It is now easier to get your partner treated for the sexually transmitted disease you gave him -- or that he gave you.

A new Utah law, which went into effect Tuesday, allows doctors to write antibiotic prescriptions for chlamydia and gonorrhea for their patients' unnamed partners who may be wary of seeking treatment.

But how will work -- or if you can get that extra prescription -- depends on your doctor. Local health departments are putting their own rules in place on how to use the tool. And doctors don't have to provide the prescriptions if they don't want to.

Called expedited partner therapy, its goal is to slow the spread of the sexually transmitted diseases, which infected 6,500 Utahns in 2007, the most recent data available.

If partners aren't treated, they can reinfect the patient. And as the state's top communicable disease, chlamydia can cause female infertility if left untreated.

But while that STD is just as common among teen-agers as it is among young adults in their 20s, some health departments don't plan to write extra prescriptions for their younger patients, even though they can by law.

Existing law allows doctors to treat children 14 years and older for STDs without parental consent, and the new law doesn't change that.

Still, "We'd be very concerned about providing antibiotics through this program to a minor," said Lewis Garrett, director of the Davis County Health Department, which is still clarifying its partner therapy protocols.

Likewise, the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, which sees up to 7,000 patients a year at its STD clinic, will write extra prescriptions for patients who are 18 or older. It will also ask if the partners are adults.

The limitation was initiated by David Wilde, a Salt Lake County councilman who also sits on the Salt Lake Valley Board of Health. He had objected to leaving parents out of the decision.

"Because of the concern of the board of health, we made our own internal standing order and limited it to only 18 and above," said the health department's medical director Dagmar Vitek. She did not recommend the age restriction, noting the medications are safe and STD rates are climbing.

The Utah County Health Department is going a step further and requiring patients bring in their partners' birth dates and names before it will issue extra prescriptions, according to a spokesman.

But the goal of the law is to reach partners who can't or won't get treated on their own, either because they're busy or they want to remain anonymous, noted the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jennifer Seelig, D-Salt Lake City.

"Certainly the whole public policy was not to have the name to encourage people to come in and to get people treated and well. Perhaps they don't understand that," she said. "Philosophically, I want local areas to be able to use their best judgment. The goal should be eliminating these diseases so that we can maintain healthy reproductive health. I hope they're focused on that as an outcome."

Weber-Morgan Health District is the only health department on the Wasatch Front that will provide extra prescriptions for patients as young as 14.

"It's so much more important for their partners to get treated than to just leave them hanging out there," said MaryLou Adams, the department's STD program manager.

The health departments' decisions only affect their government clinics. Private providers -- who test and treat the bulk of STDs patients -- can make their own decisions on how to use partner therapy.

Health department officials say they will write extra prescriptions as a last resort. First, they will attempt to persuade partners to go to a doctor to get tested. If that doesn't work, they will pass on written medical information about the antibiotics to help them avoid allergies.

hmay@sltrib.com