Positive STD test result: what to do next

A positive result is a medical finding with a clear next step. Most common STIs have standard treatments, several are cured with a short course of medicine, and the ones that can't be cured can be managed well. This guide covers what to do in order.

This is general information, not medical advice. A clinician who knows your history should guide your treatment.

Key points

• Check whether your result needs a confirmation test before treatment.
• Treatment is available through your testing provider's doctor, a telehealth service, your own doctor or a health department clinic.
• Tell your recent partners, or let a clinician or the health department tell them without naming you.
• Your state or local health department may contact you. Those reports are confidential.
• Retest about 3 months after treatment for chlamydia and gonorrhea, and for trichomoniasis if you're a woman.

Step 1: understand the result

Some results are final. Others need a second test before anyone can say what they mean:

• HIV. CDC says a positive antibody test needs a follow-up test to confirm it, and a positive self-test should be followed up with a health care provider.
• Syphilis. Diagnosis takes two different kinds of blood test. If only one was run, more testing is needed.
• Herpes blood test. CDC says low positive HSV-2 results, between 1.1 and 3.0, are often false and need a second test to confirm.
• Hepatitis C. A positive antibody test is followed by an RNA test to see whether the infection is current.
• Hepatitis B. A clinician interprets the three-part blood test to tell a current infection from a past one or from vaccination.

Step 2: get treatment

Through your testing provider

Many testing services arrange a doctor consult for positive results. Terms differ:

• STDcheck says it can "provide a consultation for every positive test result," for a fee.
• Priority STD Testing offers an optional follow-up consultation with one of its physicians "at no additional cost."
• Rapid STD Testing says a positive result leads to a call that sets up a physician consultation, for a separate fee.

The provider pages on this site list what each one offers. A consult can be the quickest way to a prescription.

Telehealth

A telehealth service can review your result and prescribe treatment. Have your lab report ready to upload.

Your own doctor

Bring the lab report. Your doctor can treat you, order any confirmation tests and handle follow-up.

A health department or Title X clinic

Title X clinics offer STI testing and treatment regardless of ability to pay, and health department clinics often treat STIs at low or no cost. See our free testing guide to find one.

What treatment looks like

• Chlamydia. CDC's recommended treatment is a 7-day course of the antibiotic doxycycline.
• Gonorrhea. Treated with antibiotics. CDC recommends an injection, so this one usually needs an in-person visit.
• Syphilis. Treated with penicillin, usually given as an injection. For primary and secondary syphilis, CDC recommends follow-up blood tests at 6 and 12 months after treatment.
• Trichomoniasis. Treated with an oral medicine.
• Herpes. Antiviral medicine shortens and eases outbreaks. CDC notes these medicines don't clear the virus from the body.
• HIV. CDC says to find HIV care and start treatment as soon as possible. Treatment can lower the virus to an undetectable level, and CDC says that if your viral load is undetectable, "you will not transmit HIV through sex."
• Hepatitis C. CDC says an 8 to 12 week course of pills cures more than 95% of people.
• Hepatitis B. A clinician decides whether and when to treat, based on follow-up blood tests.

For chlamydia, CDC advises no sex for 7 days after single-dose treatment, or until a 7-day course is finished. Wait until partners have been treated too, so the infection isn't passed back.

Step 3: tell your partners

Partners need testing and often treatment. For chlamydia, CDC says to refer partners from the 60 days before your symptoms or diagnosis.

You have three options:

1. Tell them yourself. A short message with the infection name and a link to testing is enough.
2. Let someone else tell them. CDC's guidelines say you can authorize a medical provider or public health professional to notify partners. CDC's partner services recommendations say your identity "must never be revealed" when staff do this.
3. Expedited partner therapy. For chlamydia or gonorrhea, your clinician can give you medicine or a prescription to pass to your partner without the partner seeing a clinician first. CDC lists this as permissible in 49 states.

Step 4: expect possible contact from the health department

Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV are reportable in every state, and hepatitis B and C are nationally notifiable. A health department worker may call to check that you were treated and to offer partner notification. CDC says these reports are kept confidential. Our privacy guide explains what reporting does and doesn't mean.

Step 5: retest

• Chlamydia and gonorrhea: CDC recommends a new test about 3 months after treatment, whether or not you think your partners were treated.
• Throat gonorrhea: CDC recommends a test of cure 7 to 14 days after treatment.
• Trichomoniasis: CDC recommends retesting women about 3 months after treatment.
• Syphilis: follow-up blood tests at 6 and 12 months.

Don't retest for chlamydia too early. CDC advises against a NAAT less than 4 weeks after treatment, because leftover dead bacteria can show up as a false positive.

You can set a reminder for the 3-month retest now. Our comparison table shows current prices when you're ready.