rather than bacteria, is cured with an oral anti-parasitic medication. It’s one of the most common STIs and one of the easiest to treat.
Parasitic Skin Infections
Pubic lice and scabies are transmitted through close physical contact and are fully curable with topical treatments. Pubic lice are treated with a cream rinse applied to the affected area and washed off after 10 minutes. Scabies requires a stronger cream applied from the neck down and left on for 8 to 14 hours. In both cases, an oral medication can be used as an alternative, sometimes requiring a second dose one to two weeks later because the medication doesn’t always kill eggs on the first round.
Bedding, clothing, and towels used in the days before treatment should be washed in hot water or sealed in a plastic bag for 72 hours to prevent reinfection.
Viral STIs: Not Curable, but Controllable
Viral STIs work differently. The virus integrates into your cells or hides in nerve tissue, making it impossible to fully eliminate with current medicine. That said, treatment can make these infections very manageable.
Genital herpes is treated with antiviral medications that partially control outbreaks. Daily suppressive therapy reduces the frequency of recurrences by 70% to 80% in people who get frequent outbreaks. It also lowers the rate of transmitting herpes to a sexual partner. The key limitation: once you stop taking the medication, it no longer influences how often outbreaks occur. The virus remains dormant in nerve tissue and can reactivate.
HIV is managed with antiretroviral therapy, which suppresses the virus to undetectable levels in the blood. A person with an undetectable viral load effectively cannot transmit HIV sexually. Treatment is lifelong, but people on consistent therapy have a near-normal life expectancy.
HPV (human papillomavirus) has no antiviral treatment, but the body’s immune system clears most HPV infections on its own within one to two years. When HPV causes genital warts or abnormal cell changes, those specific symptoms are treated directly through removal or monitoring.
When You Can Consider Yourself Clear
Finishing your medication doesn’t mean you should assume the infection is gone immediately. For curable STIs, the CDC recommends retesting three months after treatment for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis. This isn’t because the antibiotics failed. It’s to catch repeat infections, which are common if a sexual partner wasn’t treated at the same time.
For syphilis, follow-up involves blood tests over a longer period to confirm the infection is responding to treatment. Your provider will schedule these based on which stage of syphilis was diagnosed.
Most guidelines recommend waiting at least seven days after completing treatment (or seven days after a single-dose treatment) before having sex again. This gives the medication time to fully clear the infection and prevents passing it to someone else during that window.
Why Your Partner Needs Treatment Too
Treating yourself without addressing your partner is one of the most common reasons people get reinfected. If your partner still carries the same bacteria or parasite, you’ll likely test positive again within weeks.
Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT) exists for exactly this situation. It allows your healthcare provider to prescribe medication for your sexual partner without that person needing to come in for their own appointment. The CDC considers EPT a useful option, particularly for male partners of women diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea. EPT is legal or potentially allowable in most U.S. states, though the specifics vary by location. Your provider can tell you whether it’s an option where you live.
Even when EPT is available, partners should ideally get tested themselves. They may have additional infections that wouldn’t be covered by a single prescription.
What Happens If You Don’t Treat an STI
Many STIs cause mild or no symptoms, which makes it tempting to put off testing or skip treatment. The consequences of ignoring a bacterial STI compound over time.
Untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea in women can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), an infection of the uterus, fallopian tubes, or ovaries. PID creates scar tissue that can block the fallopian tubes, leading to infertility or ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy that implants outside the uterus, which is a medical emergency). One in eight women with a history of PID have difficulty getting pregnant. PID can also cause chronic pelvic pain that persists long after the original infection is treated.
Untreated syphilis progresses through stages over months and years, eventually affecting the brain, heart, and other organs. Untreated gonorrhea can spread to the blood or joints. In men, untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea can cause painful inflammation in the reproductive tract.
The pattern is consistent across all bacterial STIs: the longer you wait, the more likely you are to develop complications that aren’t reversible even after the infection itself is cured. Early treatment is almost always simple, fast, and fully effective.