Can STDs Go Away on Their Own?

Not everyone experiences symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), but those who do usually have them for 1 to 2 weeks. After the symptoms disappear, it may be many years before they return, even though the infection remains in the body. Non-viral STDs, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, can be cured. However, they often have no symptoms or the symptoms may come and go, making it seem like the infection has gone away when it hasn't.

You can't know your STD status without getting tested and you can't self-diagnose an STD based on symptoms and then assume that the infection has gone away when the symptoms appear to have disappeared. Getting tested is the only way to uncover a problem and get treatment. Most STDs can be cured with the right medication. However, there are a few sexually transmitted diseases that are incurable and will never go away, such as Hepatitis B, HIV, herpes, and HPV.

Most STDs or STIs will go away after treatment. Some may require lifelong treatment with medications. This means that some STDs may go away on their own, but others may persist for months, years, or even for the rest of your life. Because STDs are often asymptomatic, it's important to remember that the absence of symptoms doesn't mean there isn't an infection.

There are a multitude of health problems caused by STDs that, if left untreated, can become serious and even fatal.

Trichomoniasis

is the most common curable STD in the country and is estimated to infect an estimated 3.7 million Americans at any given time, 70 percent of whom have no symptoms. Before it could be cured with penicillin, syphilis was one of the most dreaded STDs in existence - and for good reason. Some studies examined chlamydia over the course of a year, including one from the 1970s when chlamydia was first identified as an STD, and found that approximately half of women infected with chlamydia would still have it a year or more later.

Contrary to popular myths about STDs, most STDs don't go away on their own and many get worse the longer they go untreated, causing more and more harm to health. Similarly, if you experience symptoms related to an STD and those symptoms eventually go away, this doesn't mean that the STD is gone. Ignoring symptoms, non-compliance or denial can put both you and your partner at significant health risk and cause long-term problems. You can get tested and treated for STDs, get vaccinated for HPV or hepatitis B or get condoms at any Planned Parenthood health center.

If left untreated, these STDs can cause health complications and be transmitted to sexual partners, so it's important to get tested and treated regularly. However, people want to know if an STD can go away on its own - but there aren't many studies on the “natural history” of curable STDs such as gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis. And never share medicines - don't give your medicine to other people and don't take someone else's medicine to treat your symptoms.