The short answer is no.
To be on the safe side we recommend that you do not have any sex until:
- one week after your 1-day treatment; or your 7-day treatment is complete;
and
- your sex partner(s) have also been treated, even if their test results are negative;
- your symptoms are now gone.
While condoms reduce the chance of passing chlamydia and gonorrhea, there is still a possibility of passing them even when a condom is used.
Even after you start taking treatment for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea, you can still pass them within the first 7 days. It takes 7 days for the medication to treat these infections. Only after 7 days is the chance of passing these infections gone.
Even if your partner is taking treatment at the same time as you, we still recommend you do not have sex until after 7 days. The treatment won’t work if someone is re-exposed to chlamydia and/or gonorrhea within those 7 days.
If you cannot avoid having sex for 7 days, then using a condom will help lower the chance of passing the STI to your partners and/or getting the infection again, but there is no guarantee.
It is also important to avoid sex when you have chlamydia and/or gonorrhea because they can increase your chance of getting HIV. Once the chlamydia and/or gonorrhea is gone, the HIV risk returns to normal.
If you did have sex during the 7 days, then we recommend that you talk to your health care provider, or return to the clinic where you got the treatment. In some situations, they will recommend that you and your partner(s) be re-treated, or suggest that you come back for a follow-up test in 4 weeks to check if the infection is gone.
Have a look at our web pages on ‘Chlamydia’ and ‘Gonorrhea’ for additional information.