Short answer
After a positive STI result, partner steps are often part of care. Partners may need notification, testing, treatment, or public health support depending on the infection, timing, symptoms, pregnancy, local law, and safety. Expedited partner therapy, or EPT, is one option CDC describes for chlamydia and gonorrhea partners when timely clinical care is unlikely, but it does not replace testing or medical evaluation for every partner.
Partner follow-up options
| Option | What it means | Testing caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Patient notification | The person diagnosed tells recent partner or partners so they can seek care. | Partners should ask which infections and body sites need testing. |
| Provider-assisted or health department partner services | A clinician, clinic, or public health worker may help notify partners confidentially. | This can be especially important for HIV, syphilis, safety concerns, or complex partner networks. |
| Expedited partner therapy (EPT) | A clinician provides medication or a prescription through the diagnosed patient for certain partners, without first examining the partner, when allowed by law. | EPT is mainly a chlamydia/gonorrhea tool and does not screen the partner for HIV, syphilis, pregnancy issues, allergies, symptoms, or other STIs. |
| Partner testing before treatment | The partner gets evaluated directly and receives testing and treatment recommendations. | This is usually the most complete route when access is realistic. |
What EPT is and is not
CDC defines EPT as the clinical practice of treating sex partners of patients diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea by giving prescriptions or medications to the patient to take to the partner without the provider first examining the partner. CDC calls EPT a useful additional partner-management option, especially when partners are unlikely to get timely evaluation, but it does not replace provider-assisted referral when that is available.
EPT is not a way to self-prescribe, treat every STI, or avoid follow-up. It is also not legal advice. CDC's EPT legal-status map was last updated June 2, 2025, and CDC says EPT was permissible in 48 states plus the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands at that time. State and local rules can still affect details such as eligible infections, prescriptions, labels, documentation, and pharmacy dispensing.
Which partners are usually discussed
CDC chlamydia and gonorrhea guidance uses the previous 60 days as an important partner window. Sex partners during that period should be referred for evaluation, testing, and presumptive treatment. If the person diagnosed has not had sex during the 60 days before diagnosis or symptoms, the most recent partner may still need evaluation and treatment guidance.
What partners may need to test for
Partner treatment does not answer every testing question. Partners may need testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea at exposed body sites, HIV testing, syphilis blood testing, hepatitis B or C testing, pregnancy testing, or evaluation for symptoms such as pelvic pain, testicular pain, rectal pain, discharge, sores, rash, fever, or neurologic or eye symptoms. If oral or anal sex was part of the exposure, throat or rectal swabs may matter.
When EPT may be a poor fit
EPT can be less appropriate when the partner has symptoms that need an exam, might be pregnant, has medication allergies, could have HIV or syphilis, has possible pelvic inflammatory disease or testicular pain, needs injectable treatment, is a man who has sex with men and may have missed HIV or syphilis risk, or can access timely clinical care. CDC notes that shared clinical decision-making is recommended for EPT among MSM because partners may have other bacterial STIs or HIV that EPT would not diagnose.
Questions to ask the clinic
- Which partners should be notified based on the infection and timing?
- Can the clinic or health department help with confidential partner notification?
- Is EPT allowed and appropriate in this state or local jurisdiction?
- Is this chlamydia, gonorrhea, both, or another infection where EPT is not supported?
- What written instructions, allergy warnings, pregnancy warnings, and follow-up information should partners receive?
- Which tests should partners still get, including HIV, syphilis, hepatitis, and body-site swabs?
- When is it safe to resume sex, and when should retesting happen?
Related Lab Intel guides
If you are the exposed partner, start with the STI testing after a partner has an STI guide. For immediate next steps after your own result, see the positive STI result guide. For follow-up timing, see the STI retesting after treatment guide. For chlamydia and gonorrhea sample types, see the chlamydia and gonorrhea testing guide. For syphilis blood-test follow-up, see the syphilis testing guide. For HIV timing, see the HIV testing window period guide. For throat and rectal swabs, see the extragenital STI testing guide. For affordable care, see the free and low-cost STI testing guide.