Trichomoniasis Treatment & Cure

Yes, trichomoniasis is curable. It's caused by a single-celled parasite, and the right course of antibiotics clears it completely in most people. Women are treated with a week of metronidazole pills, men with a single dose, and every recent sex partner needs treating at the same time so you don't pass it back and forth and reinfect each other.

Can trichomoniasis be cured?

Trichomoniasis is the most common curable non-viral STI in the US, with an estimated 2.6 million infections at any given time Sex Transm Dis, 2018. It's caused by Trichomonas vaginalis, a microscopic protozoan parasite that lives in the lower genital tract CDC. Because it's a parasite — not a virus like herpes or HIV — antibiotics can wipe it out entirely. There's no lifelong infection here, no flares, no virus hiding in your nerves. One adequate course of the right drug, taken correctly, and the parasite is gone.

The infection lands disproportionately on women, who account for over 80% of cases. Many people carry it with no symptoms at all, which is part of why it spreads so quietly — you can have it for months, feel fine, and pass it on without knowing.

What 'cure' actually means here

A cure means the parasite is eradicated from your body — confirmed, ideally, by a clear retest rather than just by feeling better. That distinction matters. Trichomoniasis doesn't develop the kind of antibiotic resistance that makes some bacterial STIs harder to treat, so the standard drugs almost always work when taken as prescribed. What trips people up isn't treatment failure — it's reinfection from an untreated partner. So 'cured' really means two things at once: the drug cleared your infection, and you're not immediately re-exposed to it.

The treatment that clears it

Trichomoniasis is treated with a nitroimidazole antibiotic — metronidazole or tinidazole — which the parasite can't survive. The regimen differs by sex because the evidence on what works best differs by sex.

For women: a 7-day course

The recommended regimen for women is metronidazole 500 mg taken orally twice a day for seven days CDC STI Treatment Guidelines, 2021. This is a change from older guidance, which used a single 2 g dose. The switch was driven by a randomized trial: about 19% of women given the single dose were still infected at follow-up, versus about 11% of those on the 7-day course Muzny et al.. Halving the retest-positive rate is why guidelines now prefer the multi-day course for women — it's more work to remember, but it clears the infection more reliably.

For men: a single dose

Men are treated with metronidazole 2 g taken orally as a single dose. The single dose performs well in men, so there's no advantage to a longer course.

The alternative

Tinidazole 2 g as a single oral dose is an alternative for either sex — useful if metronidazole isn't tolerated. For the full breakdown of doses, alcohol timing, and what to do if a course doesn't work, see our detailed guide to trichomoniasis trichomoniasis treatment.

Don't drink alcohol while you're taking metronidazole or tinidazole. These drugs trigger a disulfiram-like reaction — flushing, nausea, vomiting, racing heart — when combined with alcohol. Skip it during treatment and for the window your clinician specifies afterward. And treatment isn't just for you: every sex partner from the relevant period needs treating at the same time, even if they have no symptoms, or the infection bounces straight back to you.

In practice, treatment is a defined course you fill at a pharmacy — pills, not a procedure. Finish all of it, every dose, even once you feel completely normal. And ask your clinician directly whether your partner should be treated so you're not trading the infection back and forth.

Why feeling better isn't the same as being cured

Symptoms — discharge, itching, burning with urination, discomfort during sex — often fade within a day or two of starting treatment. That's reassuring, but it's not proof of cure. Two things can go wrong. First, if you stop the women's 7-day course early because you feel fine, you may not fully eradicate the parasite — partial treatment is exactly how a low-level infection survives. Second, and far more common, you can clear your own infection and then get reinfected the moment you have sex with an untreated partner. Symptom relief tells you the drug is working; it doesn't tell you the parasite is gone or that you're protected from catching it again. That's why the retest, not your symptoms, is the real measure.

Follow-up and retesting

Guidelines recommend that sexually active women get retested about three months after treatment, because reinfection is common. This isn't a test of whether the drug worked — it almost always does — it's a screen for whether you've picked it up again. Mark it on a calendar; three months is far enough out that it's easy to forget. Diagnosis itself is straightforward: most cases are found from a simple sample — a urine cup, a self-collected swab, or a quick exam — with results usually back in a few days. You can learn what to expect in our overview of diagnosis trichomoniasis testing & diagnosis, and if you're timing a test after a possible exposure, see timing when to test after exposure.

Testing is widely accessible and often free or low-cost at health departments, Planned Parenthood, and Title X clinics. If you'd rather handle it from home or compare options, you can order get tested or compare compare testing providers before you decide.

What happens if you don't treat it

Untreated trichomoniasis won't clear on its own, and it carries real risks beyond annoying symptoms. It increases the risk of acquiring or transmitting other STIs, including HIV — the inflammation it causes makes the genital tract more vulnerable. In pregnancy the stakes are higher: trichomoniasis raises the chance of preterm birth (delivering early, which can affect the baby's lungs and development) and low birth weight (a baby born smaller than expected, which carries its own health risks). If you're pregnant or planning to be, read our guidance on pregnancy trichomoniasis in pregnancy and talk to your clinician about timing treatment safely.

None of this is cause for panic — it's cause for finishing treatment. The complications come from leaving it untreated, not from having had it.

When to see a clinician

See a clinician if you have unusual genital discharge, itching, burning with urination, or discomfort during sex — or if a partner tells you they've tested positive, even if you feel fine. Get evaluated before assuming it's a yeast infection or UTI; the symptoms overlap, but the treatments are completely different. And remember the prevention basics: condoms used correctly every time lower your risk, and routine testing catches the infections that never cause symptoms at all.

A diagnosis here is common and entirely treatable — clinics handle it every day, and it says nothing about you as a person.