Next, we allowed the conversion rate to vary over the course of the infection and determined what pattern of transmission investment would maximize cumulative transmission potential (Equation (7)). The work of Greischar et al. (2016a) suggests that, in the absence of drug treatment, optimal patterns of conversion rate comprise roughly four distinguishable phases: (i) an “initial replication” phase where parasites delay gametocyte production to increase their numbers; (ii) a “peak conversion” phase where parasites dramatically increase transmission investment to capitalize on their large numbers; (iii) a “trough” where parasites reduce transmission investment to compensate for declining numbers in the face of resource limitation; and finally, (iv) “terminal investment, ” where parasites invest heavily into gametocyte production before the infection ends. We find qualitatively similar strategies (with the same four phases) in drug‐treated infections (Figure 2). The corresponding dynamics of infected red blood cells and gametocytes are shown in Figure 3. A key difference in the predicted optimal patterns of conversion in drug‐treated compared to untreated infections is an earlier and faster reduction in conversion rates (i.e., greater reproductive restraint) following the initial peak conversion (compare black to coloured lines in Figure 2). Comparing low and medium dose treatment regimes, we find that increasing dose is accompanied by greater reproductive restraint following treatment. The best response to a high drug dose is early terminal investment, which ultimately ends the infection (see infection dynamics in Figure 3c).