Quick Answer

Chlamydia is a bacterial infection, so it is curable with prescription antibiotics - most often doxycycline taken twice daily for seven days, per current CDC guidance, with azithromycin as an alternative. Cephalexin does not work against it, and probiotics do not treat it. Testing and a clinician-guided course are what resolve the infection and protect partners.

  • Chlamydia is caused by a bacterium, so antibiotics can clear the infection completely.
  • First-line therapy is usually doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for seven days, per CDC guidance.
  • Cephalexin and similar drugs fail because chlamydia has no cell wall to attack.
  • Probiotics may ease antibiotic side effects but cannot cure the infection.
  • Sex partners need treatment too, and sex should wait until therapy is finished.
  • Repeat testing about three months later is advised because reinfection is common.

Context Most Pages Skip

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium: it cannot survive outside a host cell, and it builds no peptidoglycan cell wall. That single biological detail decides which drugs work. An antibiotic has to cross into human cells to reach the organism, which is why tetracyclines such as doxycycline and macrolides such as azithromycin are effective, while cell-wall drugs like cephalexin are not. Most genital infections cause no symptoms at all, so a positive test - not a symptom - is usually what triggers treatment. Delay or incomplete treatment is what allows spread to partners and, in some cases, complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease.

Related Questions

⚕️ This page is educational and does not replace advice from a licensed clinician. If you may have been exposed to an STI, get tested — most infections are manageable, and many are fully curable.

Sources & Further Reading

Figures reflect CDC surveillance and WHO estimates; they are population statistics, not personal risk predictions.