A service provided by the BC Centre for Disease Control
In the years since SmartSexResource launched, we have developed a library of questions asked by you, and answered by our expert sexual health nurses.
Our answered questions library cover a broad range of sexual health topics and common questions we hear at our clinics.
Hi, and thank you for your question
I’m not sure where you got tested and treated, however in British Columbia the recommended treatment for epididymitis is cefixime and doxycycline. Treatment with ciprofloxacin is supported by the Canadian guidelines.
If your symptoms are persisting, I would revisit your care provider. Further assessment may be required, including a referral to a specialist to rule out other causes of your symptoms, especially given that your chlamydia and gonorrhea tests were negative.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hello and thank you for your question.
That is great that you went directly to a clinic for treatment once you were named as a contact to a case of Chlamydia. It is true that if it was only 36 hours after the potential exposure it would have likely been too early for the Chlamydia to show up positive on an STI test as the test is checking for your body’s antibody response to the bacteria and that time interval wouldn’t have given the body enough time to build enough of an immune response to be detectable on the test. That said, treatment is appropriate at this time as the antibiotic it will still kill off the Chlamydia bacteria. Please hold off from having sex for 7 days after treatment as it takes that long for all of the bacteria to be killed.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi there, thank you for your question
As long as you finish all 14 pills and do your best to take a pill twice a day for the remaining duration of treatment you should be fine. There will be no need to re-treat. If you are concerned, you can return to the clinic for a “test of cure” 4 weeks after you started the treatment, to make sure the infection is gone.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questionsor concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi, thanks for your question
Yes, you can have sex today! BUT if the person that you’re going to have sex with was a partner from before you got treatment, make sure they took the treatment and waited for 7 days before sex as well!
If you have sex with an ongoing partner that has not been treated for the infection, you will likely get it back again.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi, and thanks for your question
Waiting 7 days after taking the medication for a sexually transmitted infection is necessary to get rid of the infection in your body. During that time, you can still transmit the infection to your partners. If you were to then have sex with the same partner beyond that 7 day period, there is a very good chance that person could give the infection back to you, since many STIs are pretty easily passed.
For this reason it is important that you get any STIs treated appropriately and that any ongoing partners also get tested and take the treatment right away to avoid the infection going back and forth between the two of you.
At this point, the person you had sex with after you took the medication, should get treatment for the STI and you both should wait until seven days after treatment before having sex.
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Each province and territory in Canada has a different program for subsidizing drug costs for their residents. These programs have different criteria for who is eligible for coverage, how much the province or territory will pay and what drugs are covered. The programs may be complicated to understand without the help of your local AIDS service organization. Generally, the publicly funded provincial and territorial drug programs offer coverage for people on social assistance (“welfare”) and for seniors over the age of 65. Some provinces issue cards to show to your pharmacist that prove you are entitled to this type of coverage.
In British Columbia, antiretroviral medications and other drugs for management of HIV/AIDS are provided at no cost to medically eligible patients through the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) Drug Treatment Program. The following criteria are eligible to access medications for treatment of HIV infection through enrolment into the BC-CfE HIV Drug Treatment Program:
Documented HIV infection and clinically meets the current criteria for treatment with antiretroviral medication (as specified in the BC-CfE Therapeutic Guidelines)
AND
BC resident with Medical Services Plan (MSP) coverage (active BC Personal Health Number) or Interim Federal Health coverage (e.g. refugee status) or active medical plan coverage from another Canadian Province, for temporary coverage pending active MSP coverage.
If you were to buy antiretroviral medication out of pocket it can range anywhere from $300-$500 Canadian dollars per month which is determined by the market price listed by the pharmaceutical companies.
For more information regarding how to obtain HIV medication in British Columbia please visit the BC Centre for Excellence’s website at http://cfenet.ubc.ca/drug-treatment-program.
Hi, and thanks for your question.
As long as you both took the Azithromycin and waited for 7 days, you should be fine to resume having sex. It can take a bit of time for discharge to clear completely, but the infection itself will be gone. If the discharge doesn’t clear completely in the next couple of weeks, you might want to see your testing provider for further assessment and follow up
Let us know if this does not answer your question or if you have any more questions or concerns.
Health Nurse
Hi there,
Thanks for writing.
Gonorrhea is curable with antibiotics. Did you get treatment for it? You should have been given treatment from the place where you got your gonorrhea test. If you have not returned to pick-up the medication since getting your results, then I would recommend going to get the treatment.
The antibiotics are very easy to take, and the infection will be gone in seven days following treatment.
We do not generally hear about people having symptoms such as sore throat which gonorrhea. Even when we find gonorrhea in the throat through a swab test, it is almost always asymptomatic.
If you’ve been treated for gonorrhea, and continue to have symptoms of a sore throat, then I would recommend going to see another healthcare provider in-person. Many common infections can create a sore throat, for example strep throat and staph infections.
Lastly, we would not expect gonorrhea to live for year in the throat. The tissues in the throat are not the preferred tissues for gonorrhea, and it tends to be quite transient in that part of the body. I wouldn’t assume you’ve had it for a year.
Hope this helps!
Please feel free to submit another question as needed.
Health Nurse
Hi
I take it that with HPV you mean that you are asking about having genital warts treated. Let me know if I got that wrong.
In BC Canada you can get genital warts treated at most clinics e.g. family doctors, walk in clinics etc.. The health professional you see will either have products they can use in the clinic or they will write you a prescription for a product you can purchase from a pharmacy to use at home.
Have a look at our HPV and Genital Warts page for additional information on HPV.
Let us know if you need help finding a clinic in your area or if you have any more questions.
Health Nurse
Hi,
The short answer is no.
To be on the safe side we recommend that you do not have sex until:
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 in 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 say do not have sex until after 7 days. The treatment won’t work if someone is re-exposed to chlamydia or gonorrhea in those 7 days.
If you can’t avoid having sex for 7 days, then using a condom will help lower the chance of passing the STI to your partners, but there is no guarantee.
In addition to passing the infection to your partner(s) (or back to yourself), it’s important to avoid sex when you have chlamydia or gonorrhea because the STI can increase your risk of getting HIV. Once the chlamydia or gonorrhea is gone, the HIV risk is normal again.
If you did have sex during the 7 days, then we recommend that you talk to the doctor or clinic where you got the treatment. In some situations, they will recommend that you and your partner(s) get re-treated, or they may suggest that you come back for a follow-up test in 4 weeks.
Have a look at our web page on chlamydia for additional information.
Health Nurse
For other readers, please feel free to leave a comment, or let us know if this was helpful.