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Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
- Treated online: Yes, after a positive laboratory test or a confirmed infection in a current partner: the doctor reviews the result by video and prescribes the antibiotic course; pelvic or testicular pain with fever, and chlamydia in pregnancy, need in-person care and closer follow-up.
- What it is: a bacterial infection of the genital tract, throat or rectum, commonest between 15 and 25; about 7 in 10 women and 5 in 10 men with chlamydia have no symptoms, which is why it spreads and why testing after unprotected sex beats waiting for signs.
- Timelines: a urine or swab test is reliable from about 2 weeks after exposure; a 7-day course of doxycycline cures more than 95 in 100 infections; sex, including oral sex and sex with condoms, waits until 7 days after the course and the partner's treatment end.
- Partners: everyone you have had sex with in the past 6 months needs testing and treatment, or reinfection is likely; most clinics and the doctor can help with anonymous partner notification.
- Untreated: chlamydia can spread to the womb and tubes (pelvic inflammatory disease, in about 1 in 6 untreated women), the testicles, and the joints, and is a leading preventable cause of infertility and ectopic pregnancy.
- Emergency: chlamydia itself is never a 112 emergency; severe lower abdominal pain with fever, or a positive pregnancy test with one-sided pain and faintness, need urgent in-person care.
Book prompt in-person care instead if you have lower abdominal or pelvic pain with fever (possible pelvic inflammatory disease), pain or swelling in a testicle, or if you are pregnant and have tested positive. Pregnancy changes which antibiotics are safe and needs closer follow-up, including a test of cure.
Can an online doctor treat chlamydia?
Yes, once the infection is confirmed. Chlamydia is cured with antibiotics, and after a positive laboratory test (yours or a current partner's), first-line doxycycline can be prescribed by video and sent to a local pharmacy.[1] Symptoms alone are not enough, because chlamydia is usually silent, so test first, then treat.
If you already have a positive chlamydia result, or a partner has a confirmed infection, you can also start with an Express Assessment for chlamydia: a short online questionnaire that a licensed doctor reviews. If the doctor needs to speak to you, the video call is included.
The doctors on Mobi Doctor follow that order deliberately. Treatment advice, partner notification and a retesting plan are all handled in the same consultation, so a positive result becomes a clear set of next steps rather than an anxious search.
Listen: Chlamydia Treatment Online
The audio version of this topic from the Mobi Doctor podcast. Open the episode.
How an online consultation helps with chlamydia
- Test first, honestly: chlamydia needs a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis, because its symptoms overlap with other infections. The doctor helps you choose the right test (a self-sampling kit or a local laboratory) rather than guessing.
- Treatment after a positive result: with a confirmed result, or a current partner's confirmed infection, first-line antibiotics can be prescribed during the consultation for collection at a pharmacy.
- Partner notification support: the doctor explains who needs to know, your current partner and recent partners, and how to have that conversation without drama, so you do not end up reinfected.
- Judgement-free privacy: a video consultation from home, with a doctor who discusses STIs every week. Nothing about chlamydia surprises them, and nothing about it says anything bad about you.
What are the symptoms of chlamydia?
Most people with chlamydia have no symptoms at all, and the infection is usually found by testing, not by how you feel. When symptoms do appear, women may notice discharge changes, bleeding between periods or pain when urinating, and men may notice discharge from the penis, burning when urinating or an aching testicle.
Chlamydia is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and is the most frequently reported bacterial STI in Europe.[2] Its silence is exactly why it spreads so easily, and why testing after unprotected sex with a new partner matters even when you feel completely fine. Silent does not mean harmless: untreated infection can quietly cause damage over months.
Possible signs in women
A change in vaginal discharge, bleeding between periods or after sex, burning when urinating, lower abdominal pain, or pain during sex. Any of these after a new or unprotected contact is a reason to test promptly rather than wait.
Possible signs in men
A clear or cloudy discharge from the penis, burning or discomfort when urinating, and sometimes an aching or swollen testicle. Chlamydia can also infect the rectum or throat, usually silently, occasionally with rectal discomfort or discharge, which is why the sites you test should match the sex you have had.
How do you test for chlamydia?
Chlamydia is diagnosed with a laboratory test on a urine sample or a self-taken swab, never from symptoms alone. Options across Europe include postal self-sampling kits, pharmacy kits and local laboratories or sexual-health services. Testing is reliable from about two weeks after the contact you are worried about, and testing earlier can miss an early infection.
