There are no home remedies or over-the-counter medications able to treat chlamydia infections. Practices like vaginal douching may only make things worse. Only the correct antibiotics in the correct dose can fully resolve the infection.
Learn more about how chlamydia is treated and the medications your healthcare provider may prescribe if you or your sexual partner is diagnosed with chlamydia.
Prescriptions
Chlamydia can be easily cured with antibiotics, a group of medications that specifically treat bacterial infections. Not all antibiotics work for all infections, and the right ones are needed to ensure that the infection is fully cleared.
Although antibiotics will stop the infection, they will not repair any permanent damage done by the disease. This is why you need to get treated even if the initial symptoms disappear. The disappearance of symptoms in untreated people does not mean that the infection is gone.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the antibiotic doxycycline is the drug of choice for adults and adolescents with chlamydia. If doxycycline cannot be used, the antibiotics azithromycin or levofloxacin may be prescribed.
All of these antibiotics are taken by mouth. The recommended dose and duration of treatment vary by the antibiotic type.
While levofloxacin is an effective treatment, it is a far more costly drug.
There are no specific follow-up recommendations after the completion of treatment. If you continue to have symptoms, however, see your healthcare provider.
Pregnancy Recommendations
If you’re pregnant, different antibiotics are prescribed. The recommended option is azithromycin, while the alternative choice is an oral antibiotic called amoxicillin.
Doxycycline is avoided because it may affect bone development in the fetus and cause discoloration of the teeth. Levofloxacin may be safe during pregnancy but is excreted in breastmilk and may pose harm to a nursing baby.
Both azithromycin and amoxicillin are taken by mouth.
In some cases, resistance to one penicillin-class drug may also mean resistance to other penicillin-class drugs, including amoxicillin. It is for this reason that amoxicillin is considered the alternative option.
Treating Newborns and Infants
Chlamydia infections in newborns and infants are far less common today due to the routine screening of STIs in people with pregnancy. If an infection occurs, it typically happens during childbirth as the baby passes through the mother’s birth canal.
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Chlamydia in newborns is most often recognized when the child develops conjunctivitis (“pink eye”), typically five to 12 days after birth. Some babies may have no such symptoms and instead develop pneumonia with fever between the ages of one and three months.
If a chlamydia infection is confirmed, the baby would be treated with an antibiotic called erythromycin, The dose is calculated in milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of the baby’s body weight.
In cases of chlamydial pneumonia, oral azithromycin can be used as an alternative.
Treating Toddlers and Children
Chlamydia in toddlers and children may occur as a result of sexual abuse and should be investigated. With that said, chlamydia transmitted during childbirth can sometimes take up to three years before symptoms develop in the child’s throat, rectum, or genitals.
If chlamydia is confirmed, either erythromycin, azithromycin, or doxycycline may be used depending on the child’s age and/or weight.
Depending on state law, your partner may be able to be prescribed the same treatment without having to undergo chlamydia testing. This precautionary measure helps ensure that you are not reinfected or that others are not infected as well.
If you have chlamydia, do not share your antibiotics with your partner. You need the full course to fully clear the infection, and your partner does as well.
Summary
Chlamydia is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection treated with prescription antibiotics. No other medications are available to treat chlamydia.
The choice of antibiotic and duration of treatment varies by whether you are an adult, adolescent, or child. There are different treatment recommendations during pregnancy.
People diagnosed with chlamydia need to get their sexual partners treated to not only prevent reinfection but to avoid infecting others as well.
Early treatment can reduce the risk of complications from chlamydia, including pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.
A Word From Verywell
Receiving a diagnosis of chlamydia is the perfect opportunity to look at yourself and see if there is anything to reduce your risk. This includes practicing safer sex, reducing your number of sex partners, and getting the recommended STI screenings.
According to the CDC, all sexually active females under 25 should be tested for chlamydia annually as well as females 25 and over who may be at an increased risk of exposure. The same applies to men who have sex with men (MSM) and sexually active people with HIV.
Doxycycline: A twice-daily dose taken for seven daysAzithromycin: A single doseLevofloxacin: A once-daily dose taken for seven days
In some people, untreated chlamydia can lead to reactive arthritis or cause pregnancy complications like ectopic pregnancy.
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