A Question I have been meaning to ask

[oli5]

I am curious as to when you can be treated for Chlamydia/Ghonorrea. For example if you get Chlamydia and treat yourself with biotics the (next day) and take doxycyline twice a day for a week will that catch the infection. Or do you have to wait a few days/ weeks until it had got into the host cells? Does the bacteria immediatly enter attack your cells?? or just it linger in the urethra which would mean instant treatment would not be effective? This is a wierd question I know but it is one of those things i think about when lying in bed!!

Another example would be this: You have sex with someone and after they say they think they have chalmydia, then you go to the doctor the next day and say "I know have chalmydia" would treatment starting that early on work? or do u have to wait?

i got treated then got checked up to make sure i was cured. but this is something i have pondered on" what if you were treated to soon, while the bacteria wasnt actually infecting you it was just dormant in the urethra, then u finished treatment and THEN it infected you"?? is that possible? Or does it instantly infect you and therefore can be treated straight away - sorry for long email

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Treatment for bacterial infections is effective any time after exposure, i.e. the infection doesn't have to become "established" for antibiotics to work.  Indeed, prophylactic treatment--having antibiotic in the system when exposure occurs--usually is effective in preventing infection.  Gonorrhea and chlamydial infection are bacterial STDs.

So an answer your specific question, if you were exposed to chlamydia or gonorrhea during the evening, treatment the next morning would be effective.  It must be the full course of the right antibiotic.  Some people (including some doctors) make the mistake of believing you can get away with a lesser dose or duration of therapy.

An editorial comment about your second paragraph:  In the circumstance you describe, you would not "know you have chlamydia".  STDs aren't transmitted with anything near 100% efficiency; lots of exposed people don't get infected.

Thanks for the question.  Good luck--   HHH, MD

[oli5]

in more medical terms I know that the bacterium induces its own endocytosis upon contact with potential host cells and that once inside a cell the elementary body germinates as the result of interaction with glycogen, and converts to its vegetative, reticulate form. Does this mean it is only after this life cycle it can be treated? or does instant treatment still kill the bacteria in its infectious elementary "spore like" body before it has developed into the replicating, non-infectious reticulate body???