As one may imagine, how safe it would be to have an STD prevention pill in the morning after unprotected intercourse the previous night. Yes, it is possible.!! but it is not a pill. Men and women can protect themselves from some STIs after unprotected sex, but before a complete diagnosis can be made. As mentioned it is not a pill but a treatment known as “post-exposure prophylaxis”
This protective treatment may be recommended by doctors in STD testing clinic when someone has come under contact with certain infections or infected person through sexual contacts.
Although this method can be attempted only for certain STIs, however In the case of probable exposure to certain diseases like Hepatitis B and HIV. This precise timing for protective treatment is different for HIV that it is for Hepatitis B. Lets take a look at it, in an order.
Hepatitis B preventive pills/treatment
Women and men vaccinated for Hepatitis B do not need to worry about the exposure. To protect the unvaccinated against the infection from Hepatitis B from possible exposure the person must begin the treatment (post-exposure prophylaxis) within 28 days. There are two forms in which the treatment can be given and they are as follows
1 In a series of three injections of hepatitis vaccine over the course of 6 months
2. In one injection of hepatitis B immune globulin
Treatment with the vaccine will protect against future exposure to hepatitis B.
HIV preventive pills / treatment
To protect against the infection of HIV, from its possible exposure, the treatment should begin in not less than 72hours after potential exposure. The treatment for post-exposure prophylaxis of HIV is given in the following manner.
1.The treatment is given with a combination of medications that must be taken orally for 28 days
Treatment with this “mixture” is not a vaccine so it will not protect against future exposure to HIV. This treatment is not recommended for the people indulged in high-risk sex, do drugs while sharing needles habitually. So the preventive treatments would need to be frequent.
For Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, or Syphilis
In case of the above diseases, the medication is designed to treat an infection that may already be established, but before a diagnosis is made. Thus, this is known as an “Empiric treatment”. Use of antibiotics is found to be effective at any time during the course of infection with Chlamydia, Gonorrhea and Primary Syphilis.
There another theory for the preventive methods of Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis that a small pilot study conducted with HIV-positive men who have sex with men found evidence that a daily dose of the antibiotic doxycycline provides a protective effect against three sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
The daily 100 mg dose of doxycycline provided a strong protective effect against all three STIs.One should take note that, it is just an experimental study carried out and the results are based on observation of few samples (30 men). So one should not rely on the above state method as a primary method to prevent STDs and consider doxycycline as an STD Prevention pill. So consider the anti-biotic method as an unreliable means or even a hoax.
References
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/
Bolan, R.K. and others. Doxycycline Prophylaxis to Reduce Incident Syphilis among HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men Who Continue to Engage in High-Risk Sex: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study