Question about Doxycycline!

[pianoman24]

hello,

I had protected vaginal sex and unprotected oral sex with a random person I met one night (female) and 6 days later i got tested for STD's (gonorrhea, chlamydia, Herpes 1 &2 and HIV) which all came back negative, but as the week went on i began having increasing pain in my scrotum/penis until this past tuesday it became so bad that i went to the ER they tested for torsion which i didn't have and diagnosed Epidiymitis due to the pain which i know can be caused by STD's there was no visible swelling or discharge just pain,  they also took a urine sample. They gave me  two weeks worth of the antibiotic Doxycycline 100mg 2x a day and that was it, so all this being said my main questions are if i were to have an std does Doxycycline effecitviely treat both gonorrhea, chlamydia, trich, syphillis, in other words does it cover all the bases and effectivelly eradicate any infection caused by stds and help the condition epididymitis?? Any reasurrance would be helpful..

Thanks,

Patrick

[Edward W Hook, MD]

We are getting to the place where you need to work through this with your doctor and it does you no good to be checking him against my opinions or vis versa.  IT is not unusual for epididymitis to take more than 5 days to improve and as you point out, you are not getting worse.  I would continue to take the meds your doctor has prescribed and follow-up with him as you near the end of your course of therapy.  EWH

[pianoman24]

Okay, so i got my test results back everything was clear for chlamydia and gonorrhea not sure if tested for trich) it's now been a little over three weeks since the incident everything on my urinalysis was good i'm on my fifth day of doxycycline and the pain is about the same but has not gotten worse, should i assume i'm okay and the tests are accurate and just finish off my anitbiotics and go on?? this past saturday i freaked out cause i still had some pain and urinary frequency but it was only my 3rd day on the antibiotic, so i went to the doc on saturday and told me to take a stronger one called "cephalin" but after i left i realized i should finish out the first one without combining a lot of things and see if the doxycycline works which is for 2 weeks, what's your opinion

thanks for your time and knowledge

[Edward W Hook, MD]

You could discuss it with your doctor.  My advice would be to decide based on your test results and response to therapy.  If you are better at this time you do not need the injection.  If not, your doctor should review your test results, re-examine your scrotum and testicles and re-test your urine or a penile swab to see if there are signs of inflammation.  Putting together the results of these things, were you not improving, would guide me in what to do next.  EWH

[pianoman24]

Okay so the doxycycline is good but should i go back and ask for a shot of ceftriaxone??? just in case

[Edward W Hook, MD]

I won't second guess the ER doctors' diagnosis of epididymitis.  Doxycycline is part of recommended therapy for this problem.  It is usually given in combination with either a single injection of another medication called ceftriaxone or administration of quinolone antibiotics.  In addition persons with epididymitis typically begin to get better within 3-4 days after starting the medication. If this doesn't happen you should be re-evaluated.

Hopefully you were tested for most STDs at the time of yoru evaluation.  If you are not getting better, those test results should guide what is done next.

Epididymitis as an STD (is isn't always) is typically caused by gonorrhea or chlamydia.  Doxycycline is effect for chlamydia and most gonorrhea. Syphilis and trich do not cause epididymitis.

Hope this helps.  EWH