Two practical points improve the result. First, match the samples to the sex you have had, because a urine or vaginal sample will not detect a rectal or throat infection. Second, consider testing for gonorrhoea at the same time, because the two infections travel together often enough that most laboratories offer a combined test. If you are unsure which option is available where you live, that is a fair question to bring to the consultation, because the doctor deals with it daily.
What should I do after a positive chlamydia test?
Five steps deal with a positive chlamydia result properly: book a doctor's consultation, take the full antibiotic course where prescribed, avoid sex until seven days after both you and your current partner finish treatment, tell recent partners so they can test, and retest around three months later.[4] In order:
- Book a consultation and have your result to hand, so the doctor can decide on treatment in that same call.
- Take the full course, usually doxycycline for seven days, even if you feel fine.
- Avoid all sex, including oral sex and sex with condoms, until seven days after you and your current partner have both completed treatment.
- Tell recent partners, as a rule of thumb from the past six months, so they can test and treat.
- Retest around three months later to catch reinfection early.
Is your chlamydia suitable for online care?
Usually, once a test confirms it. A laboratory-confirmed, uncomplicated infection is well suited to treatment by video, and so is starting treatment when a current partner has tested positive. Complications, pregnancy and certain sites of infection need closer or in-person care. This is the test-then-treat framework the doctors use, aligned with European guidance.[1]
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Presentation | Likely first step | Suitable for online care? | When referral or in-person care is needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positive test, uncomplicated, non-pregnant adult | A seven-day course of doxycycline[1] | Usually yes | Persistent symptoms after treatment, or a positive test of cure |
| Current partner confirmed positive, your own result awaited | Treatment offered alongside testing, per local practice | Usually yes | Any red-flag symptoms, or uncertainty about exposure |
| Pregnant and positive | Azithromycin, test of cure and antenatal review[1] | Case-dependent | Coordinate with local maternity care |
| Pelvic pain with fever (possible PID) or a painful, swollen testicle | Urgent in-person assessment | No | Same-day in-person care |
Not sure which step fits you? A doctor can tell you in one consultation.
See available times →What the doctor checks in an online chlamydia consultation
The consultation is structured around getting the treatment and the follow-up right. The doctor will typically check:
- Your test result and when you took it: a laboratory-confirmed positive, and whether the timing was reliable, or a current partner's confirmed result.
- Sites of possible infection: genital, rectal or throat, matched to the sex you have had, because this changes which treatment clears it reliably.
- Symptoms and possible complications: pelvic pain, fever, testicular pain or swelling, which point away from a simple course of tablets.
- Whether you could be pregnant or are breastfeeding, because that changes the antibiotic and the follow-up.
- Other recent STI tests and whether an HIV and gonorrhoea screen makes sense at the same time.
- Current medicines and allergies that affect the choice of antibiotic.
- Partner situation: who needs to be told and treated so you are not reinfected.
Expect direct, unembarrassed questions, because precision changes the prescription. Nothing is shared with anyone else; the consultation is as confidential as any doctor's appointment, and many people find that saying the word out loud to a doctor who treats it weekly, by video from their own kitchen, is far easier than they feared.
When chlamydia is treated online, and when you need in-person care
Treated online: laboratory-confirmed, uncomplicated chlamydia in a non-pregnant adult; treatment when a current partner has a confirmed infection; and the advice, partner-notification and three-month retest plan that go with it.[1] The doctor also arranges an HIV and wider STI screen where that is sensible.
In-person care: suspected pelvic inflammatory disease (pelvic pain with fever or vomiting); a painful, swollen testicle, which can also be a surgical emergency; pregnancy, where treatment is coordinated with maternity care and needs a test of cure; and any situation where you have symptoms but no test yet, in which case the honest next step is a test, not a blind prescription. Where symptoms point elsewhere, the doctor may steer you to a urethritis assessment or another pathway instead.
How do I tell my partner about chlamydia?
Be direct and factual: chlamydia is common, usually symptomless, easily cured, and they need a test. Current partners must be treated before you have sex again, or the infection simply passes back. As a rule of thumb, partners from roughly the past six months should be told, and the doctor can help you decide who that covers.
Nobody enjoys this conversation, but it is shorter and kinder than the alternative. A workable script: "I tested positive for chlamydia. It often has no symptoms, so you should get tested too, and it is cured with a week of antibiotics." Several countries also run anonymous partner-notification services that send a text or email without naming you, and the doctor can tell you what exists where you live. One more honesty note: a partner's positive result does not prove anyone was unfaithful, because chlamydia can sit silently for months or longer, so it rarely tells you when or where it was picked up.
Why treating chlamydia properly matters
Left untreated, chlamydia can climb. In women it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, with lasting consequences including chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy and difficulty conceiving. In men it can inflame the testicle and epididymis. In either sex it can trigger reactive arthritis, and in pregnancy it can pass to the baby at birth, causing eye infections or pneumonia.[3] Untreated chlamydia also makes both catching and passing on HIV more likely, one more quiet cost of leaving it.[5] A single week of tablets prevents all of this; the maths is not close.
Special situations
Pregnancy
Chlamydia in pregnancy is treated with azithromycin rather than doxycycline, which is avoided in pregnancy, and it needs closer follow-up: a test of cure about four weeks after treatment plus in-person antenatal review. If you are pregnant and test positive, an online doctor can explain the plan, but your treatment should be coordinated with local maternity care.
Rectal and throat infections
Rectal chlamydia matters because it is common after receptive anal sex, usually silent, and doxycycline clears it more reliably than the alternatives, one reason doxycycline is the European first choice. Throat infections usually clear with the same course. Say plainly where you might have been exposed, and mention rectal pain, discharge or bleeding explicitly, because those symptoms change both the testing and the follow-up. The doctor cannot protect what is not tested.
Travellers and expats
Tested positive abroad, or between countries? A video consultation works anywhere in Europe, in English, and a prescription can go to a pharmacy near you. Keep your laboratory result and consultation summary, because they carry your treatment date, which the three-month retest and any future doctor will need.
Treatment options for chlamydia
What you can do yourself
There is no self-care remedy that clears chlamydia, because antibiotics are the only cure. What you can usefully do: test around two weeks after any unprotected contact you are worried about, avoid sex until you and your current partner have both completed treatment, tell recent partners so they can test, and use condoms with new partners going forward. Condoms used consistently remain the most effective everyday protection against chlamydia and the other bacterial STIs.[5] None of this requires shame; all of it requires a test.
Prescription treatment
European IUSTI guidance recommends a seven-day course of doxycycline as first-line treatment for uncomplicated chlamydia.[1] A prescription is never issued without a consultation, and for chlamydia, normally not without a positive test either. Azithromycin is an alternative when doxycycline cannot be used, for example in pregnancy, where treatment should be arranged with in-person follow-up. Antibiotics are prescribed on the basis of a confirmed infection rather than just in case, because targeted treatment is what keeps these medicines working for everyone.[3] Take the course with food and water, finish it completely, and expect no lingering immunity: reinfection is entirely possible, which is why the three-month retest and partner treatment are part of the prescription, not optional extras.
When to get in-person care
Chlamydia itself is rarely an emergency, but its complications can be. Seek urgent in-person care for severe pelvic pain with fever or vomiting (possible pelvic inflammatory disease), for sudden severe pain or swelling in a testicle (torsion of the testicle can mimic infection and is a surgical emergency), or if you are pregnant with abdominal pain and bleeding. If pain is sudden and severe, or someone collapses, call 112.
How Mobi Doctor works
- Book a time that suits you: open daily 7am–11pm CET. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. No subscription, exact price up front.
- Speak to a licensed doctor about chlamydia: a private video call: you describe what you feel, the doctor asks what matters, and you agree the right plan together.
- Get your treatment plan: any prescription the doctor decides is right, plus a partner and retesting plan to go with it; if your doctor decides you need to be seen in person, you get a full refund.
No sign-up needed
Not sure it’s chlamydia? Tick every symptom you have to see each condition page that mentions it. It finds the right page, not a diagnosis: a doctor gives you that on a video call.
Tap the body — an area or a point — to browse symptoms anywhere
Similar symptoms, different condition? Gonorrhoea, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) can start the same way. Compare them, or look up any other symptom in the full symptom checker.
Frequently asked questions about chlamydia
What is chlamydia, and how do you catch it?
Chlamydia is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. It is caught through unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who has it, through sharing sex toys, and from genital contact without penetration; it can also be passed to a baby during birth. It is not caught from toilet seats, towels, swimming pools or kissing, and most people who have chlamydia do not know, which is how it spreads.
What are the symptoms of chlamydia?
Most people with chlamydia have no symptoms. When they occur, 1 to 3 weeks after exposure, women notice unusual vaginal discharge, pain on urinating, bleeding between periods or after sex, and lower abdominal pain; men notice a clear or cloudy discharge from the penis, burning on urinating and testicular pain or swelling. Rectal chlamydia causes discomfort or discharge, and throat chlamydia usually nothing at all.
Can an online doctor prescribe chlamydia antibiotics in Europe?
Yes, in appropriate cases, which normally means after a positive laboratory test, or when your current partner has a confirmed infection. The doctor prescribes a first-line course for chlamydia, usually doxycycline for seven days, with the prescription usable at a pharmacy near you, and advises on partners, abstinence and any test of cure. A prescription is never issued without a consultation.
Can I get a chlamydia test through Mobi Doctor?
The video consultation does not include a physical test. What the doctor does is tell you exactly which chlamydia test you need and where to get it where you live, whether a postal self-sampling kit, a pharmacy, a laboratory or a sexual health clinic, and which sites to sample (urine or vaginal swab, plus throat and rectum where relevant); once the result is back, treatment can start the same consultation.
How soon after unprotected sex should I test for chlamydia?
Wait about two weeks after unprotected sex before testing for chlamydia. The tests look for the organism's genetic material, and testing earlier than two weeks can miss an early infection; if the result is negative but exposure was recent, a repeat test confirms it. If a current partner already has confirmed chlamydia, treatment can start at once without waiting for your own result.
Do I have to tell my partner about chlamydia?
Yes, for your own sake as much as theirs. If your current partner is not treated, reinfection is very likely, and partners from roughly the past six months should be advised to test and treat. You can tell them yourself, or ask a sexual health clinic to notify them anonymously; the doctor can help you plan the conversation and explain that chlamydia is common, silent and easily cured.
When can I have sex again after chlamydia treatment?
Wait until seven days after finishing the antibiotic course, and until your current partner has also completed treatment. That includes oral sex and sex with condoms, because treatment needs time to clear the infection fully and reinfection between partners is the commonest reason chlamydia comes back. Starting sex earlier is the single most frequent cause of a positive repeat test.
Do I need another test after chlamydia treatment?
A test of cure is not routine for uncomplicated chlamydia, but it is recommended in pregnancy, if symptoms persist, if you took an alternative antibiotic, or for rectal infection, done no sooner than about four weeks after finishing treatment, or the test may detect dead bacteria. Separately, a repeat test about three months after treatment is advised for everyone, because reinfection is common.
How long does chlamydia take to clear?
With a seven-day antibiotic course, chlamydia is cleared by the end of treatment in more than 95 in 100 people, and symptoms, where present, ease within a few days of starting. Discomfort that persists beyond two weeks, or a positive test more than four weeks after treatment, means reinfection or another infection such as gonorrhoea or mycoplasma, and the doctor arranges the right tests.
What happens if chlamydia is left untreated?
Untreated chlamydia can spread from the cervix to the womb and fallopian tubes as pelvic inflammatory disease, in about 1 in 6 women, causing scarring that leads to infertility, ectopic pregnancy and long-term pelvic pain; in men it can inflame the testicles and, rarely, affect fertility; in both it can cause reactive arthritis and eye infection, and it raises the risk of catching and passing on HIV. Treatment prevents all of this.
How can I prevent chlamydia?
Prevent chlamydia by using condoms for vaginal and anal sex and condoms or dams for oral sex with new or casual partners, not sharing sex toys without cleaning or a new condom, testing before stopping condoms with a new partner, testing yearly if under 25 or with each new partner, and completing treatment and partner notification fully when chlamydia is found. There is no vaccine.
Is chlamydia different in pregnancy?
Yes. Chlamydia in pregnancy can cause premature birth and can pass to the baby at delivery, causing eye infection or pneumonia, so it is treated with a pregnancy-safe antibiotic such as azithromycin rather than doxycycline, followed by a test of cure, and the baby's doctors are told. Testing is offered in early pregnancy; a positive result in pregnancy is managed with the maternity team rather than online alone.
- European guideline on the management of Chlamydia trachomatis infections, IUSTI Europe (International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections), 2021.
- Chlamydia: facts and guidance, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 2024.
- Chlamydia fact sheet, World Health Organization (WHO), 2024.
- Chlamydia, HSE, Health Service Executive (Ireland), accessed August 2026.
- Sexually transmitted infections (STIs): fact sheet, WHO, World Health Organization, accessed August 2026.
- Chlamydia, NHS, National Health Service (UK), reviewed October 2024.
This page is for information only and is not a substitute for a medical consultation. Guideline links are provided for transparency; treatment decisions are made with your doctor.
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