General questions

What is doxyPEP and would I be a candidate?

Someone mentioned doxyPEP to me and I had never heard of it. From what I can work out it is an antibiotic you take after sex to cut the chance of picking something up, which sounds either very useful or too good to be true.

Has anyone actually been offered it? Who is it for?

night_bus 3 weeks ago

NoteMember experience, not medical advice. Symptoms overlap between infections and only a test can tell them apart.

3 replies

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

low_tide 3 weeks ago

It is real and it is in the CDC guidance now, from 2024. The short version is a dose of doxycycline taken within 72 hours after sex. The trials showed a large drop in syphilis and chlamydia and a smaller one for gonorrhoea, which fits with how much resistance there already is in gonorrhoea.

It is not offered to everyone. In the US guidance it is aimed at men who have sex with men and transgender women who have had a bacterial STI in the last year, and it is meant to be a conversation with a clinician rather than something you decide alone.

spare_key 3 weeks ago

Worth being clear on what it does not do, because that is where people get caught out. It is aimed at bacterial infections. It does nothing for HIV, herpes or HPV.

So if HIV is the thing on your mind, the answer is PrEP, or PEP if something has already happened. Different tool for a different job.

greytide 3 weeks ago

Availability varies a lot. It is in US guidance, some other countries are more cautious, mostly over what routine antibiotic use does to resistance in the longer term.

Ask your own clinic what they offer. If they do not, that is not them being obstructive, it may simply not be recommended where you are yet.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.