Advice about sexual partners

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If you are diagnosed with an STI then the clinic will encourage you to tell any current or recent sexual partners that you have an infection. You are not obliged to do this or to give out any information about other people. However, it is best that any recent sexual partners should know that they might also be infected. They should be offered testing, and treatment if necessary, to prevent the infection being spread any further. This telling of sexual partners is sometimes called 'contact tracing'. If you prefer, clinics can contact people anonymously if you do not wish to tell them yourself.

Treatment

The treatment that you will be offered depends on what STI is found. For example, a short course of antibiotics can usually clear away chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and trichomonas. A cream or lotion can clear pubic lice and scabies. Topical treatments can usually clear most anogenital warts. Treatments for genital herpes, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV are more involved and complex. You will be given advice about what treatment options you have and given time to ask questions.

If you are prescribed antibiotics then it is important to finish the full course of tablets, or else the infection may not be fully cleared. If you develop side-effects then seek advice from the GUM clinic or from your GP as to what to do. Do not simply stop taking the medication. For some infections you will be asked to return after a course of treatment to check that the infection has gone.

Do not have sex again until the time advised by the clinic. Depending on the infection, this may be for a certain length of time after treatment is finished or it may be until you are given the 'all clear' from a repeat test. The aim is to prevent you from passing on the infection to others.

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