Hello I'm A 31 Year Old Male Who Has Been

Posted on Thu, 25 Apr 2019

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 Answered on

Last reviewed on

Question : hello I'm a 31 year old Male who has been exposed to chlamydia from a partner. she called me and told me and I have been having some swelling of the lymph nodes in my groin. my problem is I just got over a very bad case of cdiff which came back several times so I'm quite scared to take an antibiotic . i happen to have a full bottle of metronidozol 500mg. would that be effective for chlamydia? I figure it would be safe to take as far as not getting cdiff again since it's used to treat cdiff. I dont have any side effects when i take metro. it doesnt seem to bother my stomach. thanks!

Answered by Dr. Aaron Branch (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Metronidazole will likely not treat chlamydia

Detailed Answer:
Hello, I'm Dr. Branch, thanks for using Ask a Doctor. Unfortunately, metronidazole is not active against chlamydia and would be unlikely to treat it. The usual medications to treat chlamydia are doxycycline, azithromycin, and fluoroquinolones. While any antibiotic can lead to c. diff infection (even metronidazole can sometimes cause it), the ones most likely to cause c. diff are clindamycin, fluoroquinolones, penicillins and cephalosporins. Fortunately, azithromycin and doxycycline as not as likely to cause c. diff, so I would recommend you see a doctor to be started on one of those medications.

Your question is a good one, and if metronidazole was one of the antibiotics used to treat chlamydia, I would have thought it would be fine. But unfortunately it isn't the case with this one.

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any questions about any of that, and I would be glad to discuss it with you further.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj